“Don’t you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?” (Pollan 240).
Society has become consumed by an obsession with time. We have begun to put more time and effort into caring about our material possessions than ourselves. This is not a newsflash to anyone. Simply by looking around one can see the ever growing rate of obesity in America. Is this because we are eating unhealthy foods? To an extent, this answer is yes. The truth that Michael Pollan argues is that we are not spending enough time caring about what we are eating and how it came to be on the plate in front of us. We went from a hunting and gathering society, moving towards a meal in a pill, to a society that has begun to create pills in meals. We have begun to accept a false notion of what is healthy (frozen dinners labeled healthy and fresh), and have moved away from traditional eating (family dinners, slow meals), which is actually better eating.
While all of Pollan’s book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, deals with the problems our country is currently facing with the food industry, this specific portion focuses most on how non-industrial food systems can work, and why they are not the only solution to America’s industrial food problems. By doing this, we will begin the path to a healthier America. This section begins with Pollan at Joel Salatin’s farm. While different theorists argue different things, it is important to draw a connection amongst theorists, to show that the common thread linking them is something we should be listening to. Everything about Joel Salatin, and his farm, Polyface farm, is about a natural way of obtaining food. Everything there is grown organically, kept on a rotated system to ensure that none of the land will go bad, and that all of the animals will stay healthy until they die. Rather than Cronon’s belief, that nature is our own unexamined longings and desires, Pollan demonstrates how Salatin uses nature, accepting the wilderness not as a human creation, but rather a way of bettering human life. He does not see a mystery in the land, but rather a puzzle, a puzzle to figure out what should go where and how everything on his farm can act in the dependent nature that is best for it.
A man who shares Salatin’s, and possibly Pollan’s, view is Henry David Thoreau. Although from a time which predates the fast food industry, he does have some intriguing common links to Salatin, as can be seen in their both somewhat pastoral/nostalgic way of looking at the landscape. Salatin sees how everything is now, and wants to take it back to what it could have been. His farm is run in a modern day setting, using the simplest of methods. His fields are shifted, the cows eat the grass, the chickens and cows fertilize the grass to grow more. It is one big never ending cycle. Thoreau, in a similar way, is concerned with escaping society for a time to become closer to nature and more whole as a person. He does this, then retreats back to society. It is almost as if he cannot straddle the line that Salatin has found himself on. Thoreau sees one or the other, nature or society, Salatin combines the two by making nature work in society.
Thoreau makes a comment after moving out to become ‘closer’ to nature, “[a]s I live now so shall I reap.” Thoreau in this context is speaking about himself as a soul, what he does now will affect who he will become. The relations to Salatin’s philosophy seem obvious. Salatin himself not only depends on his farm, but understands how what he does defines who he is. He understands that his lifestyle makes him a greener more conscious person. He also then acts as a sort of advocate by selling his products to others and helping people like Bev Eggleston. He relies solely upon his farm not only as a livelihood and a food source, but also as a belief system.
In Thoreau’s journals, he once wrote, “know that the goal is distant and is upward and is worth all you life’s efforts to attain to.” This is what the food industry, and those who support the slow food movement must realize. Just as Pollan says, it is not about one particular group of people over throwing the major food industries like Tyson and Perdue; that is not going to happen. That would be too difficult to achieve and the efforts would be wasted. It is about offering choices, offering different options of various types of grown food so that when the failures of one amass, the others can step up. Each person must make the choice of what to eat, whether to be healthy or convenient, it is about offering that choice. It is only through the education of what goes into a meal that people will be able to make that choice in an informed manner. Until some sort of legislature is passed that makes major meat and crop producers label where their food came from and when, this is all we can do. As Pollan says, “we ask too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse” (260). We can give options, and help inform people how to choose the correct ones.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma – pg334-411
In the last quarter of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan discusses his last meal. No, not his last meal on death row, but the last one in the series of meals he’s made throughout his book. In contrast to his McDonald’s meal with his family and the chicken dinner by Joel Salatin’s ranged chickens, Pollan went even further back in time to the Paleolithic era to concoct this meal. As he plays the ancient role of hunter-gatherer, he learns both of the dangers and benefits of being a gatherer and fights with his negative connotations of hunting.
