Well...I found this book by Michael Pollan to be quite a thought provoker. While it won't necessarily change your life, it well might - and how many books can you really say that about? I will say this is a book you all should read. If you have the interest, enthusiam and curiosity about food to come to this forum you have the perfect raw material to consume this very well written book.
I don't want to spoil the book by providing too much rehashing of the narrative. But the big theme is that food has become a very "industrialized" industry and does not much resemble nature in it's original state. This has multiple implications including nutrition, pollution, ethics and TASTE.
Pollan explores some alternatives to the "industrial" approach including an extended look at the "organic" food business and an interesting, albeit impractical, look at being a "hunter/gatherer".
Overall this book demands you give a higher level of THOUGHT into what you are eating and raises your awareness. It is not a preachy book filled with PETA ranting or other condemnations typical of the genre. He is pretty balanced in his views.
This may have hit me more in a personal "perfect storm" kind of way. I live and travel massively through Asia and the Middle East and I've been reading lots of books lately about America having lost its way somewhere - still driving 4 ton SUVs with $135 oil and whistling past the global warming graveyard. With this election coming up it's hard not to look at our position and feel a touch of despair - reviled around the world, in debt beyond belief (as individuals and as a country) and largely unaware (or suspicious) of the progress other countries are making at warp speed. I combine that with the personal introspection of making more money in a week than my father ever made in a year and feeling somehow unsatisifed still and I start to wonder - where is this all going? And then I read this book and had to factor my food into the equation! It all seems like going back to simpler values and lifestyle might not be a bad direction. Maybe it's typical "mid life" stuff for this 46 year old. I still love the US and have an unshakable confidence in it - but we are capable of much better than we have been achieving of late.
Sorry to inject my personal musings into a book review - but they did impact my experience of the book. In any event - this is a book well worth reading...I guess that's my main point!