Teaching the Omnivore's Dilemma

I (finally) started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan. The Omnivore's Dilemma was first given it's name in the 1970's but has been written about for years. The dilemma for omnivores is that there is quite a plethora of things out there available for our consumption. So how do we choose? How do we decide "what's for dinner?"

In the introduction, Pollan explains that the question that started his book was, "What should we have for dinner?" We all ask this question on a daily basis, if we're lucky enough to have a fridge, cabinet, or garden space full of food. This question for me, too, is the starting point of it all; for understanding what food really means to us as a culture and people.

In the past, I've approached this heady concept by asking students to "think, pair, share" their favorite meal, dish, fruit, or vegetable. Students begin by thinking about what food is their favorite, then draw whatever it is that they chose. Then students partner with another student and share with their pair. Lastly, students share with the class their pair's favorite.

From the feedback I have received from students and teachers, I have learned that this activity has helped students understand that the food they see on their plate is more than the sum of its nutrients. With everything we eat, there is something more to it than its nutrient values.

While I am getting ready to begin a new school year, I have begun to reexamine all of the lessons I developed in the past. This lesson in particular is one I have been having difficulty rewriting. I like it a lot however, it's inadequate. It's appropriate for some of the work I've been doing, when I do not have several 42-minute class periods with my students. The "Think, Pair, Share" Favorite Food Activity is appropriate for when I know I'm only going to have one or a few class periods with a group of students.

For students I will teach more often, I would like a different lesson. A different introduction to a more in-depth examination of food. One that really gives students the opportunity to examine what their favorite food means to not only them, but what the history and story of that dish or the ingredients in that dish actually looks like as a whole, and what that could mean to their lives.

For example, the tomatoes we eat today (for the most part) do not look like the small yellow tomatoes cultivated and eaten by the Aztecs? Does it matter that for nearly two centuries major Western Civilizations believed that because tomatoes were a nightshade and would be poisonous for humans to consume? Or that Thomas Jefferson grew them and ate them despite society's belief that the fruit would kill humans?

I think it does. These little idiosyncrasies help us learn more about the foods we chose to eat or not eat. I think the more we know about food the more we can understand our relationship with it; why we chose to eat one thing over another; why some societies eat parts of food that other societies would not dream of eating; but really, I think that the more we understand about food will help us to understand why the food we choose to eat, and how it was cultivated matters.


My next steps here, in muddling through the muck of how to really investigate the simple, yet incredibly complicated question, "What should we have for dinner?" for now at least, involves reading the words of Pollan, and I'm sure quite a few others to determine some effective ways to teach children about the Omnivore's Dilemma.