THE OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA: A NATURAL HISTORY OF FOUR MEALS BY MICHAEL POLLAN

Read pages 1-11 and answer the following questions…

1.What does Pollan mean when he says that

the question “What should we have for dinner?”

(1) has gotten complicated? What are

some reasons that it has become so confusing?

2. What does Pollan mean by the term “national

eating disorder”? (2) Do you agree that

America has one?

3. What connection does Pollan think there

might be between America’s eating disorder

and the omnivore’s dilemma? What do our

supermarkets have to do with it? (4)

4. What is the point of Pollan’s list of questions

on page 5 (starting with “The organic apple

or the conventional?”)?

5. What are some of the skills humans have

learned or biological adaptations we’ve

made as a result of our being omnivores? (6)

What does Pollan mean when he says that

humans have learned to “substantially modify

the food chains we depend on” — and

what are some examples of these modifications?

6. Pollan claims that “industry has allowed us

to reinvent the human food chain, from the

synthetic fertility of the soil to the microwaveable

can of soup designed to fi t into a

car’s cup holder” — and then says that “the

implications of this last revolution, for our

health and the health of the natural world,

we are still struggling to grasp.” (7) What

does he mean by this? What are some good

and bad implications of the food industry’s

ability to “reinvent the human food chain”?

7. What three food chains does Pollandecide

to investigate in his book? Describe what he

means by each of his three terms (industrial,

pastoral and hunter-gatherer/neo-Paleolithic).

(7)

8. What effect does Pollan think that the industrial

revolution has had on the food chain?

Does he think these effects are good or

bad? What does he mean when he says that

it’s “changed the fundamental rules of the

game”? (7)

9. Why would Pollan say that the abundance of

food in modern America actually makes the

omnivore’s dilemma worse? (7)

10. What were some challenges Pollan faced

when trying to put together his “perfect

meal”? (9)

11. What does Pollan mean when he says that

“there exists a fundamental tension between

the logic of nature and the logic of human industry,

at least as it is presently organized”?

(9)

12. How do you think we might be taking risks

with our health and the health of the human

world by being part of the industrial food

chain? (10)

13. What does Pollan mean when he says that

humans, plants and animals have “coevolved

to the point where are fates are deeply entwined”?

(10)

14. Why is it bad to lose a sense of connection

to — and knowledge of — where your food

comes from? (11) How do you think we might

change what we eat if we better understood

where our food came from?

15. Who is the audience of this book? Who isn’t?

(11)

Please respond in a 2-3 sentence response.

Make sure you number your answers

Be prepared to share these next Friday! 3/15

Dig deeper with your ideas!!!