SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

PART V -- Michael Pollan – the High Priest of the Elite Food Consumer

His everyday writing style pulls you in from the start. In Omnivores Dilemma, his best-selling book on agriculture, the story begins in a steakhouse in Kansas City [middle America] where he is eating his favorite steak [Mr. Everyman] when he suddenly thinks “where did this steak come from?” This unoriginal thought leads him on a quest to own a steer and follow the steer through the beef pipeline. And yes, you guessed it, his innocent curiosity results in the discovery of unimaginable horrors in the production of beef and in practices of those involved in American agriculture in general.

Among those horrors and foremost of concern is the fact that these beef animals are forced to eat corn. Mr. Pollan has determined that cows weren’t intended to eat corn and the practice is unnatural. Mr. Pollen never allows us to find out how he came by the knowledge that cattle eating corn is unnatural. He knows we accept it as fact because he says it. Of course, he never mentions that corn is a domesticated grass and he fails to explain that if eating grass is unintended, what is intended. Pollan reports the following observation of his steer [named #534 in order to demonstrate the lack of sensitivity of the cattle raiser who knows the animals only by numbers]: “The unnaturally rich diet of corn that has compromised No. 534's health is fattening his flesh in a way that in turn may compromise the health of the humans who will eat him.”

The story of #534 builds to an epiphany in a dramatic scene at a feedyard in southwestern Kansas when he steps out of his car and walks into the pen to locate his steer. He recounts the scene for the reader reporting that on finding his steer, he paused and looked the steer in the eye and through some magical powers divined and determined that #534 was unhappy. He makes no mention of any outward signs of stress or discomfort, but only the mind to mind revelation of unhappiness. “I don't know enough about the emotional life of cows to say with any confidence if No. 534 was miserable, bored or melancholy, but I would not say he looked happy.”

Pollan’s reporting on the beef industry is presented in an investigative reporting style. He is constantly discovering unimaginable production practices that lead him to the belief that current practices are no sustainable. The constant use of terms like “factory like and industrial” are designed to create distrust among readers of the producers of the beef product as uncaring cattle owners who treat animals like a factory parts. This may play well in the city but in rural America, most producers are willing to testify to the importance of tender loving care as a requirement to successful animal production.

The Michael Pollan story is a tale of duplicity and distorted facts. He sensationalizes the information in a very skilled manner to enhance and extend his reign as high priest of the elite consumer. The ultimate goal is the sustainability of his cash cow - the gullible reading public. Mr. Pollan makes sure his busy speaking schedule does not allow and is not interrupted by an invitation to visit a real cattle production facility or accept any challenge to his privileged and protected dogma.