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Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan Quotes

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Famous Michael Pollan Quotes

“When we mistake what we can know for all there is to know, a healthy appreciation of one's ignorance in the face of a mystery like soil fertility gives way to the hubris that we can treat nature as a machine. Once that leap has been made, one input follows another, so that when the synthetic nitrogen fed to plants makes them more attractive to insects and vulnerable to disease, as we have discovered, the farmer turns to chemical pesticides to fix his broken machine.”

KnowsWayGivingHas BeensMadeFacesTurnsMistakeMysteryLandIgnoranceBrokenHealthyDiseaseMachinesTreatsPlantAppreciationVulnerableAttractiveSoilFedsLeapChemicalsFarmersInsectsInputHubrisFertilitySyntheticPesticidesNitrogen
Author:Michael Pollan
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“When a livestock farmer is willing to "practice complexity"-to choreograph the symbiosis of several different animals, each of which has been allowed to behave and eat as it evolved to-he will find he has little need for machinery, fertilizer, and, most strikingly, chemicals. He finds he has no sanitation problem or any of the diseases that result from raising a single animal in a crowded monoculture and then feeding it things it wasn't designed to eat. This is perhaps the greatest efficiency of a farm treated as a biological system: health.”

NeedsLittlesHas BeensDifferentProblemAnimalResultsPracticeWillingDiseaseTreatedBehaveComplexityFarmsChemicalsFarmersEfficiencyFeedingMachineryCrowdedFertilizerSanitationLivestockSymbiosisDifferent AnimalsMonoculture
Author:Michael Pollan
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“To put it bluntly, we now need to reverse course. We need more highly skilled small farmers in more places all across America - not as a matter of nostalgia for the agrarian past but as a matter of national security. For nations that lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves as gravely compromised in their international dealings as nations that depend on foreign sources of oil presently do. But while there are alternatives to oil, there are no alternatives to food.”

NeedsMatterAmericaPastCoursesNationsLosesAbilitySecuritySourceDependsEnvironmentalInternationalOilNostalgiaAlternativesFarmersSustainabilityReverseNational SecurityDealings
Author:Michael Pollan
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“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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“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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