The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan

The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan is an adaptation of Pollan's bestselling work of the same name for a young adult audience. Having never read the grownup version, this was my first experience with the material. I went into this nonfiction investigation of food with high hopes, because I recently selected this book to read with my eighth graders towards the end of this school year. I was pleased to find a very readable and interesting exploration of our modern food chain.

As Pollan states in his introduction, he wrote this book because he became interested in discovering more about the food we ingest every day. How are our fruits and vegetables grown? How are our cows and chickens raised? How far does food travel to get into our grocery stores? Could our food be hiding any unwholesome secrets behind its fancy packaging? He didn't know the answers to these questions, so he started traveling around the United States to find out.

The omnivore's dilemma, as he explains, is the modern problem we all face of trying to decide what is good for us to eat when we are surrounded by a wealth of options. Contrary to what life was like in generations past, we can buy any fruit, vegetable, or meat pretty much any time we want to. We've distanced ourselves from small family farms and seasonal availability of food items. We don't have to worry about food running out; instead, we have to worry about what to choose from when we are wandering through the over-stuffed aisles of the grocery store. The novel endeavors to explore several different ways of eating in the hopes of helping readers solve this dilemma.

The novel is divided into four main sections, each one focusing on a different sort of food chain. He begins with industrial farming, then moves onto industrial organic. After taking a look at those massive operations, he visits a smaller, traditional farm. Lastly, he stretches way back into the past and explores the world of hunting, gathering, and gardening. There are some additional resources in the back of the book tailored to young readers, including nutrition tips, a Q&A with Pollan, additional resources, and an index.

As one might expect, the section on industrial farming was hard to stomach in some places. Pollan talks about the use of pesticides, GMOs, government farming subsidies, and unsanitary living conditions for livestock in a frank way that left me both angry and queasy. He also goes into great detail about corn, and how that one crop has managed to take over the world and insert itself into almost every item at the grocery store in one way or another. The section on industrial organic farming is shown in a slightly better light, but Pollan is quick to point out the shortcomings in that system as well. He is no fan of industrial farming of any sort and he makes that very clear in his writing.

The sections on the traditional farm and the hunter gatherers shift in tone and present very positive food scenarios (with the exception of when Pollan shoots a wild pig - he discovers that he is not very comfortable with hunting). These ways of feeding ourselves are a throwback to older eras when food was obtained locally and naturally. In these situations, the land isn't destroyed with over-farming and chemicals, animals live cruelty-free lives, and people know where their food is coming from. Pollan's writing here is quite persuasive. The benefits of a more natural food system seem obvious; it is healthier to eat this way and better for the planet. However, Pollan does acknowledge that going back to these systems would be more expensive for families and probably not possible on a massive scale.

By the end of the last section in The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan is advocating for people to buy organic, locally grown/raised food when they can. He calls this "voting with your fork." After reading this novel, I can definitely see the wisdom in his approach. I think that my eighth graders will find this information engaging and relevant to their lives, just as I did on my first reading. For young fans of nonfiction, this is a consistently interesting and enjoyable read. 

Challenge Tally
Popsugar Challenge: (A book about food) 4/40 
Mount TBR: previously owned 4/60