Pollan writes about the ecology of the food humans eat and why--what it is, in fact, that we are eating. Discussing industrial farming, organic food, and what it is like to hunt and gather food, this is a surprisingly honest and self-aware account of the evolution of the modern diet.

Our national eating disorder -- I. Industrial: corn. The plant: corn's conquest -- The farm -- The grain elevator -- The feedlot: making meat -- The processing plant : making complex foods -- The consumer: a republic of fat -- The meal: fast food -- II. Pastoral: grass. All flesh is grass -- Big organic -- Grass: 13 ways of looking at a pasture -- The animals: practicing complexity -- Slaughter: in a glass abattoir -- The market: greetings from the non-barcode people -- The meal: grass-fed -- III. Personal: the forest. The forager -- The omnivore's dilemma -- The ethics of eating animals -- Hunting: the meat -- Gathering: the fungi -- The perfect meal.