The Omnivore's Dilemma

The goal is this book is to provide an answer to the question: “What should we have for dinner?” (Pollan pg 1).  In fact, it is the very first line of the text, and it proceeds to answer this question in-depth, starting “all the way back to fields of corn growing in places like Iowa” (Pollan pg. 5).  The author is Michael Pollan, educated at Bennington College, Oxford University, and Columbia University, and has a Master’s in English.  He has written about the places where nature and culture have intersected for over twenty-five years, most notably in his novel, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This book is written in a modern time, where modern-day American’s are in a health craze, trying to eat healthy, looking up the latest diets, looking up the best health foods.  This is a book written for the American, people who are interested in diet, people who are “buffeted by one food fad after another” (Pollan, back cover).  People who are interested in or are experiencing the dilemma of “What should we have for dinner?”.  It’s interesting how Pollan mixes the appeals together, using the expertise of Billy and George as corn farmers as ethos, taking statistics and then weaving them together into a single cohesive argument that is based in both ethos and logos.  When speaking about the meat industry, Pollan adds a bit of pathos as he speaks of the treatment of livestock and the effects of their treatment.  His cause-and-effect arguments, as well as his logical appeals make this text very effective.  His diction is such that any educated person would be able to read it with no problem, and he explains concepts in depth using layman’s terms.  As long as you’ve had a basic course in either biology or chemistry, there really is no problem in understanding the text.  The first quarter of this book gets its point across very well, using personal experience, such as his own cow, steer number 534, quotes from the experts, and real-life statistics and laws from the government, such as Earl Butz’s administration.  Each chapter gets its own little purpose across, whether it be that we are eating petroleum through corn, that corn is in literally everything, that our current-day feedlots are unhealthy, or that the current system is promoting unhealthy consumption.