In many respects this month has been rather slow at the ranch–and at times a little bleak. The buffalo are out on the US Forest Service ground; so we see them infrequently. And we have had almost no snow when everywhere else on the Great Plains has had more snow than they want or need. We have had hardly enough to measure. We have, however, had our share of cold weather, at least a couple of weeks of well below 0°F at night. Lately it has been warmer than usual, still no moisture; but the wind, a Great Plains given, continues to blow.
During the slow times at the ranch, especially when the weather keeps us a little housebound, it’s a good thing that all of us are readers. Our bookshelves all are overflowing. We read a wide variety of things including novels and nonfiction; we read about gardens and birds, economics and politics; we read catalogues and newspapers: we read about buffalo, environment, and food, which brings me to a book, OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, that I have just finished, that I almost devoured, and that I recommend to everyone who reads this column, who is or might be a client, customer, or friend of Wild Idea Buffalo.
I am not really a book reviewer, but I need to recommend this book to you and tell you a little bit about why you should read it right away. The biggest reason for everyone to read this book is because most of us probably think we know a little bit about food. We think we know about its origins, sources, and contents; about eating “healthy,” about where we fit in the food chain. We think we have a pretty good idea where our culture fits within the world’s food cultures and markets. Well folks, let me tell you that most of us who read this book are in for a shock.
The shock of that new realization will hit the next time you are in your favorite grocery store filling your cart, not just with bottles and boxes, packages and cans, but also with vegetables (frozen or fresh), fruits, meat and eggs. You will likely find yourself in something of a quandary about what to select, the reasons behind that selection, the options available to you, and how to make the decisions that you will ultimately have to make.
When you read this book, you will discover that you are constantly evaluating your position and role in the food system within which you function. You will constantly evaluate what you and your food are doing to each other. This evaluation will acquire overtones of government policy, of economic effects, of national politics, of conflicts between production and marketing, of issues of personal habits and health, of food and eating.
This book, OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA, is a challenge for us all, a challenge to realize where we are, the knowledge of how we got here, and the difficulty of how to solve the problems confronting us. It is also an analysis of our individual struggles and efforts to do right by ourselves through the quality of the foods that sustain us. You will wander through cornfields, grasslands, and forests shoulder to shoulder with Michael Pollan and learn more about food than you ever wanted or thought possible to know. Have a good read and a great meal.
NOTE FROM DAN:
I first met Michael Pollan in a very nice NY restaurant. He was living there at the time and I was doing book business. Our mutual friend, Sam Hurst, connected us. We hit it off and talked and laughed and shook our heads about all the same things. The next time I meet Michael was in SD. He had come out to work on a really terrific NYT Magazine story, “POWER STEER”. Jill cooked us a buffalo dinner, we drank a little wine and we had a big time. I introduced Michael to my neighbors who sold him the steer which became the center piece of his story. After the story came out, my neighbor’s attitude toward me cooled. As Michael said, that was a regrettable loss. But the fact remains that POWER STEER and all of Michael Pollan’s stories and books are the truth – and the truth has just got to be told. I second Gervase’s recommendation of OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA. Michael Pollan speaks for all of us here at Wild Idea. Read every bit of his stuff!