2 nd part of the project: Reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma By Michael Pollan

What does the title Omnivore's Dilemma mean? Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves…only. Barn owls eat mice…only. Human beings eat… fruits, vegetables, meat, grains, etc. Here’s the dilemma… How do we decide what to eat? What is our food made of and where is it coming from???

For example, what exactly is a Twinkie made from???

Pollan wants to know…which is why he wrote this book! “We have a thousand choices of food in our supermarkets, but we don’t really know where our food comes from… I set out to solve the modern omnivore’s dilemma. I decided to find out where our food comes from and what exactly it is we are eating.”

Omnivore’s Dilemma will discuss … HISTORY of food choices in the U.S. WHERE our food comes from and HOW it is made ROLE of corn in our food FARMING practices & their environmental impacts As based on Pollan’s research & experience.

Not everyone is in agreement with Pollan’s research … Authors have BIASES that impact the information that is included in their publications. Non-fiction pieces can be biased, supporting only ONE perspective of an issue. Authors NEED to be researched to help identify their biases.

When researching an author for bias, focus on the following questions… (All the credibility aspects of weekly TCETs.) What is the author’s gender, occupation, socioeconomic class, political position, and/or ethnic identity? Why did the author write this book? Who has published this person’s work? Does the author cite credible sources in his work? What is the author’s tone?

Who is the author of this book? Michael Pollan… Investigative journalist for 25 years with research focusing on nature & culture. Recent work is reviewing scientific research on food & its production. Author of four New York Times bestsellers Named in both Newsweek & Time as an influential leader Professor at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.

What is an investigative journalist? According to George Orwell, acclaimed WWII journalist and author, investigative journalists work to uncover “unpopular ideas and inconvenient facts: ideas that are buried simply because it is thought unacceptable, impolite or even unpatriotic to talk about them.” Investigative journalists are committed to doing extensive amounts of research to make sure their claims are accurate and backed by the findings of experts in the fields. Definition according to fairreporters.org

What are some examples of “unpopular truths or inconvenient facts” that investigative reports have uncovered for the public? Woodward and Bernstein on the Watergate Scandal Seymour Hersh’s stories on the massacres at My Lai

READ and LISTEN CRITICALLY! Everything is BIASED. Ask yourself, ‘How does this author or speaker know this to be true?’ Look for sources that would challenge the information you are learning about. Doing this allows you to make an informed decision.

Just a couple of reading tips… This book is broken up into four sections— there is one section for each of the four different types of food chains: Industrial, industrial organic, local sustainable and hunter-gatherer. You will be reading two sections of the book.

Vocabulary: Agribusiness: business (such as companies involved with seed production, agrichemicals, farm machinery) connected to agriculture who aren’t actually farming the land, but rather are selling products to farmers or processing/marketing products produced on farms. Industrial Farming: a type of farming that focuses on mass production of a single crop (whether that is corn or beef). (We tend to refer to this as modern industrial agriculture.)

More terms to be familiar with… Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs): legal term describing large-scale raising of animals. In the media, this is often called “factory farming.” Farm Subsidy: money given to farmers by the government to supplement their income and/or to manage the supply/demand of different crops

Our second meeting… To discuss the first section of the book on Dec 20 th. For that day, you will need to have read the intro & chapters 1-6, filled out the reading chart AND brought in an opposing article. There will also be a graded discussion on the material at that time (same guidelines as first discussion).