Michael Pollan Is a Speciesist! As Michael Pollan points out in his book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, “eating meat has become morally problematic…Vegetarianism is more popular than it has ever been, and animal rights, the fringiest of fringe movements until just a few years ago , is rapidly finding its way into the cultural mainstream.” I’m not a vegetarian because I enjoy eating meat, meat is nutritious food, and I believe there are ways to eat meat that are in keeping with my environmental and ethical values. They put together an easy-to-use guide for what seafood to eat and what to avoid. A few years ago while writing The Omnivore’s Dilemma I decided if I was going to continue to eat red meat, then I owed it to myself, as well as to the animals, to take more responsibility for the invisible but crucial transaction between ourselves and the animals we eat. Though I personally eat these products only very rarely, I have seen no reason to believe that they are particularly unhealthy, and some of them are not even very heavily processed. To find farmers near you raising pastured animals and selling grass fed meat put your zip code into the map tool on the Local Harvest website and type “grass fed” into the keywords box. Pollan struggles with his new-found vegetarianism, which he feels alienates him from other people and makes it awkward when he goes to dinner parties and has to ask the host to make him a special dish. Further, all perishable foods, unless consumed promptly, need to be preserved in some way. I read his last book, Omnivore's Dilemma when it came out, and although it was extremely interesting (especially the part about mushroom hunting), I find certain aspects of his writing style extremely annoying and self-indulgent (namely the flippancy with which he writes about meat-eating). But things may be changing for the renowned journalist. From isthmus.com: Written by Nathan G. Thompson on September 9, 2013 in Eco Justice, Economics, Food, Race. He then went on to argue that our system of meat production is brutal but added, “It’s really important to reform that system, not just turn our backs on it.”. Is grass fed meat really better for me? "Always leave the table a little hungry," … He went on to give vegans credit for animal welfare reforms and praised Meatless Mondays for introducing people to the idea of eating meals without meat. Michael Pollan’s book, “Omnivore’s Dilemma”, and the damage it has done to our understanding of ecosystems and the food choices needed to protect them. Where I have been able to find video or transcripts, I’ll use direct quotes and provide links, but otherwise I’m going to have to rely on my notes and use paraphrases. And, as a Professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkley, he knows the importance of getting his facts straight. Farm Sanctuary works to end cruelty to farm animals. Animal Welfare Institute audits and certifies family farms. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! My recent post here on race and Buddhism has been quite the hot potato. The conversation shifted to animal concerns, and Kathy Freston explained that she is vegan because she can’t look an animal in the eye and say that it should suffer to satisfy her appetite. In a recent Mashable article author Chris Taylor explores what the future of food, particularly meat, will look like. He points out that many cultural traditions and ritual meals center on meat, like the Thanksgiving turkey. — Michael Pollan. The Vegetarian’s Dilemma. I mean, I’m very careful about what I eat, but that doesn’t owe to my … Spicy Tasty Vegan. To erase the final speck of consideration his readers might have still harbored toward vegetarianism up to this point in his book, Pollan satirizes vegetarians as annoying and “preachy” to recall in his readers the memory of their past interactions with bothersome vegetarians: “Like any self-respecting vegetarian (and we are nothing if not self-respecting) I will now burden you with my obligatory compromises and ethical distinctions” (Pollan … Tagged with: human ecology, vegans, green vegans, animal agriculture, vegan human ecology, vegetarianism, chickens, Michael Pollan, "Omnivore's Dilemma", ethology, cruelty Posted in Farmed Individuals from Other Species, The New Human Ecology, Veganism, Ecosystems, Michael Pollan "Omnivore's Dilemma series The issue is not food processing in general. Michael Pollan moves on from his brief discussion of wild animal deaths on farms to point out certain environmental challenges of a vegan world. For more on the nutritional benefits of pastured food and where to find it go to eatwild.com. Most vegan substitutes (like mock meats and vegan cheeses) probably fall somewhere in between these extremes. Intrepid vegan reporter (and VK cofounder) Chris Hendrickson attended Michael Pollan’s recent talk at WMU, and wrote up his exclusive report for us below.Thanks, Chris! A truly sustainable agriculture will involve animals, in order to complete the nutrient cycle, and those animals are going to be killed and eaten. Pollan went on to explain two of his reasons for not endorsing a vegan diet. Author Michael Pollan has finally embraced “fake” meat after having a positive dining experience involving veggie meatballs. In Defense of Foodauthor Michael Pollanis outspoken improving health through better food. Meat-eating has always been … He’s published five books and eleven essays on the subject. I don’t make the decision to eat meat lightly. (What grocery-store item is more silent about its origins than a shrink-wrapped steak?) It rests on an implicit assumption that meat production is something that should happen. Pollan started off well enough, praising the idea of Oprah’s vegan challenge for raising