3/4 of the way through Omnivore's Dilemma

[sub_divided]

Finished the first (industrial), second (industrial organic), and third (true organic) sections of The Omnivore's Dilemma. The value of the book, and the reason it was on so many bestseller's lists last year, is that it points to clear government policies that have been behind the overproduction of cheap food in America and, thus, the obesity epidemic. It also emphasizes the "hidden costs" of cheap food.

I hadn't read this book (EDIT: despite repeated recommendations from R, "since our second date actually") because I thought the food book trend was "over," and besides, I'd already read my food book: The United States of Arugula, on the history of organic food in the US. The Omnivore's Dilemma turns out to be a much more focused and political book, though. I can still remember some of the things in Argula - the Julie Child craze of the fifties informing "fancy" cooking, Dean and Deluca importing the first really organic foods from Italy, Starbucks inventing the concept of fair trade to sell more coffee - but generally all the details blended together.

In The Omnivore's Dilemma, there's less trivia, and the facts that ARE there are more memorable. For instance, did you know that industrial pig farms cut off the pigs' tails, because pigs weaned from their mothers too early have a lifelong urge to suck and bite? That is, the tails are cut off not to prevent the pigs from sucking and biting on each others' tails, but to make the action so painful that the attacking pig will always be fought off.

(Also, did you know that grass grown without windbreaks expends most of its energy staying upright? Pollan says this is something shepherds used to know, but modern industrial farmers have forgotten. Industrial efficiency hides many other forms of inefficiency, it seems.)

In the first section, Pollan traces the food produced from a corn field in Iowa to its eventual end in a MacDonalds meal. And not just as corn in the Cobb salads, either: in the sodas, bread, meat, ketchup, relish, milk shake, salad dressing, chicken nuggets (meat and batter), and oil on MacDonald's French Fries. The tracing is approximate, because early on Pollan runs into the two black box processes of industrial food production: the feedlot slaughterhouses, and the machines that turn corn into high fructose corn syrup, both virtual monopolies closed to public scrutiny for reasons of "food security." I gotta say, the idea that some most of the country's food is processed in obscure ways is kind of frightening. (Unless "closed to the public" means "we don't let obviously crusading journalists in here," which is possible.)

Nevertheless, the first section, on corn, is very strong. The next two sections, on organics, set off a few alarms for me, since Pollan relies so heavily on his "true" organic farm buddy for facts and support -- and his buddy makes some wild claims (100% non-polluting processes, 100% efficient and sustainable agriculture, 100% removal from the industrial grid including pulling the kids out of school to be Christian-Science home-schooled). I'm not saying he's NOT right about what it takes to raise animals sustainably, I'm just saying he might be talking big.

Then again, maybe he's just telling the truth. How great would it be if someone could beat the government-subsidised and oil-supported industrial farmers at their own game, by figuring out a way to spend less and produce just enough to cover the reduced costs? But then I wonder, what about rises in property taxes? That is, if (as Pollan explains in the first section) Wall Street won't support traditional farming because demand can only increase at the rate of the US population (1% a year), will the US government support "non optimal" uses for land?

Will report back once I've reached the end of the hunting-and-gathering-in-the-wilderness chapter. I suspect, though, that the best section of this book was the first section. (And maybe also the second, for people who try to buy Organic: it's shown that many Organic farms are run the same way as agribusiness farms, but with fewer chemicals - thus the higher prices because, his true organic farming buddy claims, you can't raise so many plants or animals in crowded monocultures without drugs to combat the diseases that inevitably spread. Raising industrial crops without chemicals is like "farming with one hand tied behind your back." However, crops and animals raised in diversified "inspired by nature" settings don't need drugs.)

So far the only thing that is making me look forward to the last section - other than R's assurance that it is "hilarious" - is Pollan's decision to go hunting with a seasoned veteran, rather than attempt it on his own. Real ancient hunters didn't go out into the wilderness alone armed with nothing but a pocket knife: they hunted in groups with at least one experienced member. So this is the more authentic way.