Feeding the Dilemma: Ethics, Health, and the Cost of Convenience in America’s Food System

ENV 104-B Work Sample: 29, October, 2024

In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan dives into the complex world of food production and the ethical dilemmas it poses, especially regarding corn’s overwhelming presence and its impacts on health, farming practices, and animal welfare. Through his exploration, Pollan reveals how the cheapness of corn drives its overuse in processed foods, fast food, and even livestock feed, often with unintended consequences on public health and ethics. Reflecting on Pollan’s observations, I can see these issues reflected in both my personal experiences with food, from fast-food consumption to my family’s natural lifestyle, and in the contrasting ethics of the farms I’ve known in my hometown. These experiences add a personal dimension to Pollan’s critiques and bring forward questions of responsibility, sustainability, and care in the way we feed ourselves and care for animals.

Corn is a major topic of this book. All the way from how it is grown–changing polyculture farming to monoculture–to its use in feeding cattle in unethical ways, and the creation of new foods. As Pollan suggests, corn has become cheap to grow, and therefore we face an overabundance of it. However, we have found uses for it, such as feeding cows, and a cheaper alternative to sugarcane–High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). This alternative, as Pollan explains, has led to an increase in substitutions amongst food items, and overall decreased in the price of non-organic and non-natural foods. The cheaper the food, the more reason to buy, right? As Pollan writes, the most affordable food has the most detrimental effects–being filled with HFCS, fats, and chemicals not suited for the human body–leading to Type II diabetes in children, amongst other effects. For example, my sister and I have found that the reason for the increase and worsening of our acne happens when we consume too much food of such a nature–a connection our doctors have confirmed, frequently reminding us to eat healthily and avoid fast food.

On the topic of fast food, Pollan brings up “McDonald’s”, so let’s use that example. He explains the history of the establishment, specifically their move from smaller portions to larger portions. This is due to David Wallerstein’s findings that the individual will consume more if presented with more. So we are now getting more food filled with even more unhealthy chemicals. And we are gobbling it up, especially at an affordable price. I was gobbling it up every Wednesday, and Friday for about 3 years during my youth, playing for various basketball leagues in Amateur Athletic Unions (AAU). 

Picture this: a thirteen-year-old girl eating a ten-piece chicken nugget meal, with large fries and a Sprite, or Dr. Pepper–whichever one she was feeling that particular night. She’s scarfing down her meal because she’s starving–a starving athlete at that–who needs fuel after three hours of grueling basketball practice. But this so-called “fuel” that she’s feeding her body is full of chemicals that are actually hurting her. Furthermore, she’s eating an abundance of it, because McDonald’s has increased their portions to be way above the allotted calorie intake per individual–recommended by scientists–on a daily basis. It is therefore of no surprise that she feels sick every single time afterward, but continues to go back through that exact same drive-through each week, eight o’clock on the dot. 

So why does she keep going back there, when she could drive across the street and walk into a Hannahford and pick up a healthier meal? It comes down to two things–of which Pollan alludes to. One: McDonald’s is cheaper than buying a healthy meal to cook at home, and this country’s philosophy is the basis of “cheap food for everyone”. Two: time and laziness–an unfortunate commonality in this country. It takes less time and energy to swing by McDonald’s on a late weekday night, than it does to stop into Hannaford, drive forty minutes home, and then cook a healthy meal. Meanwhile, the McDonald’s corporation is gaining a heck of profit from her weekly eating habits. 

That word: profit. It’s the largest factor in the fast food industry. They give consumers larger portions, increasing the price for the consumer (though it is not enough to stop us from going there), and gaining a viable profit because of it. But is it ethical to be increasing the United States obesity rate just for economics? That’s where the struggle lies–an ethical dilemma Pollan and I agree on…

Now I’m not saying that I lived an unhealthy childhood when it came to food. Quite the contrary, in fact. Throughout my childhood I was known to have the quote on quote: “Granola Mom” –a pop-culture reference for a mother who runs a natural household. We are natural from the foods we eat and the medicine we take to the upholstery on our old, oak chairs (a discussion for a later time). 

So, do we eat organically? Yes, but we prefer all-natural because to us, and Pollan, there’s a difference. And this is where the question “What does Organic really mean?”, as discussed on pages 168 and 169 of Micheal Pollan’s book, emerges. 

If the government is allowing the use of a list of permissible additives and synthetics in organic farming and foods, then it’s not natural. I would like to specifically mention the allowed use of xylitol–a natural sweetener that has detrimental side effects with its overuse. This additive being used in both processed and organic foods poses a great risk to my family and I. When we see this item listed on the back of a container in our local Hannaford, we try to steer clear of the item. But it’s hard, as it is now getting added to many things, one being Peanut Butter. Here’s the controversy with Peanut Butter, and items with xylitol, in my family, and it has to do with our loving pets, Oakley, Daisy, and Otis–our three dogs. Xylitol is a deadly ingredient to the canine species, causing vomiting, decreased activity, weakness, collapse, seizures, coma, and the list goes on and on. (Reading this, doesn’t it make you want to eat it even more?). And what is the most common treat used for dogs, especially when trying to get them to take medicine? Peanut Butter. 

