Reading Ch. 18, 19, and 20

Within these chapters assigned for reading, Pollan discusses his ambition to create the perfect meal and creates a rule set. The ideology Pollan attempts to create his rules around result from the research he’s done thus far on the fast-food industrialized meal. His concept of cooking the meal himself and attaining a food source from each edible kingdom seems to be symbolic of the freedom in America which allows choices to be independently made. Amongst his peers and friends whom helped him attain his food successfully Pollan serves as a representative of the hunter and gatherer community found in ancient past times within Afro-Eurasia and America. Although focusing on providing sustenance for his small representative community Pollan goes above and beyond in creating the perfect meal. As defined by Pollan the perfect meal exists in a society where each member can contribute to the goal of the community itself. Whilst Pollan spent hours on end reaching to attain abalone and inevitably many calories, he redefines the food itself in the industrialized world. No more could Pollan be dissatisfied in his result than he was in attaining that cheap fast food meal with empty calories for his family to be consumed in ten minutes. Duly Pollan achieves his goal of making the perfect meal when he separates himself from consuming the concept or notion of a food item since he reveals that the impossible task of gaining enough abalone for sustenance of an entire nation and veers more along the lines of complacency in living freely in the American Dream. Pollan was opportune in his environment without taking complete advantage of its fruitful bounty that nature provides each of us with.