Pollan is determined not to use any store bought ingredients for the meal to conclude his book – except for salt, which will be addressed later – so he attempts to fit himself back into the natural food chain and gathers all of his supplies from the southwest United States. Wild pig now range the California forests as, ironically, an introduced species now wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem , and so Pollan decides to hunt the boar for the last meal and also play the role of public servant – killing two birds with one stone. The hunt is an exercise in digging through the human’s brain to the hunter’s instinct long buried under the human conscience. After his first kill, Pollan attempts to sum up his initial reaction:
“My emotions were as surging and confused as the knot of panicked pigs had been on this spot just a moment before. The first to surface was this powerful upwelling of pride: I had actually done this 
His moment of triumph does not last for long before they have to dress the pig – or “undress” it – and Pollan is forced to watch all the unnecessary innards be cut away for other animals to eventually forage. But it is not until he sees the picture of himself crouched over his prize that the detestation for the hunter emerges:
“The image that appeared on my computer screen hit me with an unexpected blow to the body. A hunter in an orange sweater that was kneeling on the ground behind a pig the side of whose head has erupted in blood that is spreading like a river delta toward the bottom of the frame…One proprietary hand rest on the dead animals’ broad flank. The man is wearing a big shit-eating grin that might have been winning, if perhaps incomprehensible, had the bloodied carcass sprawled beneath him been cropped out of the frame” (359).
This switch in mindset is surprising considering the same man describing the picture in such deprecating detail is also the one who killed the pig of which he had been so proud of. This strange cognitive dissonance is clear evidence of man’s thorough separation from nature, even in spite of the existence of recreational hunting and movie’s depicting violent deaths of man. The human’s conscience is what separates them from those of the animals.
Pollan’s dilemma with being the predator in the food chain and thus displaying his animality appears to reside primarily the enjoyment of taking the animal’s life. His reconciliation in taking the pig’s life lies not only in a determination that as little of the animal’s meat goes to waste, but also in his picture that shows at least one chain of the Earth’s infinitesimal number of the natural system. He writes, “Sun-soil-oak-pig-human: There it was, one of the food chains that have sustained life on earth for a million years made visible in a single frame, one uncluttered and most beautiful example of what it is” (363).
His hunting of the morel Mushrooms is far easier for him to reconcile with his instinc
Pollan was not quite so successful making all his ingredients directly from nature. His attempt at making salt went awry since he did not know any effective ways of cleansing salt he had gotten directly from beneath the San Mateo bridge. The pollutants and dirt were not washed away thoroughly enough and he had to fall back on regular store bought salt.
His attempt at gathering abalones was an incredible example of the dangers that foragers can experience while trying to find food and, although he did not know it at the time, he was unable to make it apart of his menu because the texture of the meat would change upon freezing it. As he relates later after finding one abalone:
“Gathering abalone was the most arduous foraging I did for a meal, and quite possibly the stupidest. I learned later that more Californians are killed gathering abalone each year – by getting dashed on the rocks, being attacked by sharks, or succumbing to hypothermia – than die in hunting accidents” (393).
Although not quite as dangerous as the abalone-hunt, black bears face hundreds of angry bees when attempting to get one of their favorite delicacies, honey. Bats face peregrine falcons and hawks as they leave the safety of their caves to go hunting at night. Pollan was merely experiencing being a different part of the food chain, a link where was he not necessarily on top.
Although not quite on the same scale, this foraging and gathering of food is not dissimilar to Henry David Thoreau’s exercise to build a house by his own means, saving on labor and even some materials so that the cost was reduced to a mere $28 dollars, when a student at Cambridge College rents a tiny room at $32 per year (16 Thoreau). As Thoreau suggests by his own example of living outside Concord, Massachusettes, he writes of education, “…”I mean that they should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end” (17).
Michael Pollan’s particular meal was certainly not meant to be a standard that everyone should achieve, especially as an everyday occurrence, as Thoreau may have wished. However, it was meant as an example of the fruitfulness of the earth, the interconnectedness of its system and, to a degree, of rediscovering the human’s animality. To be able to touch roots back to the original origin of the human would tear down the wall that man has built up between himself and nature, trying to insist that he works outside of the system rather than a part of it.
Food Inc.
Now that we have
As discussed in class this movement towards a sustainable eco-friendly food system will be accomplished in many small steps. The first step is to educate, to get people involved. This documentary is part of the first step, not the complete argument. It is easier to look at “Food Inc.” as a tool rather than a statement. In addition, as with all tools, “Food Inc.” has a uniqueness that warrants its’ existence. The first and most obvious is the visual aspect that the documentary brings to the table. By providing visual stimuli for the viewer the film allows for a much larger retaining of information(admittedly less detailed though). This addition of visuals is also what shapes the film/argument. The documentary itself is broken down into small segments for easier absorption. This allows the documentary to cover large range of topics/issues and control over what images are associated with a particular argument. For example the section on chicken farming included a repetition of scenes in which a farmer removed birds that have died in result of appalling conditions. The viewer immediately has an example of the argument being provided. The real power here is that the argument is instantly verified, we shift from opinion to fact basically.
The second aspect of “Food Inc.” to be discussed is its’ ability to reach a very large audience. It is a sad but true fact that not many people read these days, and would rather watch a movie than explore a book. This being the case it perversely makes sense to alter the presentation of arguments to meet the desires of the majority. This is the most important reason “Food Inc.” is part of the first-step. And yes, by making a 93 minute film you are limiting the amount of information covered. However, you do not need/want to relay ALL the information at once, it would be too much. Incremental steps are needed. Give the viewer an opportunity to get interested. That way they will willingly seek out more information on the food system and its true costs, which goes back to the original solution of simply educating people. Not to be cheesy, but the old saying “Slow and steady wins the race” comes to mind.
At the end of day one should not deplore or congratulate “Food Inc.”. While it did not detract from the overall goal of establishing choice in the food system, it also did not add to the reservoir of facts being presented. It is a continuation. It doesn’t matter if documentary was good or not, it was successful. Robert Kenner and friends have found a way to reach the mainstream and educate. You have watched it, you have thought about the system in which our food is produced, and you are even reading this blog in relation to it. The goal is within in reach, if not already in hand. First-step taken.
Reforming Fast Food Nation: A Conversation with Eric Schlosser
It all begins with strawberries. California strawberries to be exact. Fresh morsels of succulent fruit ripe on the vine. One can almost imagine a pastoral landscape dotted with a familial motley of grinning farmhands bantering among the crimson rows. Eric Schlosser, instead, depicts the grotesque reality behind the veneer; bio-genetically engineered berries slaved over by downtrodden immigrant workers who are subsequently exploited by both the corporations who hire them and the politicians who defend said corporations. Men like former California governor Pete Wilson, who, Schlosser is quick to point out, “was arguing that illegal immigrants were welfare cheats” (4), thereby sullying them in the public eye. Schlosser is at once both a journalist and a humanitarian. He spends the remainder of the Q&A session indicting both the corporate and political forces that drive the Industrial Food Machine as depicted in his seminal 2001 non-fiction book Fast Food Nation.
In illustrating the foibles of an “American society...driven by selfishness and greed and a lack of compassion for people at the bottom...[fed by] hierarchy and corruption” (7), Schlosser shares a page with the words of Cesar Chavez. In the legendary Latino activist’s 1986 Wrath of Grapes Boycott Speech, there is a sense of urgency and retort. Cesar speaks of the grape pickers as “one family,” (American Earth 690) a family forced to toil in the midst of “the indiscriminate and even illegal use of dangerous pesticides...causing illness, permanent disability, and even death” (691). This is a Deep Ecological approach to the interaction of humans and their living, breathing environs stressing interconnectivity. It is extended by Schlosser to include both such corporate-oppressed geographical locals as “[desperate] meat-packing communities” (7) along with such damaging ideological frameworks as those espoused by the US government allowing for the deregulation of the Industrial Food Industry, limiting work rights and quality inspections. Schlosser argues that this sort of “short-sighted greed..now threatens the entire economy of the United States” (9). This disturbing web of incestuous corporate/political beguiling is exemplified by Schlosser’s reference to Disney influencing McDonald’s- presumably their glossy-as-hell toy ad campaign- and then his informing us that “Heinz Harber, one of Disney’s principal scientific advisers, had been involved with medical experiments performed on concentration camp victims in Nazi Germany” (10). An interconnected web, indeed. Schlosser’s book is then a powerful muckraking device intent on raising awareness to this kind of long-rooted, essentially Anti-Deep Ecological approach that corporations and politicians implement to force-feed the American public ostensibly “cheap” food.