Furthermore, organic food has to be transported thousands of miles and days away to grocery stores across the country–specifically Whole Foods–-Pollan writes. That trip constitutes unfresh food, which is what the term “organic” originally entailed, right? So here is where organic and the adjective natural, become two separate entities. Natural is the food I buy at my local farm stands in the small towns I call home. Freshly picked strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, corn (ironically), etc., typically from fields not sprayed with as many harmful pesticides as the uncaring large farming corporations.

I want to expound upon the phrase “where you live”. I don’t think this is really delved into much by Pollan. (Though he does allude to it when talking about economic setbacks in families and how it contributes to their diets). It is important to mention that where one lives is a huge contributing factor to the food they eat. Take my rural hometown for example, this small little dot on the map in the middle of Maine, filled with farms of all shapes, sizes, and morals. We don’t have a Whole Foods–though I wouldn’t go there anyway if we did. Their prices are too high, and giving the larger farming corporations the key to their shelves, instead of the smaller local farmers, does not constitute ethical. Our nearest grocery store is a small Hannaford with barely any exotic cuisine. But with the lack of bigger corporations like Whole Foods, it leaves plenty of space for the local farmers to set up shop on the sides of the roads, and intersections, giving the community a bountiful array of fresh and truly natural foods, for a decently cheap price, might I add. 

My family also gardens. At my house, we grow blueberries, chives, cucumbers, garlic, mint, and oregano among other spices, grown all naturally with no pesticides. The only thing we use to stave off the pests is essential oils. While at my grandmother’s house, she has a small fruit farm: pears, plums, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and wine grapes. Here we don’t use harmful chemicals either, rather we let nature take its course, allowing the birds, bees, and small critters to pollinate and spread seeds. The end result? A harvest each year is just as bountiful as the last. 

This gets me to the last part of this reflection…

When reading this book, and thinking about my hometown and life experiences, all I could think was, “I’ve lived the type of pastoral dreamland Pollan celebrates. It still exists! You just have to look in the small corners of our country, where the farmers proudly wave their flags, as if to say ‘I’m here! I’m here!” Unlike the larger farming corporations, some of our small-town farms take pride in addressing the ethics involved, especially regarding animal treatment—a major topic in Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Growing up, I worked for two very different farms. A dairy farm called the Cooley Farm that belonged to my best friend, Hannah, and a Show Cow and Cattle Raising farm that belonged to my other best friend, Lily.  

Now this seems like the wonderful pastoral dreamland that Pollan was talking about, right? In most cases it was, but similar to the larger corporations, there was sometimes a lack of ethics. However, these issues are not anywhere near the horrors of feedlots. The cows did not get fed corn, they ate hay, and grain and grazed on the grass of the many pastures, keeping their rumen content and happy. They also were given plenty of land to roam around and stretch their legs. 

There are four large cow barns at the Cooley farm: one for the adult milking cows, one for the pregnant cows, one for the young cows, and one for the junior cows. You can say they lived as happily as they could, the adult cows getting milked twice a day seven days out of the week, but here is where my morals and ethics don’t align with the farms. When you have a large farm like that it can be hard to keep up with everything, though it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. 

At this farm calves are immediately removed from their mothers after birth, giving the mother barely any time to clean up their child, before they are hauled off into a separate pen two barns away. The cow lays there until it has the strength to get up and then is bottle-fed for a few days before it’s pushed into the next pen. This pen is filled with cattle around the same age, and they will live here until they “upgrade” –as they call it–to the next stage. (It basically just means they’re getting older and can start handling solid foods). 

If a bull is born, and they don’t need another bull, or they have more heifers than they’ll need in the coming future, they will be shipped off to a feedlot, or straight to the slaughterhouse. There are three stages in the cattle barn before they’re moved to the junior barn, and then the adult barn. I mean, it doesn’t seem too bad, right? Maybe it’s just my animal-loving heart taking the hit, but every time I was tasked with moving a calf out of the birthing barn, where both the calf and mother would cry, my heart would break a little bit. But if I was tasked with herding the cattle into the feedlot or slaughter trailer my heart would break even more. I asked Hannah why we do this, but all she could say was, “It’s just the way it’s done” –a mantra Hannah’s mother had parroted to her during her youth. 

When any cow becomes sick, no matter the age, Hannah’s family would give it a few antibiotic shots, as the feedlots Pollan mentioned did. But if they didn’t get better within a week, they’d take them to the manure pit and put a bullet between the cows’ eyes. The loss was not of any value to their production, as they had 399 remaining, and a couple more along the way. Unfortunately, this is a common sentiment shared amongst these mediocre and larger-sized farms across the country. However, if we are talking from an ethical standpoint, perhaps it was better to put them out of their misery instead of leaving them in pain when the antibiotics could not fix them. 

