In contrast to his discussion of the large-scale organic food industry, Pollan presents in the third section Joel Salatin, a farmer who manages a successful mid-sized, multi-species meat farm in Virginia, and insists on selling his goods nearby and on relying on his family and a few interns to supplement his labor. One of Pollan's major arguments about the organic farming industry is that it gives people the false idea that, by definition, organic products come from picturesque open pastures. He adds that the quantity would be only 'about 4 percent higher if the salad were grown conventionally'.

Pollan also accuses large-scale organic agriculture of 'floating on a sinking sea of petroleum' by analysing that a one-pound box of California-produced organic lettuce – that contains 80 food calories – requires 4,600 calories of fossil fuel to process and ship to the East Coast. For example, an operation raising 'free-range' chicken has only a tiny yard available, largely unused by the short-lived birds. The author intends to demonstrate that, despite the group's rhetoric, the virtues advertised are often questionable. In the second section, Pollan describes the large-scale farms and food-processing facilities that largely satisfy surging demand for organic food, using Whole Foods as a proxy. Corn-fed cows become sick as a matter of course, a fact accepted by the industry as a cost of doing business. The author informs that of everything feedlot cows eat, the most destructive is corn, which tends to damage their livers. In the first section, he monitors the development of a calf from a pasture in South Dakota, through its stay on a Kansas feedlot, to its end. Pollan hopes that his book will change the diets in the U.S. Michael Pollan informs us about how corn, the U.S's main food source, is 'Taking over the world', being pervasive in many of the foods we eat, including beverages made with corn starch and meat and dairy products from animals fed with corn. To teach more about those choices, Pollan describes various food chains that end in human food: industrial food, organic food, and food we forage ourselves from the source to a final meal, and in the process writes a critique of the American method of eating. The relationship between food and society, once moderated by culture, is now confused. Technology has made foods that were previously seasonal or regional available year round and in all regions. He suggests that, prior to modern food preservation and transportation technologies, the dilemmas caused by these options were resolved primarily by cultural influences. In the book, Pollan investigates the environmental and animal welfare effects of various food choices.

As omnivores, humans have a variety of food choices.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is a nonfiction book written by American author Michael Pollan published in 2006.

Michael pollan 10 food rules