A Letter to Micheal Pollan: author of “The Omnivores Dilemma”

Dear Micheal Pollan,

The following is a response to The Omnivores Dilemma.

It appears that you were right in believing that a lot of people care about what they’re eating, enough, at least, to create such a large audience as their is for your book. I agree with your understated thesis that we as humans do a piss poor job at understanding complex cost and benefit. The type of complex cost and benefit analysis which is required for understanding the intertwining international intermodal food-web we inhabit.

For the past year I have been pescatarian, restricting my diet to plants, fungi, and a portion of the creatures of the sea – excluding mammals, like dolphins and whales; septlapods like octopuses and squid; and other creatures chosen on the primary basis of high intelligence. Before this I was a vegetarian for four years, the switch was made pragmatically when a doctor told me my icepick headaches were likely caused by b12 deficiencies. I reckoned that I may be loosing out on other nutrients and began to relax my stance and fry up some salmon twice a week. The change was hard to reconcile to my beliefs, but manageable and I have come to accept that some pain is required to sustain life.

Therefore, my initial reaction to the omnivores dilemma was to refute it. There are just too many ecological and philosophical issues around factory raised meat (the majority of meat) for me to consider it. Pasture raised meat and game is by far less problematic than factory farming. However, it is definitely not sustainable considering the current rates of meat consumption observed in the western world. I cede the nutritional value density and perhaps more importantly the cultural significance surrounding meat are good claims for its value. To me it seems as though we seek meat in the same way we seek desert, persistently to the point of self-injury.

However, in refuting meat I never considered that perhaps by shirking off the dilemma, I may be missing the point. Your journey studying the gambit of food production from the maize assembly lines of Iowa, to the pasture raised chickens of Virginia, and then to wild boar of California was illuminating. I would gladly have eaten your pork, and I had a hard time defending my posture against poly-farms poultry. The issue then lies in the fog surrounding my plate, that I can never know the condition of a creature without credible institutions… or my own bare hands.

“Good grief, I have written three paragraphs about food without even getting to nutrition.” As a physicist by training, I find the concept of macros and micros very pleasing and useful. I use them whilst knowing in the back of my mind that they are gross simplifications of a complex digestive system; a system made of organic compounds for the purpose of consuming organic compounds! “Pretty wild right!?!” I believe that these approximations serve to fuel our hubris in thinking we can wholly recreate nature in producing food en masse. Perhaps we will be able to one day, but the lack of understanding, misguided policy, and enormous profitability have surely contributed to the health crisis we find ourselves in today. An overfed generation with undernourished bodies.

The solution to the omnivores dilemma must then be as you wrote to “discard both of the outliers”. To work to create a more equitable and thoughtful food web that can be understood, and profitable for generations to come. How will we accomplish this… I am not sure, but I would reckon the start would lie in a few simple steps. Cutting back on the processed ingredients, funding local produce, eating in season, reducing the consumption of meat to a sustainable level, subsidizing nutritious food and small farmers, and finally eating food that can be enjoyed with others.

From Jacob, who tends to care a lot about what he eats, except for when he’s hungry.

To my Small but Appreciated Blog Audience,
I enjoyed writing this letter to the author styled post and will try to do more in the future. I will send this letter to the author, but will not post it unless they offer that I may, at this point I am too shy to ask.

Stay Curious,