Choice and Accountability in What We Eat

Caveat emptor: I haven't finished the book, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that I'll find the time to polish off the last 100 pages before Christmas, so I'm going to write my thoughts on what I have read.

Overall Impression: I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the book. There were a lot of things I found aggravating, not the least is Michael Pollan's writing, which grates on my "self-importance" nerve, much the same way Tracy Kidder's did. Except moreso. I felt like when the author was able to get out of the way of the story he was telling, it was pretty good, but overall I found the writing distracting.

I also didn't like the tone. Pollan's shifting back and forth between science, philosophy and narrative is exactly the sort of thing I should love, but instead I found it extremely aggravating. Perhaps part of it is my own bias against soft-thinkers like Pollan (he teaches journalism) trying to attack issues of science, philosophy and ethics. But there are other people I think do it well (see, for instance, William Saletan's Human Nature blog on Slate). No, the thing that bugged me about Pollan (I think) was that he didn't seem interested in the science and philosophy in and of themselves, but only as a method for advancing his own opinions. Rather than determining opinions from facts and logic, this seems like an attempt to justify an opinion with convenient truths.

And finally, I didn't like the logic. His arguments that an "industrialized food system" are causing environmental disaster, obesity and starvation, and the overall degradation of America were largely unpersuasive to me, primarily because I feel he stacked the deck (those "meals" that form the structural narrative are total straw men) and left out significant details. But above all, I was annoyed by the complete lack of culpability he places on individual consumers; he seems to be saying it's essentially impossible for food consumers to eat healthy, short of a sort of poly-face act of rejection. I mean, he vilifies petro-chemicals and billionaire farmers and the federal government, and says that because they create the product of course we're going to eat it. And the way to combat it, rather than through individual acts of improvement, is through societal transformation. I don't know, it all just seems hare-brained to me.

So to summarize, I didn't like what he said, why he said it, or how he said it. But I still think it was a useful book, if not an enjoyable one (for me)

Uses I found in the book: I started reading ingredient labels. And I was surprised at how few of the things I eat actually do contain identifiable corn products. Not my bread, not my cereal, not my pasta, not my crackers. Pretty much the only labeled food product I eat regularly that I could find corn products in were my granola bars (in this case, it was that devilish HFCS). But besides finding "not corn" in a lot things, it was interesting to see to what degree the things I each are processed foods. A lot of what we as a family buy and eat is whole grain wheat, sugar and preservatives.

I also really liked the poly-face farm. I'm a pastoralist at heart, and the conservativism I believe in is very much a rural, pastoral conservativism. I like Wendell Berry, even though I think he's quite a bit too radical. I feel like much of what's wrong socially and politically in our country would go away if we returned in significant ways to the sort of balanced agrarian/industrial/educational society Joseph Smith envisioned establishing in Missouri (although my pastoralism is probably more due to J.R.R. Tolkien than Joseph Smith). I also like the application of soil science that Pollan so admires Joel Salatin for. While I think Pollan's off the reservation in his ecstatic descriptions of the beauty of the symbiosis of Salatin's farm, I do find the evident efficiency remarkably wonderful.

Discussion Questions:
(1) What is your 'perfect meal'? Thanksgiving dinner comes pretty close. Lots of vegetables and starches, some fruit and bread, a little meat and some pie. Just about perfect.

(2) What rights do you think animals deserve? I think we have a responsibility to be good stewards to the earth, including animals. I don't know that animals have rights, of themselves, but I do think God will hold us responsible for the degree of kindness and care we give to His creation.

(3) [I]s processed food bad at all? If so, at what point? I don't know that there's some threshold. I think "badness" comes through imbalance, rather than processing. I don't tend to eat processed foods, not because they're processed, but because the balance of nutrients in them is unappealing to me.

(4) Can we feed the country without the use of large amounts of fossil fuel? If we don't come up with another energy source or if the population of the world out grows our ability to produce food, will we eventually have mass starvation?When energy costs increased so dramatically last year, there was a global food crisis. Much of the world is starving, or barely subsisting, if news accounts can be believed. I think we could immediately move to a food system that didn't depend on petro-chemicals. I think food in the US would become much more expensive, but it wouldn't dramatically effect food prices in the areas of the world that are on the subsistence end of the spectrum. And I think the result would be that people would eat less meat and less sugar, more vegetables and whole grains; some people would suffer but the population would generally be healthier. However, I wouldn't advocate doing this by fiat, or government imposition. It doesn't seem the cost (in terms of loss of standard of living families would realize as a result of paying more for food, as well as those who simply couldn't afford the new regime and so would need to be supported by the whole of society) justifies it to me.

(5) Were you instilled with a greater desire to eat locally? If so, what motivates you and how are you going to do it? No. Although I was interested that Poly-face can generate competitively priced food. The most I can say I will do is look into the real cost (rather than my assumed cost) of local produce and dairy.

(6) Are those of you that are for more government regulation in the financial market, are you for additional regulations in the food market? Did the regulation of the organic market help or hurt the organic food industry?I think there should be health standards, as far as toxins, etc. I think the "irradiation" solution Pollan decries isn't a terrible one, but I think there may be better solutions that are only marginally more expensive.

(7) What did you think of Pollan's version of 'grace'? What do you think is the inherent benefit of actually saying grace (assuming that our food isn't really cursed and won't make us sick if we don't bless it)? Should we really just be much more grateful in our meal prayers for the bounty of the earth and think about where the food comes from?I guess I could see an increase of gratitude as a result of moving away from processed foods. That's an interesting thought.

(8) Has reading this book changed the way you will eat? Not really. I feel I eat fairly healthily. As I said, I did start looking reading food labels, but beyond that I doubt I will change much. I'll still go to McDonald's occasionally, and I will not start foraging for mushrooms.