The Omnivore's Dilemma
After many, many recommendations from Christian, member's of his family, Berkeley friends and others, I finally got around to reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. It's a great, great book. I found it interesting the whole way through, from the history of monocultural agriculture and corn's dominance in the US, to the history of the organic movement (and its industrialization), to the philosophy of grass-based agriculture, and finally to the hunting and foraging chapter. Though I started the book a few months ago, I paused after the first two chapters and didn't really resume the book until the end of the winter. This proved to be fortuitous timing, since I was reading the chapter about grass-based farming (my favorite) and the delicious eggs, chicken, beef and other things that comes of it, just as I was returning to France. So my appetite was whet for this high-quality food and I knew that in France I'd easily be able to achieve it. The final chapter was interesting in Pollan's honest description of hunting, which makes me wonder if despite my aversion to guns, I might enjoy hunting as well. That chapter also talks extensively about mushroom hunting, which is a hobby I've wanted to take up for years now. That chapter also had such lovingly familiar descriptions of Berkeley life, and of convivial dinners, that it made my heart melt with nostalgia. At least we still actively seek out the convivial dinners in France, but I do miss certain aspects of living in Berkeley. The writing is excellent, well-researched and well thought out, with a personal and occasionally humorous tone. In the beginning, I found Pollan to be a little repetitive: during each chapter on industrial agriculture, he'd detail one particular flaw/aspect, but he couldn't help tying off these chapters with a recounting of all the flaws, including ones he hadn't discussed in detail yet. Later chapters tamed this desire for revisiting the same ideas and the book became more self-contained by each chapter being more independent. 9/10.