The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan (2006) (450 pages)
Is it too much to ask? “What it is we’re eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table. And what, in a true accounting, it really cost.” Omnivore, page 411. These are the ponderable questions that Michael Pollan tackles with one eye turned toward beauty, the other toward industrial madness, while strewn before his crossed eyes lie the rotten fruits and shadowy carcasses that are become our modern diet.
A clash of the titans, Babette’s Feast versus Super Size Me in a pie-eating contest to the finish. And very good writing.
Welcome to the dark side. Now read “In Defense of Food” and “Food Rules,” two of his other books. (They are actually just increasingly-condensed versions of Omnivore’s Dilemma, but both very well written, and they really hammer the message home.) And see if you can manage not to sound like a food jerk at the next large family meal — a challenge most of us who’ve read it have failed. (“What do you mean you didn’t kill this turkey yourself? Do you even know what factory these potatoes came from?!”)