Blog #1

Michael Pollan is out for vengeance. He feels he’s been tricked, lied to, manipulated, and he’s had enough. Its time to strike back. His target: our modern food industry.

That might sound like an overly dramatic way to describe a book on food, but it nonetheless reflects Pollan’s want to shake up our way of thinking about food. In the first words of the book, Pollan summarizes his message – “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” and from there tells us why our attitude toward food is long expired. Pollan believes that we should return to the foods of our grandparents – good, natural homegrown food. In the opening chapters, he summarizes his belief that the food industry has been mislead throughout history by scientists who think they know more than they really do. These scientific findings have prompted the government to support and grow an industry based on the scientific “food”.

I believe Pollan’s idea that our modern food industry has “got it all wrong” and that the government has supported the industry to this point. One such example of the government subsidizing “food” is in the corn industry. The documentary King Corn gives an insightful look at the problems with the crop. The more I think about Pollan’s claims that our “food” today isn’t really food, the more I doubt what exactly it is that I’m eating. For simple evidence, just look at the ingredients of the next thing you eat (should I really be eating something that contains an ingredient that I can’t even pronounce? Maltodextrin?). Pollan’s argument that our grandparents’ diets were healthier than ours now is hard to argue with; based on all the health complications we have today that they never had to deal with. Michale Polan is a food prophet that will hopefully help turn our stray society around.