I'm reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, a dense, fascinating book that seeks to trace four meals from the plate back to their origins. It's dense in that it requires one to continually process as one reads, making it slightly uncomfortable and slow-going. However, it's worth it.

This summer I've spent my time reading things of less literary value but of high enjoyment. Reading this book feels like a natural progression in my food journey. I know few in the alternative food lifestyles (vegans, vegetarians, raw foodists, and the like) who have read Pollan's books.

Right now I'm 184 pages in and more disillusioned than ever about our food system. I see no alternative than to grow all of one's own food and supplement that with necessary items purchased from a trusted, nearby farmer (that one picks up on foot, by bicycle, or vegetable-oil fueled car). Everything else is a compromise. Anything else isn't sustainable, which means leading to a system collapse.

"Organic" is just a word defined and owned, now, by the USDA, which means we should eye it with skepticism. I get a weekly grocery bag from a local farmer who grows things "beyond organic". However, I still drive my petroleum-fueled car to pick up the groceries, which come in a plastic bags, which sit inside a paper bag, which is transported in a person's truck from the nearby farm (this all happens in a 15 mile radius). There is a price to pay for all of this.

I must live on land that I farm where I grow things to support myself in the most ecological-friendly way possible and anything to do with my farm, the buying of seed or compost or anything else, must be done via zero-emissions transportation. I hope that by the end of this book I'll feel better. Pollan has this foor philosophy for us: "Eat food. Mostly plans. Not too much." If only it were that easy.