awareness about our dietary choices. The ethical argument for veganism is that the individual animal has a right to live, and live freely. Various forms of processing are neutral or benign in their effects. Like his earlier argument for supporting small farmers, this is an argument that seems to rest on an unexplained assumption that we need to have some meat production. I eat very limited kind of meat from farmers that I know, and, you know, pastured eggs and all that kind of stuff. Barefooters argue that running shoes don’t prevent injuries, they cause them. However, I do have to wonder if Pollan overstates the number of farmers that produce meat without feeding animals grain. He does not, however, believe in a vegan diet. Daniel Engber criticized Pollan in Slate for arguing that food is too complex a subject to study scientifically and blaming reductionism for today's health ills, while using nutritional research to justify his own diet advice. Most known for his famous quote: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” — author Michael Pollan describes himself as a “reluctant carnivore.” (He is the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, after all.). Even though I don’t feel good about the way the animals on small farms are treated, I could agree to disagree with Pollan on that. Pollan’s second concern regarding vegan diets was about overconsumption of processed foods, though he did acknowledge that one could be vegan without eating processed foods. More generally, the issue is the proportion of meals, dishes, foods, drinks, and snacks within food systems, in supermarkets, and therefore in diets, that are ‘ultra-processed’. Ruminants like cows and sheep can be fed exclusively grass, but production of pork and poultry tends to include some grain feed, even on small farms. With respect to the first sentence there, Pollan insinuates that the fact of Myers being vegan means that all of his criticisms are simply a knee-jerk objection to people eating meat. The Economist declared 2019 the year of the vegan and forecast a plant-based future: A quarter of adults aged 25 to 34 say they are vegetarian or vegan. To which the author responded: “Almost. Today I've backslid into a Michael Pollan-esque "Eat food.Not too much. I’m not a vegetarian because I enjoy eating meat, meat is nutritious food, and I believe there are ways to eat meat that are in keeping with my environmental and ethical values. Michael Pollan writes about the places where nature and culture intersect: on our plates, in our farms and gardens, and in the built environment. from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: (Pollan is recounting his weird, self-imposed experience of eating a steak while reading Animal Liberation ): I put down my fork. To explore the question further, you might want to read my essay, An Animal’s Place or chapter 17 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Even animals that do well on grain, such as chickens and pigs, are much healthier when they have access to green plants, and so, it turns out, are their meat and eggs. That quest has changed the diet of most of our food animals from plants to seeds, because animals grow faster and produce more milk and eggs on a high-energy diet of grain. © 2021 Michael Pollan. But then the morally consistent stand would be to support the pigs and the cats – Pollan recounts a Save the Pigs campaign which flew plane-trailed banners. “Processing” includes not just hydrogenation of soybean oil and the manufacture of high-fructose corn syrup but also more benign processes, like chopping vegetables (and other things you might do with a device called a “food processor”) and baking a dough to make bread. Indeed, my calculations have led me to believe that Polyface Farm (presented in The Omnivore’s Dilemma as a model for good agriculture) is less efficient than simply feeding grain to people. For more on the nutritional benefits of pastured food and where to find it go to eatwild.com. Also, I hope you’ll let me know if you think I’ve misremembered something. Meat eating may have become an act riddled with moral and ethical ambiguities, but eating a steak at the end of a short, primordial food chain comprising nothing more than ruminants and grass and sunlight is something I’m happy to do and defend. He also said he didn’t think people should eat meat if they’re not willing to look at the way it’s produced. Lucky for all of us, grass fed meat is getting easier to find; many health food stores and farmers markets now sell pastured eggs and chicken and grass fed beef. Don’t be fooled by meat advertised as “natural”— natural does not mean grass beefed; in fact it means almost nothing. So I'm currently reading Michael Pollan's new book In Defense of Food. Forgetting, or willed ignorance, is the preferred strategy of many beef eaters, a strategy abetted by the industry. (I might also add that there’s a certain irony to arguing against vegan diets based on a blanket rejection of “processed” foods when the meat industry’s preferred euphemism for slaughter is “processing.”). This should be self-evident, yet it is a truth routinely overlooked by the industrial food chain in its quest to produce vast quantities of cheap animal protein. Caffeine: How coffee and tea created the modern world, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Young Readers Edition, People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Anyway, I’d be interested to hear readers’ reactions to the show. These characteristically are ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat ‘fast’ or ‘convenience’ products, most notably in the form of fatty or sugary or salty snacks and sugared drinks. Of his own deliberations on the ethics of eating meat, he said. He