The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition

Eye-Opening and Easy to Understand I got The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Young Readers Edition for school, and it has been an excellent resource. The text breaks down complex ideas about food, farming, and sustainability in a way that’s easy to follow for younger readers. I especially appreciate how it makes you think critically about what you eat and where it comes from. It’s well-written, engaging, and definitely worth the money for anyone who wants to learn about food systems without getting lost in heavy terminology. A must-read for students and young readers curious about the world around them!

The Omnivore's Dilemma: Young Readers Edition is a nonfiction book by Michael Pollan, who also wrote books such as In Defense of Food, Food Rules, and Cooked. The Omnivore's Dilemma focuses on the modern industrial food chain in the United States. Michael Pollan discusses the cruelty that animals in industrial farms suffer. He also talks about the 4 ways of getting food: the industrial food chain, the industrial organic food chain, the local sustainable food chain, and the hunter-gatherer food chain. One of the main topics in the book is how to truly eat healthy, and the problem with processed foods. Another topic in the book is the Omnivore's Dilemma. A problem that omnivores face is that they can eat so many things, but they don't know what they should eat. This problem is especially rampant in the modern day, because you can just go to the grocery store and have hundreds of foods to choose from. The book also talks a lot about corn. In the U.S., corn or something made from corn is an ingredient in more than half the foods in most supermarkets, which can be really unhealthy. Overall, his argument was to try to eat mostly local foods and/or the hunter-gatherer diet instead of buying food from the industrial food chain, because food from local farms or getting food yourself is more healthier, and the animals and environment go through less suffering because of it. In my opinion, The Omnivore's Dilemma is a great book. It's very educational, but it isn't boring and drawn out like many other educational books are. Michael Pollan uses a lot of evidence, sources, and quotes to back up all his claims. I like how he incorporates story along with the facts. It makes the book a lot more relatable and interesting. The inclusion of graphs, pictures, diagrams, and sidebars gives some more context and information for those who are more curious. I found it interesting how he compared how we ate food back then to how we eat food now. I liked how he talked to experts from all sides of the argument. I also liked how he talks about the cycle of nature and how it helps all animals survive. I thought it was cool how he experienced and explored all four of the ways of getting food, so he could really explain what they were about. I liked how Michael presented solutions the the problems he talked about in the book. I feel like the book was good at inspiring you to take action to eat healthier foods. One thing I didn't like about the book is that I felt that it was biased. He doesn't really talk about the possible pros of the industrial food chain or the possible cons of local or hunter-gatherer diets. I wish he would talk about the pros and cons of both so I could know the whole story and compare them. However, I still found the book very interesting and recommend that you read it, and I think you will find it very interesting. I think the audience would appreciate this book. The target audience for this book is adolescent readers. First of all, the book uses a lot of pictures and other things to break up the text and make it less boring for younger viewers. Second of all, Michael makes sure that his writing style is unique and a lot more interesting for people who might not be interested in very monotone or flat books. He also uses vocabulary that most teenagers would understand, and when he uses a complicated word, he makes sure people know the definition so they can understand the context more. I think the book fits the target audience because it is teaching adolescence the truth about food. I say that's important because adolescence is the most important time of your life because it is the time when you grow the most and become an adult. So, it is important for teens to learn the truth, so they can learn to eat more healthy, and that will affect them for the rest of their life. I wouldn't really recommend it to kids 10 and under unless they really love reading, since the vocabulary and subjects would probably be more complicated to them. Even though it is focused on adolescent readers, the book can be entertaining to adults too, because it's focused on an advanced topic that's important to both teens and adults. However, I would recommend this mostly to kids from age 12-18.

