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Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan Quotes

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Famous Michael Pollan Quotes

“For what is the environmental crisis, if not a crisis of the way we live? The Big Problem is nothing more or less than the sum total of countless little everyday choices, most of them made by us... If the environmental crisis is ultimately a crisis of character, as Wendell Berry told us way back in the 1970's, then sooner or later it will have to be addressed at that level- at home, as it were. In our yards and kitchens and minds.”

HomeActionEnvironmentCookingKitchenEnvironmentalism
Book:Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
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“I asked the feedlot manager why they didn't just spray the liquefied manure on neighboring farms. The farmers don't want it, he explained. The nitrogen and phosphorus levels are so high that spraying the crops would kill them. He didn't say that feedlot wastes also contain heavy metals and hormone residues, persistent chemicals that end up in waterways downstream, where scientists have found fish and amphibians exhibiting abnormal sex characteristics.”

EnvironmentPollutionManureFactory FarmingFeedlots
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
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“The ninety-nine cent price of a fast-food hamburger simply doesn't take account of that meal's true cost--to soil, oil, public health, the public purse, etc., costs which are never charged directly to the consumer but, indirectly and invisibly, to the taxpayer (in the form of subsidies), the health care system (in the form of food-borne illnesses and obesity), and the environment (in the form of pollution), not to mention the welfare of the workers in the feedlot and the slaughterhouse and the welfare of the animals themselves.”

CareFormAnimalEnvironmentCostAccountsWorkersIllnessOilNineHealth CareConsumersWelfareMealsSoilEtcPollutionCentsNinetyTaxpayersPursesObesityPublic HealthFast FoodHamburgersSubsidiesNinety NineHealth Care SystemSlaughterhouses
Author:Michael Pollan
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“Organic Oreos are not a health food. When Coca-Cola begins selling organic Coke, as it surely will, the company will have struck a blow for the environment perhaps, but not for our health. Most consumers automatically assume that the word "organic" is synomymous with health, but it makes no difference to your insulin metabolism if the high-fructose corn syrup in your soda is organic.”

IfsDifferencesCompanyEnvironmentAssumingBlowSellingConsumersCornCokeSodaMetabolismCoca ColaHealth FoodSyrupInsulinOreosCorn Syrup
Book:In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto
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“The great virtue of a diversified food economy, like a diverse pasture or farm, is its ability to withstand any shock. The important thing is that there be multiple food chains, so that when any one of them fails-when the oil runs out, when mad cow or other food-borne diseases become epidemic, when the pesticides no longer work, when drought strikes and plagues come and soils blow away-we'll still have a way to feed ourselves.”

WayStillsImportantRunningAbilityEconomyVirtueEnvironmentFailingDiseaseImportant ThingsMadBlowOilStrikesChainsSoilShockFarmsCowsDiverseMultiplePlagueEpidemicsDroughtPasturesFood ChainPesticides
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Search for a Perfect Meal in a Fast-Food World
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