Is Organic Really Organic?: Pollan and the Critique of Industrial Food Production Anonymous College

Think all the way back to the Stone Age. Food variety started and ended at whichever animal you were able to hunt that day. Today we live in an age where the food choices are virtually endless. You have your choice of fast food, processed food, locally grown or food from the other side of the world. With all these choices some must be better than others…right? In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, the author Michael Pollan explores alternatives to the industrial food systems, looks closely at local food systems and compares them to their organic alternative which he refers to as “Industrial Organic”. This essay will argue that local food systems have a multitude of advantages over “Industrial Organic” in terms of its production, distribution, and consumption.

Pollan refers to the term “Industrial Organic” throughout this book and coins the term based on its heavy influences by Industrial Logic. Industrial Logic is complex but its position is clear; they favor quantity over quality and in the food industry that means calories are calories no matter how poor quality. A considerable downside of Industrial Logic is that it fails to account for externalities. Pollan describes the externality that cheap food is not actually cheap. After the...