2nd part of the project: Reading The Omnivore

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2nd part of the project Reading The Omnivores
Dilemma

• By Michael Pollan

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What does the title Omnivore's Dilemma mean?

• Koalas eat eucalyptus leavesonly.
• Barn owls eat miceonly.
• Human beings eat
• fruits, vegetables, meat, grains, etc.
• Heres the dilemma How do we decide what to
  eat? What is our food made of and where is it
  coming from???

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For example, what exactly is a Twinkie made
from???
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Pollan wants to knowwhich is why he wrote this
book!

• We have a thousand choices of food in our
  supermarkets, but we dont really know where our
  food comes from
• I set out to solve the modern omnivores
  dilemma. I decided to find out where our food
  comes from and what exactly it is we are eating.

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Omnivores Dilemma will discuss

• HISTORY of food choices in the U.S.
• WHERE our food comes from and HOW it is made
• ROLE of corn in our food
• FARMING practices their environmental impacts
• As based on Pollans research experience.

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Not everyone is in agreement with Pollans
research

• Authors have BIASES that impact the information
  that is included in their publications.
• Non-fiction pieces can be biased, supporting only
  ONE perspective of an issue.
• Authors NEED to be researched to help identify
  their biases.

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When researching an author for bias, focus on the
following questions(All the credibility aspects
of weekly TCETs.)

• What is the authors gender, occupation,
  socioeconomic class, political position, and/or
  ethnic identity?
• Why did the author write this book?
• Who has published this persons work?
• Does the author cite credible sources in his
  work?
• What is the authors tone?

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Who is the author of this book?Michael Pollan

• Investigative journalist for 25 years with
  research focusing on nature culture.
• Recent work is reviewing scientific research on
  food its production.
• Author of four New York Times bestsellers
• Named in both Newsweek Time as an influential
  leader
• Professor at UC Berkeleys Graduate School of
  Journalism.

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What is an investigative journalist?

• According to George Orwell, acclaimed WWII
  journalist and author, investigative journalists
  work to uncover unpopular ideas and inconvenient
  facts ideas that are buried simply because it is
  thought unacceptable, impolite or even
  unpatriotic to talk about them.
• Investigative journalists are committed to doing
  extensive amounts of research to make sure their
  claims are accurate and backed by the findings of
  experts in the fields.

Definition according to fairreporters.org
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What are some examples of unpopular truths or
inconvenient facts that investigative reports
have uncovered for the public?

• Woodward and Bernstein on the Watergate Scandal
• Seymour Hershs stories on the massacres at My
  Lai

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READ and LISTEN CRITICALLY!

• Everything is BIASED.
• Ask yourself, How does this author or speaker
  know this to be true?
• Look for sources that would challenge the
  information you are learning about.
• Doing this allows you to make an informed
  decision.

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Just a couple of reading tips

• This book is broken up into four sectionsthere
  is one section for each of the four different
  types of food chains
• Industrial,
• industrial organic,
• local sustainable and
• hunter-gatherer.
• You will be reading two sections of the book.

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Vocabulary

• Agribusiness business (such as companies
  involved with seed production, agrichemicals,
  farm machinery) connected to agriculture who
  arent actually farming the land, but rather are
  selling products to farmers or processing/marketin
  g products produced on farms.
• Industrial Farming a type of farming that
  focuses on mass production of a single crop
  (whether that is corn or beef). (We tend to
  refer to this as modern industrial agriculture.)

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More terms to be familiar with

• Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs)
  legal term describing large-scale raising of
  animals. In the media, this is often called
  factory farming.
• Farm Subsidy money given to farmers by the
  government to supplement their income and/or to
  manage the supply/demand of different crops

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Our second meeting

• To discuss the first section of the book on Dec
  20th .
• For that day, you will need to have read the
  intro chapters 1-6, filled out the reading
  chart AND brought in an opposing article.
• There will also be a graded discussion on the
  material at that time (same guidelines as first
  discussion).