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Michael Pollan

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Famous Michael Pollan Quotes

“American farmers produced 600 more calories per person per day in 2000 than they did in 1980. But some calories got cheaper than others: Since 1980, the price of sweeteners and added fats (most of them derived, respectively, from subsidized corn and subsidized soybeans), dropped 20 percent, while the price of fresh fruits and vegetables increased by 40 percent.”

PersonsPercentFruitFatsFarmersVegetablesCornCheaperCaloriesFruits And VegetablesSoybeansSweeteners
Book:In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
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“Those externalized costs have always included labor. It is only the decline over time of the minimum wage in real dollars that's made the fast food industry possible, along with feedlot agriculture, pharmaceuticals on the farm, pesticides and regulatory forbearance. All these things are part of the answer to the question: Why is that crap so cheap? Our food is dishonestly priced. One of the ways in which it's dishonestly priced is the fact that people are not paid a living wage to process it, to serve it, to grow it, to slaughter it.”

PeopleWayMadeRealFactsGrowsProcessAnswersIndustryCostLaborPaidDollarsFarmsDeclineAgricultureCrapMinimumSlaughterMinimum WageFast FoodForbearancePesticidesLiving WageFood Industry
Author:Michael Pollan
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“Imagine for a moment if we once again knew, strictly as a matter of course, these few unremarkable things: What it is we're eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table. And what, in a true accounting, it really cost.”

IfsWayMatterMomentsCoursesFoundImagineCostEatingTablesAccounting
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World
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“...A one-pound box of prewashed lettuce contains 80 calories of food energy. According to Cornell ecologist David Pimentel, growing, chilling, washing, packaging, and transporting that box of organic salad to a plate on the East Coast takes more than 4,600 calories of fossil fuel energy, or 57 calories of fossil fuel for every calorie of food.”

EnergyGrowingCookingBoxesEastFuelPoundsPlatesCoastFossilsChillWashingSaladFossil FuelCaloriesEast CoastLettucePackaging
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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“A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which historically have served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism - the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society. Mercy toward the animals in our care is one such casualty.”

CareCultureAnimalMoralEconomicExampleCostCapitalismMercyCookingTendenciesImpulseTensionContradictionCapitalistEfficiencyBlindnessImperativesCasualtiesErode
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World
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“In Joel's view, that reformation begins with people going o the trouble and expense of buying directly from farmers they know - "relationship marketing," as he calls it. He believes the only meaningful guarantee of integrity is when buyers and sellers can look one another in the eye, something few of us ever take the trouble to do. "Don't you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?"”

PeopleKnowsBelieveLooksPersonsEyeHouseGrowsViewsTroubleIntegrityCookingMarketingMeaningfulOddBuyingGuaranteesExpensesFarmersMechanicReformationSellersBuyersContractor
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World
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“People have traditionally turned to ritual to help them frame and acknowledge and ultimately even find joy in just such a paradox of being human - in the fact that so much of what we desire for our happiness and need for our survival comes at a heavy cost.”

PeopleNeedsHumansFactsHelpingJoyDesireNatureCostSurvivalHeavyAcknowledgeParadoxRitualBeing Human
Book:A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder
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“Ripe vegetables were magic to me. Unharvested, the garden bristled with possibility. I would quicken at the sight of a ripe tomato, sounding its redness from deep amidst the undifferentiated green. To lift a bean plant's hood of heartshaped leaves and discover a clutch of long slender pods handing underneath could make me catch my breath.”

LongMagicPossibilityGardenSightBreathsGreenPlantLiftsVegetablesBeansRipeHoodTomatoesClutchSlender
Book:Second Nature: A Gardener's Education
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“Imagine if we had a food system that actually produced wholesome food. Imagine if it produced that food in a way that restored the land. Imagine if we could eat every meal knowing these few simple things: What it is we're eating. Where it came from. How it found its way to our table. And what it really cost. If that was the reality, then every meal would have the potential to be a perfect meal.”

IfsWayRealityFoundSimplePerfectKnowingImagineLandCostEatingTablesMealsSimple ThingsWholesome Food
Author:Michael Pollan
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