The embodiment of the entire system is corn: a patented hybrid used as food, feed, or ingredient in virtually everything we eat. The culprit is industrial agriculture, with its factory farming, feedlots, processing, transport, and marketing. It was the “McFrankensteinian” horror of the first meal that, for Pollan, defined the essence of what he sees as our current national eating disorder. In the third meal, the ingredients came from a grass-based, “sustainable” farm in Virginia, while the fourth, at the apex of Pollan’s ascending order, was made from items mostly gathered or killed by the omnivorous Pollan himself. Next was a chicken dinner prepared with ingredients purchased at an upscale Whole Foods market. First and worst was a take-out meal from McDonald’s, consumed in the car by Pollan, his wife, and their son as they cruised through Marin County north of San Francisco. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan assumed the seemingly neutral pose of a naturalist to tell a tale of four meals.

Notable among the authors of such books is Michael Pollan, whose The Omnivore’s Dilemma was a best-seller in 2006 and whose latest, In Defense of Food, is now far up on the charts. Like rock ’n’ roll, today’s food culture comes complete with superstar performers, fabled venues and festivals, vast media coverage, breathless critics, big money, and a tower of books.

In defence of food michael pollan