Tag Archives: botany of desire

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Digest part 6: Resolving Our Food Dilemmas

Posted by Caleb Coy on

A Digest of  The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 6: Resolving Our Food Dilemmas
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“What is the perfect meal, anyway?”

“The blessing of the omnivore is that he can eat a great many different things in nature.  The curse of the omnivore is that when it comes to figuring out which of those things are safe to eat, he’s pretty much on his own.” -M.P.

Humans are able to eat so many things, and yet so much that we eat (or can eat) is also harmful.  We have natural instincts that keep us from dying, like taste, disgust, and the feeling of a full belly.  But we also like to refuse to listen to our body, or our mind.
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The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Digest part 2: The Feedlot, Grocer, and McD’s

Posted by Caleb Coy on

A Digest of  The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 2: The Feedlot,  Grocery Store, and the McD’s
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“We’re Not in Kansas Anymore”

“Processed food has become largely a supply-driven business—the business of figuring out clever ways to package and market the glut of commodities coming off the farm and out of the wet mills[..]The underlying reductionist premise—that food is nothing more than the sum of its nutrients—remains undisturbed.”—Michael Pollan

The Cow Factory
It’s not a secret to anybody that most of the beef you buy at grocery stores is from cows squeezed into CAFOs—Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations.  That’s not new information.  It’s just that we’re not reminded of it enough, and when we are, it’s still a distant fact.  It’s also not usually woven into a story and set against a more natural story of raising animals.
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The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Digest part 1: “Corn-flation”

Posted by Caleb Coy on

A Digest of  The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 1: Corn-flation
or
“We’ll Forget the Sun, as We Walk in Fields of Gold”

The Industrial Meal
I learned more about corn from this book than I ever thought I would.  When I was in 5th grade, an old woman came to my school as a scholastic  performer, playing a banjo and singing about corn:
Corn, corn, sing about corn
It’s a tasty treat
Corn, corn, sing about corn
It’s so good to eat
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Introducing: The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Digest

Posted by Caleb Coy on

“Whatever native wisdom we may have once possessed about eating has been replaced by confusion and anxiety[…we are] a notably unhealthy people obsessed with the idea of eating healthy.” –Michael Pollan

This is my first “foodie” book.  Oh, and really, why do people use the word “foodie”?  We should start calling people who don’t smoke “oxygenies”, and people who try to dress modestly “clothesies”.
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