Comments on: Omnivore’s Dilemma

By: Dan Winkler

Dan Winkler — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 11:39:37 +0000

You can join a meat CSA, like this one in the Boston area:

http://www.chestnutfarms.org/

By: Phill

Phill — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:26:23 +0000

I lived in Austria from 2006-2008 and can attest that the milk there tastes very different, whether it was whole or had some of the fat removed, compared with U.S. milk. Many farms there are still mountain farms, which are more expensive (and of course subsidized) but also serve the function of keeping the land beautiful. Since returning to the U.S. in June, I have realized how I don’t trust the food producers here and, when I am no longer a student, will gladly pay more for food that comes from a farm where animals are treated well and I can know what’s going into the food.

By: Dan Lyke

Dan Lyke — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:12:18 +0000

Todd, my father in law was a chicken and turkey farmer, and one of the accomplishments he saw in his field over his life is that a bird brought to market consumes approximately 2x its market weight in feed. And, yes, that feed is corn. So, if you’re eating chicken, you’re eating processed corn.

I don’t know the similar numbers on beef, but Pollan’s assertion is that most of the cattle’s weight comes from those last few months in the feedlot, and that the feedlot is largely subsidized corn.

You may also think that a lot of what you’re getting elsewhere is wheat based, but I’ll bet a lot of the sugars in those baked goods come from corn, and a whole bunch of the flavors in any processed foods you eat come from corn byproducts.

By: Todd Wallentine

Todd Wallentine — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:40:32 +0000

Maybe I am just an ignorant Kansan but most of that makes very little sense. Where I live, in Manhattan, KS, we have cattle all around us that are fed on what we refer to as prairie (the natural grasses of Kansas). And then during the winter when the prairie isn’t growing, we feed the cattle what we call hay (what we cut on the prairie during the growing season, bale, and then store). And to make sure cattle get the correct nutrients, we supplement their diets with other food stuff (oats, barley, alfalfa, corn, etc.). I am sure that when the cows head off the the feedlots they may be”finished” by feeding corn but that is usually just the final months – not the largest part of their growth.

I also wanted to point out that I have other sources of food that have nothing to do with corn – fruits, vegetables, and wheat-based products to name a few. So saying that “virtually everything that we Americans eat is a form of corn” isn’t quite accurate – at least for me.

By: ericabiz

ericabiz — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:45:15 +0000

Hi Philip,

If you liked this book, you may also like the movie “King Corn”, where they go through a typical lifespan of corn (and attempt to grow their own acre of corn in Iowa.) They explore the fact that even our hair is made of corn, due to the fact that it’s used almost everywhere. A good video complement to the book, and readily available for rental at both Blockbuster and Netflix.

-Erica

By: David Wihl

David Wihl — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:19:44 +0000

I just finished Pollan's follow-on book, In Defense of Food while vacationing in Paris, where there continues to be a deep appreciation of quality of food. He's one of my favorite authors. I especially appreciated the hunting details of Omnivore's Dilemma. I hunted waterfowl for the first time a few years ago. I learned from my then three year old son that you shouldn't eat meat unless you can take personal responsibility for the death of the animal at some point in your life. For Omega-3s, try growing kale. It's one of the best sources of Omega-3 and will readily grow in any patch of dirt in New England. Delicious! Those fancy expensive Whole Foods eggs with Omega-3s come from chickens that have simply been fed kale.

By: Dom

Dom — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:26:52 +0000

Phil, if you haven’t already, you might be interested in reading Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes.

By: Dan Lyke

Dan Lyke — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:09:59 +0000

Whole Foods has adapted pretty dramatically to some of the criticisms in Pollan’s book, ours in Petaluma California, for instance, carries much of the same produce from the same farmers that we meet at the farmer’s markets. Albeit with a mark-up.

And they’ve got grass fed beef, although there again I prefer to go straight to the producer, because “grass fed” means different things to different sellers.

Sean, I don’t know which west coast you’re on, but down here in Northern California the salmon season this year was cut very very short because of a lack of stock…

And I’ve got a question: If 90% of English language speakers use “begs the question” to mean “raises the question” rather than “begs that you overlook the answer”, does it really mean the latter?

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:27:22 +0000

It must be terrible not to live out west. Wild salmon is readily accessible from May through September, and everybody knows that you shouldn’t order salmon at a restaurant unless they tell you where it came from.

My local Whole Foods has a decent selection of grass-feed beef. It’s very, very expensive.