With supermarkets around nearly every corner, humans have access to any food that they would ever want to eat, anytime of the year. The problem is that having food so readily available has dulled human instincts regarding what foods should be consumed and when and as a result, humans are faced with the omnivore's dilemma. Humans can eat anything, but how do they know what they should eat? To answer that question, Michael Pollan takes his readers on a narrative journey through four very different food chains that exist in the United States today in "The Omnivore's Dilemma." Pollan examines the impact of each food chain on environmental health, human health, and livestock health. The first food chain that Pollan reviews is the industrial food chain, which is where most of the food in supermarkets and fast food restaurants comes from. Pollan explores how the industrial food chain is based on government subsidized corn through visiting a corn farm in Iowa, a cattle feedlot in Kansas, and McDonald's. To explore the industrial organic food chain, Pollan visits two organic farms and an organic poultry farm, to find that the only essential difference between the industrial food chain and the industrial organic food chain is that the industrial organic food chain only uses natural fertilizers. To examine the local sustainable food chain, Pollan spends a week working on Polyface Farm near Washington, D.C., making hay, tending livestock, and slaughtering chickens. To conclude his experience, Pollan explores the hunter-gatherer food chain by learning to hunt mushrooms and wild pig and using his finds to prepare dinner for family and friends. "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is an easy read, as it is written in narrative format and Pollan spends several chapters explaining each concept. The book reads more like a fictional piece with information woven throughout, than a non-fiction expose of food in America. Pollan has carefully placed numerous photographs, diagrams, and "fun facts" throughout the text to further engage young readers. With regard to the book as a teaching tool, it would be a valuable component to a nutrition unit, as Pollan explores the impacts of each food chain on human health, such as the higher fat content of corn-fed beef, the impact of super-sized servings on childhood obesity, and the impact of the government's corn subsidy on the cheap foods available to families living in poverty. The book could also be utilized in a social studies classroom to spur students to take social action in response to the cruel living conditions for cattle on feedlots and chicken on poultry farms or the less than fail-proof manner in which cattle are slaughtered. However, this book should probably not be used with students younger than sixth grade, as Pollan includes some graphic content when he describes slaughtering chickens and shooting a wild pig. In addition, this book may not be a wise choice for classrooms in rural areas. The book definitely creates a negative portrayal of the industrial food chain, so students and parents who make their living as a part of that food chain may find it to be offensive. Overall, the book is a valuable resource for introducing students to the consequences of the choices they make with their forks and making them aware of the fact that even at a young age, they can have an impact on how the United States' food system operates.

Industrial food is not just at the local fast food restaurant. it is also at our grocery stores. Food is made to taste better and have a longer shelf life, but is the chemicals and preservatives we use really worth the health risk? Do we know where our meat comes from, the diet of the cows before they go to the slaughter and become our hamburger and steak? This book is an eye opening education. You can read the adult version, "The Omnivore's Dilemma, A History of Four Meals" also. Michael Pollan, the book's author is not trying to make us all into vegetarians, although he did try that lifestyle for a short period of time and then went back to eating meat. The point is to be informed about our food, because diet is just as important as exercise. You cannot put empty calories and lots of high fructose corn syrup and genetically modified food into our bodies and then be surprised at the poor body figure we now have. Also have a look into sustainable farming and learn why our current methods of producing food cannot last forever. Why do we dump fossil fuels on our fields? What does this do to the ecosystem of the land, the soil? Also, learn why we cannot go back to using cow manure for fertilizer. Why is it (the cow manure) so toxic to the soil and to us? What is genetically modified corn and other grain doing to our field and why can't we control it from going into other fields? Perhaps industrial food and industrial farming needs to change. Why do farmers over produce and why can they never get compensated for their grain and make a living? When you are through reading this book, Michael Pollan appears in the movie, "Food Inc." which is a great movie to continue on your way in discovering the problem with many American foods. A few other movies I recommend are, "The Future of Food", about genetically modified food, and "Supersize Me" which is a documentary on fast food and a one month McDonald's bing. Then when you are ready, watch "Sweet Misery, the story of Aspartame." This last movie is not as well edited as the others but it has excellent information from doctors and patients that give testimonies on their bad experiences with aspartame, artificial sweetener. If you have any problems with MS, or if you get sick easily watch these great films. Keep your mind open to these new ideas. Doctors have much more training in pharmaceutical drugs than in nutrition. We cannot expect our doctors to know every problem that comes up with each new food additive that comes on the market. Research for yourself. Read books, do not trust the media or television to give you all the answers here.

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Very interesting information. Our grandson & I learned a lot from reading this

I bought this book for my son to break out of usual sci-fi type of books, surprisingly it enough my son enjoyed the book and enjoyed sharing with the family what he has learned about farming, about the corn and soy industry, and better appreciation for reading food labels to understand what he's putting in his body.

Assigned reading for my 14 year old- so you know how it goes.. she is not interested at all; however, I read the first chapter and plan on reading it after she does her "report".