October 2007: The Omnivore's Dilemma (Pollan)

Post date: Jan 07, 2010 9:11:16 PM

We welcomed two new faces to book club at Catherine's on Thursday, October 11: Ruth McNaughton and Frances Bell, as well as many old friends. Catherine had a nice assortment of treats, and her organic farm box prominently displayed. :-) Thanks for hosting!

As expected, our discussion of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma was lively and interesting. Some felt that Pollan's tone was a bit precious or self-absorbed at times, but all found sections that resonated strongly, and believed the book very worthwhile. All of us came away feeling that US industrial food production is even worse than we had feared.

Whole Foods comes off poorly in the book, but Catherine reported some very interesting developments since its publication. John Mackey (Co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Markets) engaged in discussions with Michael Pollan, first in public letters and then in a live Q & A forum in Berkeley, and many changes have been made at Whole Foods. A video of the Berkeley discussion is available on the Whole Foods website: john-mackey-and-michael-pollan-discussion and was highly recommended by Catherine.

You can read their letters back and forth from Pollan's website: pollan_mackey_letters.

Another point of discussion was what can we do to help change the situation. Michael Pollan's answer is the farm bill. Ruth sends this link to an NPR interview with Pollan and others: How the Farm Bill Affects What We Eat.