Omnivores Dilemma chapter 16 & 17

For this post I read chapters 16 and 17 from The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Both were pretty good chapters but I found 16 more interesting. The part where Pollan started talking about America’s national eating disorder really interested me. I completely agree with what he said. Foods in America are like fads. Some are positive while at the same time, can be negative. “America’s diet has never been stable,” according to Pollan, “each immigrant population has brought its own food ways to the American table but none has ever been powerful enough to hold the national diet very steady.” This quote is very true and is a problem in America. Since most eating habits are a fad, many can be good for someone such as dieting. Everyone starts eating healthier because it is the new fad. But it can be bad for someone too. An example is eating unhealthy immigrant foods. If that fad catches on, many people will follow it and we’ll end up with an even bigger eating disorder. This is why it has become a concern in America because it is hard to control and maintain a stable even diet.

They Say I Say Chapter 6&7

For this blog I chose to do it on chapters six and seven of They Say, I Say. I felt that this reading had quit a few important key things to include into ones paper. One specifically was in chapter six where the book talks about anticipating a skeptic or an objection. I couldn’t believe that the book is urging people to point out all of the negative things that someone can say against us to the readers. I found that quite interesting? Why on earth would someone do that? Well as I read further into the chapter, pointing out the negatives can actually enhance your credibility plus it gives you the chance to point them out before someone else does. It will also show respect to readers and show them that they are smart intelligent people who are capable of critical thinking. I never thought about how pointing out negatives in your own paper can actually benefit you. Chapter six gave many great templates for doing this which is why I thought chapter six was very interesting to me.

They Say I Say 49-73

In chapter four of “They Say I Say” it is talking about the I Say. It explains that there are several ways to respond in ways such as agreeing, disagreeing or some of both. It gives the reader some good insight because it tells the writers that they should not spend a lot of time rambling on about nonsense and just get to the main point, are they agreeing or disagreeing? If a writer disagrees, they must explain why and give some facts. Likewise, if a writer agrees they must do so with a difference and not just echo what it was that they agreed on.
Chapter five talks about distinguishing what You Say and what They Say. Readers should be able to know whether the writer is expressing their own views or if they are stating someone else’s at every point. Readers can become very confused if the writer does not do this. A way to do this is to first determine who is saying what throughout the text and to use voice markers. These will keep the writer from confusing the reader.

Chapter 9 reading

This blog is on chapter 9 of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. This chapter was very long but it had a few interesting points in it. The author, Michael Pollan, talks about food from Whole Foods and follows them back to the source of where they were grown and gives us, the readers, an insight of organics. He mainly visits California because California grows a majority of America’s produce and organic has a large part in it. Some of those meats that you’re eating, well there is a good chance that the animal was raised just to be slaughtered which brings into questioning, what kind of chemicals did people inject into these animals? Growth hormones? Other harmful things? Pollan mentions how the organic method was founded on the three impressive alternative methods, the alternative methods of production, systems of distributions, and methods of consumption. So the real question asked is organic farming better? Yes and no. Its better because we are ingesting less pesticides so therefore it is better for our health. But no because the crops soil is tilled quite often to get rid of weeds and this destroys the soil.