The book is also Toxic Discourse in its greasiest form. Lawrence Buell’s critical “shock of awakened perception” (35) is splayed out before us as Schlosser explains in no uncertain terms that we are being led as blindly to consume as the cows in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma were led on conveyer belts through grizzly abattoirs whose wretched killing devices were obscured by their metal confines. The Industrial Food Machine wants its buyers to kneel to the tenets of “uniformity, conformity and centralized control” (10), or in other words, Buell’s dreaded “hegemonic oppression” (41). Public dissent is unwelcome, subordination the prevailing theme. We are told that during the last few years, “the administration of President George W. Bush was completely in bed with the large meatpacking and food-processing companies” leading to “food safety regulations [being] rolled back or ignored” (14). This is a heinous, all-powerful industry in which we are unfortunately pitted in “a David V. Goliath scenario” (Buell, 40).
In Exploring the Corporate Powers Behind the Way we Eat, Food Inc. director Robert Kenner addresses the goals of Industrial Food with eerily similar language to Schlosser. His fear being that our national food system has become negatively “affected by the same forces of efficiency, uniformity and conformity as the fast food industry” (30) sounds like a rip-off until we remember the men worked together on the film. Kenner also reminds us of the titular pillar of Schlosser’s argument, the destructive nature of Fast Food. As a result of a diet of high fat/sugar/calories, Schlosser informs us, “about two-thirds of the adult population in the United States is obese or overweight” (15). This is what Michael Pollan might refer to as direct result of “myriad streams of commodity corn, after being processed and turned into meat, converg[ing] in all sorts of different meals” (109). Schlosser, at least in this interview, doesn’t spend a lot of time discussing corn, but he does take a lot of time illustrating the cost of food.
If imagined as a large metallic robot like the one in the online cartoon The Meatrix, the Industrial Food Industry would no doubt excrete exploited workers and medical-bill ridden, corpulently disabled public, while undermining “sustainable agriculture...food safety...and the ethics of marketing [fast and fatty food] to children” (Schlosser 13). From a sheer pragmatic standpoint, there is simply no longer a budget for this errant, disposable spending. Schlosser laments that “the obesity epidemic is now costing us $100 billion dollars a year. The medical costs imposed by the fast food industry are much larger than its annual profits” (17). In short, our reliance on cheap production renders increasingly costly results.
The answer? Ultimately, Schlosser illuminates a shred of hope, mainly in the forms of humanitarian initiatives. But first, he allows us to writhe in the fatty overload of lies regurgitated in Industrial Rhetoric. He speaks of bringing nutrition into public schools, reconstructing the health care system to not discriminate, raising worker wages, advocating for farmers markets and less long-distance food travel and working for animal rights (16). Places like Pollan’s highly-championed PolyFace farm come to mind. Small-scale operations where animals and the land are treated equitably. Places that recognize what David Abram describes in The Ecology Of Magic as an “ever-complexifying expanse of living patterns upon patterns” (A. E. 832). Every creature and every plant in their proper place, functioning organically. As Anna Lappe reminds us in The Climate Crisis at The End of Our Fork, proper organic growth can help sustain the earth by keeping soil healthy, while “addressing hunger and poverty, improving public health, and preserving biodiversity” (116). Schlosser’s encouragement of these organic strategies allows us to see a cleaner, less exploitative biota. In keeping with Deep Ecological principles, he stresses a return to our lost beginnings, stating rather bluntly that “this country thrived for almost two thousand years without industrial fast foods. There’s no reason we can’t thrive, once again, without them” (17). I said before that Schlosser is a humanitarian and I don’t deny that, but he is also a friend to the earth, an advocate for natural justice.
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