believes in less fast food, cooking at home more often, and everything in moderation. When obtained from small farms where these animals are treated well, fed an appropriate diet, and generally allowed to express their creaturely character, I think the benefits of eating such meat outweigh the cost. Meat-eating has always been a messy business, shadowed by the shame of killing and, since Upton Sinclair’s writing of The Jungle, by questions about what we’re really eating when we eat meat. Posted on September 14, 2011 by speciesistvegan. As Carlos Monteiro wrote (in a column that earned Pollan’s approval). I can’t say I find this a compelling reason to eat meat. Michael Pollan’s ‘Hummer-Driving Vegan’ Claim Debunked. Much writing that criticises food processing makes little sense. Unfortunately, I haven’t found any video or transcript from that section, so I have to work entirely from memory. It seemed like sort of an awkward place for such a comment, given that the subject of conversation had been health, rather than ethical considerations. For most of our food animals, a diet of grass means much healthier fats (more omega-3s and conjugated linoleic acid, or CLA; fewer omega-6s and saturated fat) in their meat, milk, and eggs, as well as appreciably higher levels of vitamins and antioxidants. For though from the outside an industrial egg looks exactly like a pastured egg selling for several times as much, they are for all intents and purposes two completely different foods. People For the Ethical Treatment of Animals the largest animal rights organization in the world. There is reason to believe that it is. How do I know what type of seafood is sustainable? These are best all seen as the same sort of  ‘edible food-like substance’ or, as I call them, ‘ultra-processed products’ (UPPs). Temple Grandin a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. I suspect that Pollan would agree with me that there’s nothing wrong with chopping a few carrots but that you’d be better off keeping trans fats off of your plate. Practically all food and drink is processed in some sense. Many foodstuffs as found in nature are unpalatable or inedible, and some are toxic, unless prepared or cooked. I’m a kind of a very reluctant carnivore. Given that most of us have limited appetites and financial resources, we can only support so many farmers. This afternoon, I found myself having a bit of spare time, and knowing that Michael Pollan would be a guest on Oprah Winfrey’s program about her One-Week Vegan Challenge, I tracked down a television to watch the show. Eating only plant-based foods certainly narrows one’s choice of farmers, but it doesn’t preclude supporting smaller farmers. Michael Pollan is an authority on food politics. Tagged meat, Michael Pollan, Oprah, Polyface Farm, The Omnivore's Dilemma, vegan. I came out thinking I could eat meat in this very limited way, from farmers who I could  feel good about the way the animals lived, and luckily we have a great many farmers like that now, we have a renaissance of small-scale animal farming, and that we’re not feeding them grain and taking that away from people who need that food. But we all have to decide this question for ourselves, and different people will come to different conclusions, depending on their values. In the past, Pollan has made environmental arguments for certain kinds of meat farming, but he didn’t do that here. He argues, The vegan Utopia would also condemn people in many parts of the country to importing all their food from distant places. Pollan claimed that animals on certain farms live happy lives but have just one bad day (I’m not convinced). “Free range” doesn’t necessarily mean the chicken has had access to grass; many egg and broiler producers offer their chickens little more than a dirt yard where nothing grows. The diet of the animals we eat has a bearing on the nutritional quality, and healthfulness, of the food itself, whether it is meat or milk or eggs. In the American Enterprise Institute's magazine, Blake Hurst argues that Pollan offers a shallow assessment of factory farming that does not take cost into account. Even if we accept the claim that there are meat farmers doing great work, it should be noted that there are also small farms growing plant-based foods, including calorie-dense foods like beans. All rights reserved. When you see a clear correlation between what you eat and the state of your body, it’s almost impossible to keep going with destructive habits for long. It is not just what you eat but how you eat. But some of our food animals, such as cows and sheep, are ruminants that evolved to eat grass; if they eat too many seeds they become sick, which is why grain-fed cattle have to be given antibiotics. On the other hand, domesticated animals only exist because we’ve bred them for captivity over millenia (or have we, as Pollan argues, grown … Michael Pollan, author and food writer with over 30 years of experience exploring diet, culture, and nutrition, succinctly addresses this in his incredibly smart and useful book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual. Pollan interrupted, saying that he didn’t want to rain on their parade but that there isn’t anything evil about meat and eating it once in a while is fine. I don’t make the decision to eat meat lightly. Mostly plants" lifestyle; while I just "had" to eat a bison burger while vacationing in Colorado and enjoyed a snout-to-tail feast at The Pig, 95% of my diet is meat-free. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. “I’m not a vegetarian because I enjoy eating meat, meat is nutritious food, and I believe there are ways to eat meat that are in keeping with my environmental and ethical values. 