Probably the most interesting part to me was the Corn section and thinking about how we have traded the use of a natural energy source, the sun, for fossil fuels to grow our food (artificial nitrates, machines using oil to cultivate). Our big farmers have also moved from raising a diverse set of crops and animals to focusing on just a few- corn and soy. The surplus in corn in turn needs to find new markets, which means now corn is used in many products from breakfast cereals to soft drinks (more fossil fuel to process it) and it is used to feed our livestock who no longer wander in the meadows munching grass. Then we use more fossil fuel to transport the corn products (and animals to feed lots) all over the country. It is a depressing cycle and hard to imagine breaking out of!
Pollan extolls the virtues of the Virginia farmer who rotates his fields with diverse crops and allows his animals to live "free range", living and producing his food only for a local market. Organic foods have sold out to big business with clever marketing schemes about Rosie the cow according to Pollan. One of the big sell outs is Cascadian Farms where we often stop coming back from Stevens Pass.
The last section of the book was a little bit harder to stay engaged with as Pollan seeks to create a meal that he alone has grown and or hunted. While I appreciated his description of his pig hunt and mushroom gathering, it was just not as interesting as the first part of the book.
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