---
title: "3 Efficiency Quotes By Michael Pollan"
description: "3 Efficiency quotes by Michael Pollan. Plus more from Michael Pollan and more Efficiency sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/da3/michael-pollan-408_animal_our-ingenuity-in-feeding-ourselves-is-pr_2050358.jpg"
---

> [Our ingenuity in feeding ourselves is prodigious, but at various points our technologies come into conflict with nature's ways of doing things,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/our-ingenuity-in-feeding-ourselves-is-prodigious-but-at-various/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/da3/michael-pollan-408_animal_our-ingenuity-in-feeding-ourselves-is-pr_2050358.jpg)

> [When a livestock farmer is willing to "practice complexity"-to choreograph the symbiosis of several different animals, each of which has been allowed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/when-a-livestock-farmer-is-willing-to-practice-complexity-to/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/292/michael-pollan-408_agriculture_when-a-livestock-farmer-is-willing-to-pr_2158988.png)

> [A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/a-tension-has-always-existed-between-the-capitalist-imperative-to/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/163/michael-pollan-408_animal_a-tension-has-always-existed-between-the_2407148.jpg)

## Other authors on Efficiency

- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b022/author-stephen-covey-86975.jpg) Stephen Covey 12 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/efficiency/stephen-covey/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b019/author-peter-drucker-74801.jpg) Peter Drucker 8 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/efficiency/peter-drucker/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b018/author-milton-friedman-68333.jpg) Milton Friedman 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/efficiency/milton-friedman/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-clayton-christensen-24530.jpg) Clayton Christensen 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/efficiency/clayton-christensen/)

## More by Michael Pollan

> [“In the same way that the picturesque designers were always careful to include some reminder of our mortality in their gardens -- a ruin,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/in-the-same-way-that-the-picturesque-designers-were-always-careful-to/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [My hope is that if people have the knowledge, and if they actually see where their food comes from and have access to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/my-hope-is-that-if-people-have-the-knowledge-and-if-they-actually-see/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [The problem is that we let special-occasion food become everyday food. That goes for soda and french fries.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/the-problem-is-that-we-let-special-occasion-food-become-everyday-food/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [Every peasant cuisine has incredible ingenious tricks for getting a lot of nutrition out of a small amount of ingredients. There are people who…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/every-peasant-cuisine-has-incredible-ingenious-tricks-for-getting-a/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [“In ancient Greece, the word for “cook,” “butcher,” and “priest” was the same—mageiros—and the word shares an etymological root with “magic.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/in-ancient-greece-the-word-for-cook-butcher-and-priest-was-the-same/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [In the end I'm still a writer. I'm still a journalist, and my first responsibility is to my readers. That's where I have to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/in-the-end-i-m-still-a-writer-i-m-still-a-journalist-and-my-first/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [Seeds have the power to preserve species, to enhance cultural as well as genetic diversity, to counter economic monopoly and to check the advance…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/seeds-have-the-power-to-preserve-species-to-enhance-cultural-as-well/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [“The bubble logic driving tulipomania has since acquired a name: “the greater fool theory.” Although by any conventional measure it is folly to pay…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/the-bubble-logic-driving-tulipomania-has-since-acquired-a-name-the/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [“Of the seven deadly sins, surely it is pride that most afflicts the gardener.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/of-the-seven-deadly-sins-surely-it-is-pride-that-most-afflicts-the/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [Growing corn, which from a biological perspective had always been a process of capturing sunlight to turn into food, has in no small measure…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/growing-corn-which-from-a-biological-perspective-had-always-been-a/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [Eat with consciousness. When you eat with consciousness, and you know what you're eating, and you eat it in full appreciation of what it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/eat-with-consciousness-when-you-eat-with-consciousness-and-you-know/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [This is part of human nature, the desire to change consciousness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/this-is-part-of-human-nature-the-desire-to-change-consciousness/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [“...whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it's actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/whenever-i-hear-people-say-clean-food-is-expensive-i-tell-them-it-s/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [“Imagine if we had a food system that actually produced wholesome food. Imagine if it produced that food in a way that restored the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/imagine-if-we-had-a-food-system-that-actually-produced-wholesome-food/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

> [“CONSULT YOUR GUT.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-pollan/consult-your-gut/)

[Michael Pollan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-pollan/)

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                        "text": "Our ingenuity in feeding ourselves is prodigious, but at various points our technologies come into conflict with nature's ways of doing things, as when we seek to maximize efficiency by planting crops or raising animals in vast mono-cultures. This is something nature never does, always and for good reasons practicing diversity instead. A great many of the health and environmental problems created by our food system owe to our attempts to oversimplify nature's complexities, at both the growing and the eating ends of our food chain.",
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                        "text": "When a livestock farmer is willing to \"practice complexity\"-to choreograph the symbiosis of several different animals, each of which has been allowed to behave and eat as it evolved to-he will find he has little need for machinery, fertilizer, and, most strikingly, chemicals. He finds he has no sanitation problem or any of the diseases that result from raising a single animal in a crowded monoculture and then feeding it things it wasn't designed to eat. This is perhaps the greatest efficiency of a farm treated as a biological system: health.",
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