Response to In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan

Michael Pollan introduces his book through an overview of the entire book’s content. He essentially summarizes the main topics and shows intent to discuss them in further detail. He keeps it simple at the start, as if to say well, it’s only food after all. The book delves into western culture and epitomizes the reasons for our eating habits. Habits like fast food, over industrialized and over processed goods, and even political and economical travesties that created mindsets about certain foods. He essentially shows that what humans need to do to eat healthily is simple; but that the reasons we don’t are quite intricate.
I agree with everything I have read in Defense of Food so far and I see no reason why I shouldn’t. Americans in particular are notorious for living overall unhealthy lives. We eat too much, we don’t exercise, we are overstressed, we are materialistic, medically we have the thickest files in the world, and yet we are one of the most powerful nations if not the most powerful. All of these problems are in a lot of ways interrelated. It is our lifestyles that make us overstressed and it is our busy lives that make us susceptible to fast over processed food. And it is that susceptibility that creates a market that drives a profit, which makes money, which we all know, makes the world go round. Well at least our world. But changes are being made today, especially in the Madison area. Local organic farmers are thriving and have been at the local farmers market and more and more people are creating community gardens. It is these types of organizations that will lead us back to a healthy and sustainable track that will have a lower carbon footprint. Eating food that is shipped 1500 miles and engineered to stay fresh during the trip makes no sense. We should be eating healthy, locally grown food that will not create the sick and obese culture we see around us everyday. This change alone will reduce healthcare costs, cut our carbon emissions, and improve overall morale in America.