2-27-10- Omnivore's Dilemma: Final Word

Michael Pollen ends his adventure in discovering the omnivore’s dilemma by reproducing the cycle of preparing a meal using only what he has. Pollen hunted, gather and forage his entire meal through the help of others. Especially when learning to hunt pigs and picking mushrooms. Even though Pollen had obtained it all physically on his own, he has to depend on others for help and knowledge. Without the experience that others had share, Pollen would not have known which mushroom was poisonous or not and how to properly look for them. This makes me realize how much we’re depended on scientific knowledge and experts to tell us what is good from bad. Now, it seems like those with even the slight bit of authority are abusing our trust by telling us what food we should eat to benefit them instead of us. Also, seeing the process that Pollen goes through to produce one meal, it is hard to imagine doing so much trouble just to eat when we, today, can just drive our car to the nearest fast food joint. Today, we face many problems in choosing what to eat. We decide between organic or industrialized, fat free or non fat free, grass or corn. With that, Pollen leaves us the question: what’s for dinner?