The Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan [2]
—Mark Danner, author of Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror
“Every time you go into a grocery store you are voting with your dollars, and what goes into your cart has real repercussions on the future of the earth. But although we have choices, few of us are aware of exactly what they are. Michael Pollan’s beautifully written book could change that. He tears down the walls that separate us from what we eat, and forces us to be more responsible eaters. Reading this book is a wonderful, life-changing experience.”
—Ruth Reichl, editor in chief of Gourmet magazine and author of Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
PENGUIN BOOKS
THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA
Michael Pollan is the author of three previous books: Second Nature, A Place of My Own, and The Botany of Desire, a New York Times bestseller that was named a best book of the year by Borders, Amazon, and the American Booksellers Association. Pollan is a longtime contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and is the Knight Professor of Journalism at Berkeley. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife, the painter Judith Belzer, and their son, Isaac. To read more of his work, go to www.michaelpollan.com.
THE
OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA
A NATURAL HISTORY
OF FOUR MEALS
MICHAEL POLLAN
PENGUIN BOOKS
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi–110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0745, Auckland, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published in the United States of America by The Penguin Press,
a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 2006
Published in Penguin Books 2007
Copyright © Michael Pollan, 2006
All rights reserved
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS:
Pollan, Michael.
The omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals / Michael Pollan.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 1-101-14717-2
1. GT2850.P65 2006. 2. Food habits. 3. Food preferences. I. Title.
GT2850.P65 2006
394.1'2—dc22 2005056557
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FOR JUDITH AND ISAAC
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION Our National Eating Disorder
I INDUSTRIAL