6 Reasons Why Michael Pollan Buddhists and Their Vegetarian/Vegan Adversaries Fail at Food Ethics. Being sick and tired of being sick and tired is a great motivator in finally changing your eating habits for good. The same is true for a pastured chicken or hog. Gross then dug deeper into the topic of whether or not Michael Pollan was vegan, asking him if he had given up eating animals. His first: “There are great farmers in this country who are doing really good work, and they need to be supported.” By this reasoning, it is irresponsible to advocate against meat consumption because it deprives these farmers of needed income. For they have actually done the work of thinking through the consequences of their eating decisions, something most of the rest of us have not done. It would seem that in Pollan’s view, vegetarian advocates can’t have opinions worth listening to (which might explain why he didn’t see the need to read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals before reviewing it ). It is the nature, extent, and purpose, of processing. Michael Pollan says he's not surprised that food policy has not been … It’s worth looking for pastured animal foods in the market and paying the premium they typically command. I was almost inclined to let this slide because Pollan is talking mostly about his own personal feelings on the issue. Engber likened Pollan's "anti-scientific method" to the rhetoric used by health gurus who peddle diet scams. As Michael Pollan points out in his book, Omnivore’s Dilemma, “eating meat has become morally problematic… Vegetarianism is more popular than it has ever been, and animal rights, the fringiest of fringe movements until just a few years ago , is … Intrepid vegan reporter (and VK cofounder) Chris Hendrickson attended Michael Pollan’s recent talk at WMU, and wrote up his exclusive report for us below.Thanks, Chris! And the market is … Why aren’t you a vegetarian? Michael Pollan is the “barefoot running” of diet advice. Throughout his career, Pollan has been investigating about the hazards that industrial foods pose to us, and how we can avoid them and replace them with a healthy diet. For several years, I was a tempeh-eating, almond-milk-drinking, hold-the-gravy vegetarian. My own examination of those consequences has led me to the conclusion that eating a small amount of meat from certain kinds of farms is something I can feel good about. Michael Pollan Is a Speciesist! Michael Pollan on veganism: “Pollan calls veganism a ‘dystopia’, arguing that it would lead to a shortage of fertilizers and an increase in the need for “fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers since food would need to travel even farther and fertility – in the form of manures – would be in short supply”. Certified Humane Raised & Handled a food labeling program dedicated to improving the welfare of farm animals. Why aren’t you a vegetarian? Various Oprah staffers were talking about some of the health benefits they had experienced in their week on a vegan diet. Alas, it wasn’t long before he gave me something worth writing about. Shouldn’t these farmers also be supported? If you are wondering why this site exists, please see my About page. This quick read offers 83 “rules” that aren’t actually rules, but rather guidelines for what and how we should eat separated into three sections that summarize his approach to nutrition: “eat … I think it needs to be pointed out that food processing is a very general term. For me, the most noteworthy part of the show came near the end. Posted on September 14, 2011 by speciesistvegan from The Omnivore’s Dilemma: (Pollan is recounting his weird, self-imposed experience of eating a steak while reading Animal Liberation): I put down my fork. Sometimes you can actually see the difference, as when butter is yellow or egg yolks bright orange: What you’re seeing is beta-carotene from fresh green grass. Michael Pollan is the author of “Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual”. If you’re wondering whether it is sustainable and healthy to buy Chilean sea bass or eat maguro sushi look to the Seafood Watch program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. On Thursday November 6th, author Michael Pollan gave a speech at Western Michigan University’s Miller Auditorium as part of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation Annual Community Meeting, and over 3,000 people … Food Rules By Michael Pollan Summary 812 Words | 4 Pages. Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), he didn’t see the need to read Jonathan Safran Foer’s, an awful lot like the proverbially unattainable free lunch, said that she’d have shark fin soup as her last meal. Michael Pollan on lapsed vegetarians, expensive meat, presidential election. That said, I have the ultimate respect for vegetarians and vegans. Michael Pollan s The Omnivore s Dilemma, a book that tracks (in often excruciating detail) how food reaches the consumer, was named one of the 10 best books of the year in 2006 by both The New York Times and The Washington Post. Where can I buy grass fed meat? Taylor points to speculative fiction, which presented the idea of nutrition pills, synthesized meals, and food-like substances that would eventually replace … On Thursday November 6th, author Michael Pollan gave a speech at Western Michigan University’s Miller Auditorium as part of the Kalamazoo Community Foundation Annual Community Meeting, and over 3,000 people … This blog is no longer actively updated. Look for the word “pastured.” And in the case of beef, keep in mind that all cattle are fed grass until they get to the feedlot; “grass finished” or “100% grass fed” is what you want. 2. (I’ll have an update related to that calculation in the near future, by the way.).
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