The Omnivore’s
Dilemma
We are what we eat
Pollan’s Ponder
 What am I eating tonight?
 A simple enough question
 For most of humanity, a simple set of
answers
 But WHAT am I eating?
Hunting and Gathering
 Pretty obvious answers
 This animal, that plant
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Seasonal variations
Locational variations
Nutritionally successful
Droughts, winters, occasional disaster
Solar Agriculture
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Seiferle
Local crops
Local trade
Energy balance
Planes, Trains and
Automobiles
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Tractors too
Brute force application of energy
Plowing
Cutting
Collecting
Irrigating
Now: Pivot systems in
Montana
Low Energy Precision
Application
 For a typical initial cost of $3,000, a
farmer can convert an existing mediumor high-pressure pivot system to a LEPA
system.
 Using these rates, the estimated cost
savings in electricity is estimated to $476
per year
 IRR of 14.9%.
 Does NOT include water savings
My Grandfather’s Century
 An interesting chapter about how lives
changed during his life.
 What about food in mine?
Growing up in Canada
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Summer garden
Winter root cellar
Farmer’s stands
Canned vegetables
Fresh and local dairy
Meat was special
GREAT apples
On The Island
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Shopping centers
Grocery stores
Mom housekept
Dad worked
NEVER touch the water
Regular electricity blackouts
Regular snow ins
 A pantry was vital
On The Lake
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Crystal clear water
Fresh fish
Fresh game
Fresh berries
Summer garden
Farmer’s markets
Community corn roasts
 Fresh corn, fresh butter, fresh meat
Downtown
Montreal, the world’s city
Every food from anywhere
Farmers’ market at the docks
Yeah maple foods
French, Jewish, Italian, Polish, German, Indian,
Chinese
 No chain restaurants; Dunn’s, The Main,
Lafleur’s, BUM
 Smoked meat, pickles, cole slaw, hotdogs
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Home delivery
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The Egg Man
Milk and dairy
Knife sharpening
NOT the Good Humor truck
Playing with Food
 Work at 14
 Riding home at 2:30 am
 11 restaurants 11 closures
 Can get work any given day
70’s-80’s
 Fake food
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Modern chemistry
Truly yucky
Mostly hydrogenated oils
Really horrible stuff, but cheap
Consumer dislike – markets work
Real food producers protest
80’s
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Real food
Not unusual for a bill to be over $500
Fresh veggies and fruits and dairy
Still mostly local except lettuce
Great meat
Some frozen fish from across the pond
No artificial stuff
California produce
New Years Dinner
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$400 bottle of wine bet
Fresh raspberries for dessert
Peach Melba
Beef Wellington, Veal Saltimbocca, etc
$400/couple plus booze.
25 cents per berry
From Chile
Grad School Cooking
 The real move toward the meat heavy
diet.
 Fewer grains and veggies
 Far more sugar in desserts
Grad School Eating
 Tired of eating prime rib!
 Too much red snapper
 Succulent lamb
A Real Job: Faculty
 Boy, did I get fat!
 Knowing how to cook, loving to cook and
having money
 Relearning how to cook
 Good Texas fruits and veggies
 192 down to 142
Ignoring Food
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Being a junior faculty member
Good cooking, good food, good life
Good restaurants, good food, good life
Now the 90’s
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But never getting really fat again
More prepared foods
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Some good pastas and sauces
Mum’s recipe card from the 60’s!
Good frozen veggies
Chain restaurants that are not fast food
Meat is a Normal Good
 BBQ most nights
 Who keeps a Pork Wellington in the
freezer?
 Becoming American
 But cooking healthy and fresh
Class Break
The Industrialized Garden
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Farm Aid 1985
Similar to fisheries
Bigger, faster, and cheaper
From an ox and a plow to a combine
Corn
We Did Good!
Corn
data series started 1866
yield/acre
year
total output
year
high
160.4
2004
11,807,217
2004
Low
18.2
1901
730,814
1866
881%
1616%
Corn Prices
22,464,479,000 lbs in 1988
Market Interferences
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Crop Subsidies
Oil subsidies
Nonmarket water allocations
No internalizations of externalities
 Water runoff
 Air quality
 Carbon emissions
 What is the true price
Industrialized Fishing
 Pimentel
 Industrial deep sea fishing is more energy
intensive than in-shore fishing.
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Bigger, cheaper, faster and more
Led to fishery management
Agriculture involves “private lands”
ECO 325
Industrialization of Food
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Obesity is a cause celeb
Diabetes is epidemic
Nutritional values are questionable
Westernized diet= western diseases
Cows, Pigs and Chickens
 It sure is cheap
 http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ldp/
APR04/ldpm11801/ldpm11801r.pdf
 Figures 3-8
 An interesting article
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelate
d/Consumption/Beef.asp
Further Market
Imperfections
 Manure lagoons
 Runoff
 Odor
 What to do with it?
 Moral and medical issues
 The animals ARE sick
 Resistant bugs
The Great Empty Middle
Out of Site Out of Mind
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Food is cheap
Food is fast
Food is easy
Food is tasty
Who cares where it comes from
Who cares how it is produced, it has
USDA approval
Food Waste
 Restaurants
 Must hit target table bill
 $40 and $25
 Cheap food means large portions
 It used to be a doggy bag, not tomorrow’s
lunch
 Pinky
 Garnishes
 Leaf lettuce 7,000 kcal/head
 Pickles – recall from chapter 1
Food Waste
 Recipe calls for 1 lb, ground beef is in 1.4
lb packages????
 Package labeling says 2.5 servings per
package????
 Next question: what has happened to
serving sizes over time?
A Grotesque Example
 Walmart Easter Advertising
 Our prices are so cheap
 You can put MORE candy in your already fat
kid’s Easter basket
 Your kid will be happier, fatter and better
able to play video games - which to can buy
at Walmart
 M&M’s 2/3 sugar by weight: yummy