Pollan articulates to great length the dilemma faced by omnivores. However, as he concludes with Wendell Berry’s “eating is an agricultural act”, eating is an ecological and political act as well. Thus, making it more complicated, the omnivores has several dilemmas to tackle: what’s good to eat, what’s good for the environment, and what sort of politics does one follow or endorse.
To be specific, by ‘good’ I mostly mean healthy: healthy for the body (nutritious food) , and healthy for the environment (minimal pollution, preserving biodiversity, etc.). The first dilemmas was thoroughly covered by Pollan. It should be understood that all three dilemmas are interconnected, though each might have different reasoning mechanisms. The second dilemma concerns the impact of our food system and food choices. For some people, this might include local consideration, such as “that farm is polluting lake Champlain so we won’t by dairy/produce from them”. other considerations may include regional, national or international circumstances: I won’t buy soybeans grown in the Amazon due to deforestation.
The third dilemma is perhaps the more challenging to consider; at least it is the one that I think we least challenge – what kind of government do we have, and ought we have? This relates to conversations we had in the past, but it centers around what type of relationships different people see between individuals, communities and government. Do we want a government that promotes individual rights at all costs, even when that endangers the existence of the planet? or do we want a government that protects the balance of the world ecosystems and the expense of certain rights being less protected (the latter refers to changing how private property is viewed, and whether or not people have any claims over natural resources.) There is a spectrum of possibilities for different societal-government relations – but the truth is that we rarely intellectually challenge the system, and we accept things as they are. The dilemma here is do we change the political system or not? how to change and what to? different people will provide different answers.
To conclude, I enjoyed reading this chapter but believe that the conversations of dilemmas can be further extended to the society and culture. That might lend more insight into what our system needs to be, and how to change our system to get there.
“Do we want a government that promotes individual rights at all costs, even when that endangers the existence of the planet? or do we want a government that protects the balance of the world ecosystems and the expense of certain rights being less protected (the latter refers to changing how private property is viewed, and whether or not people have any claims over natural resources.) There is a spectrum of possibilities for different societal-government relations – but the truth is that we rarely intellectually challenge the system, and we accept things as they are.”
If this were face book I’d give this quote a thumbs up and share it. Very well said, you might call it the libertarians dilemma! I think this is at the heart of the debate on most things in politics today. “The tragedy of the commons” is difficult to address for certain but there is no excuse apathy.
Dor,
I really appreciated your insight on Pollan’s take on the dilemma faced by omnivores. I enjoyed how you broke down each dilemma, and tied it into a pressing issue in the food community. You did a great job of critiquing Pollan’s piece by adding you insight, and relating it back to your thoughts and feelings about the food movement. I agree that the dilemmas mentioned by Pollan represent a lack of cohesion between society and culture, and indeed can be intertwined with one another. I really like all the inquisitive questions that you ask, and it seems that you tie your thoughts reading Pollan into government policy, and how there needs to be an effort to change from the top down, which I very much agree with. Lastly, I appreciate the subtle economic thoughts you incorporate into your post because it brings the post full circle in bring together the environmental, social, and cultural aspects of Pollan’s message to the reader.