The Omnivores Dilemma Summary

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You are all at risk. Why you may ask? It has to do with our food that we eat every day. Michael Pollen is an astounding author of a book called The Omnivores Dilemma. Within this book, Pollen goes on an adventure to find out what happens to our food in the process of it moving from the source of all life on earth, the sun, to our plates. One chapter that caught my eye in particular is when he purchases and follows a steer through the process of growing up on a factory farm. In the maturity of the soon to be steak or hamburger meat Pollen describes the surroundings as such: “Cattle pens stretch to the horizon; each one home to 150 animals standing dully or lying around in a grayish mud that it eventually dawns on you isn’t mud at all.”(Pollen)…show more content…
Big corporations are willing to go to any length possible to keep their food cheap for the competition, but marketing organic food towards a more wealthy or middle-classed audience could shorten the harm done by this type of food. Factory farming should stay around with improved conditions because of the cheap benefit for the less fortunate, but less conventional and more organic is the need. According to the same essay previously mentioned, “900 million pounds of pesticide are used annually by U.S. agriculture.” These pesticides are sprayed onto crops to keep insects from eating away at them. According to Michael Pollen, when he asked farmers how much fertilizer or pesticide they put on their crops, they usually respond by saying close to double the standard amount “just to be sure.” These harmful chemicals are putting us at higher risk for disease, cancer, or disorders such as ADHD. These food chemicals eventually washed away by rainwater and make their way into rivers and streams, where our tap water comes…show more content…
But at risk of what exactly? The risk of making everything you eat derived from chemicals and genetically modified organisms and not caring at all. That statement is actually mostly true already, but the hope for change is within the organic industry. Switching to organic is becoming a popular idea within the food industry due to increased concern for what people are actually putting in their bodies. “In North America, 80% of our food contains GMOs”(www.nongmoproject.org). So odds are, you have already eaten some today. But who cares? What even is a GMO? A genetically modified organism is when the genetic structure of an organism has been changed of modified to achieve a more desired result. This is frequently used in our food. The reason to avoid GMOs is that they are unhealthy. According to the institute for responsible technology, “The American Academy of Environmental Medicine urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients. They cite animal studies showing organ damage, gastrointestinal and immune system disorders, accelerated aging, and infertility” (responsibletechnology.org). GMO use even has potential to contaminate organic crops through the harmful chemicals and other contaminates given off by conventional farming. Organic crops and meat is needed and should be looked at more seriously in this society. The competitions between companies to get the most natural or organic product are
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