A Very Un-Vegan Book Review
Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats
Michael Pollen, this guy is not! He spends an awful lot of time describing the containers and plant layouts of the places he visits. I guess he's trying to paint me a picture, but I'm less than interested in "Rooftop pipes, insulated and jacketed with sheet metal..."
It's interesting (and telling) to me how often this guy writes something off as a process or source about which he couldn't find info. My first reaction was, jeez man, if you couldn't research the book, you shouldn't have written it. But as I thought about it, it makes total sense. So much of what he's looking into concerns huge, multi-national chemical companies and highly manufactured ingredients. lots of industry secrets to hide.
I feel like i got more "random" knowledge from this book than anything. Like "can"ola oil comes from Canada and vanilla beans are really the seeds of a rare(ish) tropical orchid.
I found his closing anticlimactic, oversimplified and much too forgiving. Basically, you can break most anything down into it's chemical components (like an apple), so "foods" built of chemicals are really no different. "Food" is defined by the eat-er and so the overabundance of processed crap in our society these days really isn't a bad thing. I wholeheartedly disagree, Mr. Ettlinger.
Michael Pollen, this guy is not! He spends an awful lot of time describing the containers and plant layouts of the places he visits. I guess he's trying to paint me a picture, but I'm less than interested in "Rooftop pipes, insulated and jacketed with sheet metal..."
It's interesting (and telling) to me how often this guy writes something off as a process or source about which he couldn't find info. My first reaction was, jeez man, if you couldn't research the book, you shouldn't have written it. But as I thought about it, it makes total sense. So much of what he's looking into concerns huge, multi-national chemical companies and highly manufactured ingredients. lots of industry secrets to hide.
I feel like i got more "random" knowledge from this book than anything. Like "can"ola oil comes from Canada and vanilla beans are really the seeds of a rare(ish) tropical orchid.
I found his closing anticlimactic, oversimplified and much too forgiving. Basically, you can break most anything down into it's chemical components (like an apple), so "foods" built of chemicals are really no different. "Food" is defined by the eat-er and so the overabundance of processed crap in our society these days really isn't a bad thing. I wholeheartedly disagree, Mr. Ettlinger.
posted by onkelo at 11:49 AM
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