The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

An absolute must-read. I was already a fan of Michael from How to Change Your Mind, but this book highlights his style even more. He goes deep as a research journalist would and then makes a great story out of it.

The chapter about corn was absolutely eye-opening. I had no clue that all these things could be made from corn And not only can they be, but it's now the most cost-efficient way of doing it. That alone broke my mind.

It also makes abundantly clear that labels like “organic” mean almost absolutely nothing. It's a slightly different way of industrial production. But there are practical ways to produce food as they do on Polyface Farm. They raise cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and even rabbits in harmony with the animals' natural instincts and rotational grazing techniques.

Then there was this:
>A one-pound box of prewashed lettuce contains 80 calories of food energy. Growing, chilling, washing, packaging, and transporting that box of organic salad to a plate on the East Coast takes more than 4,600 calories of fossil fuel energy, or 57 calories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food. These figures would be about 4 percent higher if the salad were not grown organically.

Pollan also spends a lot of time thinking about whether we should eat meat or not. While the topic is (and will be for the foreseeable future) controversial, he outlines some great points why we should indeed eat it. But not in the quantities and techniques we mostly do now. CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) must go.

>People who care about animals should be working to ensure that the ones they eat don't suffer, and that their deaths are swift and painless—for animal welfare, in others words, rather than rights.

I'd categorize this book as “slow read” apropos “slow food”. Take your time, and you'll enjoy it more and learn a lot.