Jenny Kim 7-6
May 4th 2015
Omnivore’s Dilemma By Michael Pollan
1. Organic Foods
Michael Pollan, author, talks about explanation of the original organic foods such
as ‘living in beautiful places’, ‘high mountain meadows’, thick aspen groves’, and
‘miles of sagebrush filled flats’ and then talks about the real of organic foods ‘The
word organic has become a kind of shorthand for food that is healthier or more
natural or chemical-free. Yet as I had learned, organic has different meanings.”Page.112. This is very important because this book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, is
made to tell people the truth of our food including the truth of organic food.
2. Organic High-fructose Corn Syrup
The government once introduced the rules about the organic food allow
companies to make organic high-fructose corn syrup. This organic high-fructose
corn syrup could be very useful when making ‘organic’ processed foods are
organic soda and organic TV dinners
3. Cascadian Farms
The author introduces Cascadian Farms and found out Cascadian doesn’t even
grow its own food anymore. Instead the company buys produce from large
industrial farms many of them monocultures. Cascadian used to be once a hippie
commune in Washington D.C but now is an industrial organic brand owned by
food giant General Mills.
4. Process of Lettuce
The author visits Earthbound Farm where they grow lettuce. And tells about
process of salad. Salad is grown in raised beds and use lasers to make sure
lettuce are perfectly leveled. One out of every seven beds are planted with
flowers to lacewings any type of fly, which is the lettuce-eating bugs. They also
harvest leaves with machine that Earthbound designed and moves down the
rows. Cut the baby greens at the same point just above the crown. Spidery arms
gently rake through the bed in advance of the blade to scar off any mice. Leaves
blown into plastic trays lastly trays are loaded by hand into refrigerator trucks
and refrigerated until they reach the supermarket.
- Grown in raised beds
- Use laser to make sure they are perfectly level
- One out of every seven beds is planted with flowers to lacewings and type of
fly the eats the lettuce eating bugs
- Harvested leaves with machine that Earthbound designed
- Moves down the rows
- Cut the baby greens at the same point just above the crown
- Spidery arms gently rake through the bed in advance of the blade to scare off
any mice
- Leaves blown into plastic trays
- Trays are loaded by hand into refrigerator trucks
- Refrigerated until they reach the supermarket
Jenny Kim 7-6
May 4th 2015
5. Chicken Rosie
Chicken Rosie was mentioned chapter 10 but chapter 11 contain more
information about Rosie. Rosie is free-range organic chicken at her farm in
Petaluma. Rosie can freely range outside but Rosie lives in a shed with twenty
thousand other Rosie. The little door in each shed leading out to a narrow grassy
yard is open at least five weeks after the birth of Rosie. By the time they are so
used to the shed that none of them go outside. Cornish Cross broilers are where
all the Rosie and other chickens raised at Petaluma are born. Cornish Cross is
fastest growing chicken ever, turning corn into meat faster than any other bird.
They go from egg to full size in just seven weeks. In fact the birds grow so rapidly
that their bones cannot keep up.
6. Importing Foods Around the World.
- Blueberries from Canada
- Garlic from China
- Oranges from Australia and South Africa
- Apples from New Zealand and Chile
- Tomatoes from Mexico
- Pears from Argentina
-About 35% of the fruit and nuts and 15% of the vegetables consumed in the US are
imported
7. Author’s meal
The author started making his own meal, the materials are from the farm he
visited during the two chapter. He also talks about how the food tastes like taste
like and the process he the food. He also talks about the price of the organic
foods and how much it coasted him to make it.
8. Is Organic Better for You?
Organic factory farm chickens live only slightly better lives than non-organic
factory chickens. An organic label does not guarantee that cattle have spent any
time in a real pasture. The original organic food movement thought organic
farming should be sustainable. It means it should be as much as possible.
Industrial organic food chain is anything but a closed renewable loop. The food
in our organic meal had floated to us on a sea of petroleum just as surely as the
corn-based meal we’d had in McDonald’s.
9. Is It Health Food?
Does organic food contain more nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and natural
substances, which your body need? As far as the USDA is concerned all carrots
are created equal organic and non-organic. In 2003 one University of California
researchers studied two crops of corn, strawberries and black berries. The
plants were identical and grown in side-by-side plots. One set of the plants was
grown using organic methods and other set was grown conventionally with
chemical fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides. The resort was organic fruit and
Jenny Kim 7-6
May 4th 2015
vegetables contained higher levels of vitamin C also had wider range of natural
chemicals called polyphenols. Polyphenols are group of chemicals made by
plants that seem to play an important role in human health.
10. New Food Chain In America
At the last the author found out new food chain in America. These farms aren’t
owned by big agribusiness corporations. They don’t ship their vegetables and
meat across the country or across the globe. So the author told him about his
book. He decides to find out more about this farm and how different an organic
farm could be.