Michael Pollan: The omnivore's next dilemma

Uploaded By:
TEDtalksDirector

Save & Share

Tags: animals business corporation culture evolution food global issues Michael Pollan science ted tedtalks

Find more videos in the "Tech" category

Want to embed this video on your blog or e-mail it to a friend? Scroll down for tools.

http://www.ted.com What if human consciousness isn't the end-all and be-all of Darwinism? What if we are all just pawns in corn's clever strategy game, the ultimate prize of which is world domination? Author Michael Pollan asks us to see things from a plant's-eye view -- to consider the possibility that nature isn't opposed to culture, that biochemistry rivals intellect as a survival tool. By merely shifting our perspective, he argues, we can heal the Earth. Who's the more sophisticated species now?

See more videos uploaded by TEDtalksDirector

Related Videos

FOOD NEWS: Michael Pollan: In Defense Of Food	Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food 2	Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food 4

Michael Pollan: In Defense of Food 3	Michael Pollan: The Omnivore's Dilemma	Berkeley Writers at Work: Michael Pollan

Comments for this video: Show || Hide

Comments for this video on YouTube

Amazing that the ... ( 6 months ago by notretsechkg)

Amazing that the vegetarians continue to provide solutions that line up perfectly with the UN globalists. "More Soy!! More Soy!!" they shout (unfermented soy is filled with harful isoflavones -- estrogen mimickers). Both the so-called "greens" and the globalist would love a landscape free of people. Let the robots harvest the soy beans while we ship all the people to human concentration camps...err, cities.

The urban model is ... ( 6 months ago by notretsechkg)

The urban model is the same as the industrial feedlot model. Instead of natural cycles, you have nothing but costly inputs (almost always subsidized by confiscatory governments) and harmful outputs (so-called "food" with a fatty acid balance resulting in epidemic chronic disease and expensive and harmful "wastes" -- manure, something that, in natural form, is a gift to the soil but that becomes a cost center in agribusiness and urban policy.)

Well, that is an ... ( 6 months ago by 11889music)

Well, that is an entertaining opinion. Until you show some evidence or at least name the "key vitamins" I cannot believe in your opinion. What Health defects? Do you realize how many healthy people are raised on a vegetarian diet all of their life?!

Well, that is an ... ( 6 months ago by 11889music)

DEPRIVE?!?!? Since ... ( 6 months ago by 11889music)

DEPRIVE?!?!? Since we arrived here in the U.S. the number of cows that are being raised for slaughter has probably tripled (if not more, that is a guess), but look it up before you talk about these things. Also, just because the earth needs these grazing animals doesn't mean that we were meant to eat them you moron!

Some can take a ... ( 5 months ago by AxiomofDiscord)

Some can take a vegetarian life style they are not the majority of human beings. That is my opinion. I suffered at the hands of such a lifestyle and am gladly putting that part of my life behind me. Yet I have vegan friends that thrive, I just can not join them.

That's just not ... ( 4 months ago by squeakel)

That's just not true. The British Medical Association has found that vegetarians are 40% less likely to get cancer and heart disease than meat eaters. I know several lifelong vegetarians and vegans. They go about it in a really informed way and they're very healthy.

"entertaining ... ( 4 months ago by patternsinchaos)

"entertaining insights about human desire" *blam*

"Looking at the ... ( 4 months ago by patternsinchaos)

"Looking at the world from other species points of view is a cure for the disease of human self-importance." *whack*

"the final triumph ... ( 4 months ago by patternsinchaos)

"the final triumph of corn over common sense" This man is a JEWEL!

Those meta studies ... ( 4 months ago by Shaolos)

Those meta studies are basically useless due to their scientifically very vague way of analyzing things. By the vegetarian is not problematic. You can easily gain most stuff through eggs and dairy. Vegan is what is very problematic.

The Okinawans eat ... ( 4 months ago by squeakel)

The Okinawans eat quite a bit of soy (most eat it daily) and the have the highest number of centurions on earth. They don't eat the highly processed TVP that westerners eat, though.

Does anyone else ... ( 4 months ago by publickprofile)

Does anyone else think it's a coincidence that his last name is Pollan? There is some talk of evolution mixed in. And the idea of people being manipulated by plants. It sounds like part of the big dehumanization agenda to me. All authors are authorized anyway. You're simply not going to get any real grassroots ideas from mainstream writers. It's coming from the top down, the new religion is GREEN, worship of mother earth.

This guy is a ... ( 3 months ago by LadyOlivia35)

This guy is a wonderful writer. His "Botany of Desire" is beautifully written. I wish I could have him as a professor!

frickin' excellent! ... ( 3 months ago by RabidApe)

frickin' excellent! thanks for sharing, TED!

If he was really ... ( 3 months ago by c6gunner)

If he was really serious about talking from a plant's point of view, he'd just sit down and shut up.

Go eat some ... ( 3 months ago by fnkyg4)

Go eat some McDonald's you fucking idiot fatass

check out ... ( 3 months ago by pondman27)

check out Permascience. I am also a possionate gardener and have grown up with the craft. Once we begin to understand symbiosese, we can see how we can manage our environment in a simular and more sympathetic way. The answer to everything is one. We are one and should as far as is possible, be at one with nature. We used to know this, but with the development with so called civilisation, we have forgotten this and thus stopped looking at world in terms of the age of an oak tree.

Yes, like how the ... ( 3 months ago by sexyloser)

Yes, like how the theory of relativity was very popular in the 1910s...
You are a moron.

shut up fukin ... ( 3 months ago by Frankmen99)

shut up fukin redneck...cracker.

I completely agree ... ( 2 months ago by ecorevolutionery25)

I completely agree with pondman27, in these days people are so worried with working and earning more and more money that we simply forgot nature; the beauty in the simple things of life. I've lost the connection with are ancestry, like the Indians, and the way they respect and admire nature.

oh christ.. ( 2 months ago by windex72)

oh christ..

Elegantly put ,but ... ( 2 months ago by windex72)

Elegantly put ,but I was taught this in grade school. Interesting stuff about the farm, though.

The bit about the ... ( 1 month ago by accent0mel)

The bit about the permiculture farm from around minute 12:00-the end is simply facinating. The rest maybe hearsay and conspiracy theory, etc... but the farm is enlightening.

Tell a friend: