Author Michael Pollen in his Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals rates four ways of eating food in relation to their health benefits. The least healthy according to Pollen is corporate farming. These are the farms where food is raised in standardized conditions in which animals, such as dairy cows, are housed in tight quarters and lined up for ease of getting to and processing milk. These are also the farms that raise one crop (e.g., corn) and which often use genetic engineering to produce standardized versions of the corn while using a lot of chemicals to control bugs. To further control their produce, these corporate farms engage in activities such as genetic engineering, which again limits variability in the produce.
The next in Pollen's lineup is the corporate organic farming. According to corporate watch:
While the environmental
benefits of mass conversion of land cannot be denied -- millions of hectares of
land that were once sprayed with pesticides and chemical fertilizers are now
being farmed in a more ecological way -- profound changes have accompanied this
rapid expansion. The most important of these changes is the incorporation of
organic food production into the conventional industrialized food system and
the involvement of big food corporations and supermarkets throughout the
production, processing and distribution of organic food.
Is the mainstreaming of organic food
and its co-option by corporate interests damaging the wider interests the
organic movement set out to defend: the environment, animal welfare, the
livelihoods of small organic farmers and farmworkers, and the production of
food for local communities?
As organic becomes
incorporated into the conventional food system, it becomes more processed,
packaged and transported -- and therefore much less sustainable. The organic
sector is looking more and more like the conventional food sector not only in
inputs (use of off-farm compost and fertilisers) and production methods
(feedlots and monocultures), but particularly at the processing and distribution
end of the supply chain. There is a growing convergence between the supply
networks of the organic and conventional food sectors. The geographic reach of
the sector is greater - no longer is it 'local food for local markets'. Now
organic produce is distributed through supermarket 'just in time' delivery
systems to all parts of the country, and relies on imports of exotic and out of
season organic produce.
Concentration and monopolization in the conventional food industry has created a handful of giant corporations with such enormous buying power that they are able to set prices, and control market access. They have also accelerated loss of genetic diversity, increased packaging and food miles and damage to local economies. Similar effects can be seen as the organic market becomes more concentrated .
The third diet Pollen considers produces more healthy way of eating that entails foods produced by more natural means of farming such as small family farms and methods of working with the land such as Permaculture.
The healthiest diet according
to Pollen is that of a hunter -- gatherer.
Yet, according to Gone Hunting, hunting and gathering in our modern
world can be a disaster:
Let's assume we are talking about people as hunters and
gatherers. If the population is small, their effect can be insignificant.
However, if their population is large or concentrated, human hunting and
gathering can be a disaster. For example, many of the world's prehistoric large
mammals have been killed off by human hunting. Also, the large scale gathering
of fish from the oceans has vastly reduced the total number of large fish, and
some are on the brink of extinction, e.g., the blue fin tuna.
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