I spent so much time at this farm and bonded with so many cows, that it was extremely hard to go into the house for dinner each night. Being the polite individual my parents raised me to be, I would try my hardest to sit there and eat my meal, keeping the nausea at bay. Around this time of my life, I turned to more vegetarian behaviors, because when I looked down at the 8 oz. steaks, the question was not Where did you get this from, it was Who was sitting on my plate? The cows were not just another random species to me, they had become my friends, and I couldn’t understand how people could do this to their friends. 

Now the chickens were another issue altogether. Remember Pollan’s time at the chicken farm, where they were kept inside five out of the seven weeks? Cooley’s chickens do not get a door to the outdoors. They stay cooped up inside a barn with the pigs and goats and dogs, eating grain, laying eggs, sleeping, eating grain, laying eggs, sleeping, the cycle goes on and on. There are two pens, about 15×20 feet, each with about 150 chickens. When you look through the grate, all you see is a pool of white, the numerous chickens having barely enough space to rotate in a full circle, and you’ll likely pinch your nose to keep the stench of ammonia out. If we’re talking about ethics, this would be a horrible example. 

I eventually stopped going to the Cooley Farm throughout my later teenage years, as I had turned my attention to my other best friend, Lily. Lily’s farm life was everything Hannah’s was not. Did they both get up at 5am to go out to the barns? Yes, but the way they raised, worked, and treated their animals differed vastly. Lily’s farm was like Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm, just subtract the birds, pigs, and rabbits, and add Show Cattle to the mix. The term “ethical” found its home here. 

Lily had around 15-20 cows and 20 sheep. The cows and sheep were let out into the pasture every single day, fed grain and hay, grazed on grass, and laid in soft bedding of sawdust during the nights. We would periodically give them baths, and wash their coats with a special shampoo and conditioner, giving them plenty of hugs and snuggles afterward. (It is also important to note that when a calf is born, we do a quick check of the sex, then leave the calf to the mother’s care). These animals were more pampered and tended to than I had been my entire life. 

Now this is ludicrous to the average farmer, or even the average citizen, spending that much time and money on cows. So you first have to understand the Show Cattle life. In Showing, you have to have the biggest, prettiest, strongest, and overall best cow or sheep in the ring. So the time and care of the cow or sheep’s health, wellbeing, and growth is essential to the farmer. 

Lily’s and I’s summers during our late teenage years were spent traveling to various fairgrounds across the state. Have you ever gone to a fair and seen the agricultural section filled with cows, sheep, goats, pigs, etc.? Most of them sitting in those pens are not the property of the fairgrounds. They are pets of farmers across the state or country, resting and getting ready for their individual “showtime”. During these weeks, Lily and I would move the cows to the washing rack. Lily would wash them while I cleaned out the sawdust in their pens, laid down new bedding, and fed them fresh hay. 

When animals were sick, we would give them antibiotics, put them on a new eating diet with plenty of vitamins, and carefully watch over them until they got better. Lily’s farm also raised cattle, but when they sold their cattle it was not for feedlot purposes. They carefully picked out the buyer, making sure the animals would go to a caring home. 

Pollan’s exploration of our food systems forces us to confront uncomfortable truths about the ethics of large-scale farming, the pervasiveness of processed food, and the challenges faced by small, ethical farms. From my experiences working on two vastly different farms, I’ve seen how ethics often compete with the demands of scale, time, and profit, resulting in practices that sometimes neglect animal welfare for efficiency’s sake. This reflection, inspired by The Omnivore’s Dilemma, brings me to a deeper appreciation of local, natural foods and smaller farms like Lily’s, where care and ethics hold more weight than mere production numbers. In an industry driven by profit, we must question if the choices we make as consumers truly align with our values, and if a return to a more natural, ethically conscious approach to food is not only possible but necessary.

[ I would like to note, nothing is directly cited page for page from the book in this essay. That is because my professor did not require direct citations, just that we knew the material and could connect it to our own lives ]

My reflection on The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan remains one of my favorite assignments because it challenged me to connect deeply with my personal experiences and apply Pollan’s insights to my own life. Pollan’s exploration of food production and ethics provided a framework for me to evaluate my childhood experiences with farming, fast food, and dietary choices. This assignment allowed me to blend academic analysis with personal reflection, creating a piece that felt uniquely meaningful.

I chose this work because it exemplifies my growth as a reader and writer. Pollan’s writing encouraged me to think critically about the ethical dilemmas surrounding food systems and how these issues intersect with my values and habits. Reflecting on my rural upbringing and my time working on two vastly different farms, I was able to bridge the gap between Pollan’s critique of industrial farming and my firsthand observations of how ethics, economics, and time pressures shape farming practices. This exercise not only enhanced my understanding of the book but also deepened my appreciation for the complexities of food production and the choices we make as consumers.

What this work demonstrates about my learning is my ability to engage with a text on a personal level, extracting lessons that resonate beyond the page. I learned to analyze Pollan’s arguments, connect them to real-world experiences, and critically examine my own habits and values. More importantly, this assignment reinforced my ability to make reading “stick” by linking academic ideas to my life. This skill has grown with me and continues to shape how I approach other subjects, encouraging me to think critically, ask questions, and find personal relevance in what I learn.