Chapter 11: The Animals
Precis:
I overslept at Joel Salantin's farm, to him oversleeping is 6am that just shows you how much work he gets done in a day. His whole farm is like a tiny ecosystem everyone contributes to the well being of the farm in their own unique way. Every one including Joel is just as important on the farm and no one is less important. A lot of the industrial farms use efficiency as their excuse for their methods, however, salantin's farm is efficient in it's on way and theres nothing wrong with that.
Gems:
" Left to their own devices, a confined flock of chickens will eventually destroy any patch of land, by pecking the grass down to its roots and poisoning the soil with its extremely "hot," or nitrogenous, manure."(Pollan 210)
" The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, I was about to see, feed the pigs and the laying hens." (Pollan 210)
Thoughts:
I wonder just how Joel ended up where he is now in life. Where did he go to highschool? Did he finish highschool? If not why didn't he was it in preparation for his farmer life? Does he have a college education? Do you need a college education to become a farmer? One must really wonder these things?
Chapter 12: The Slaughter
Precis:
I thought I had seen about everything Salantin's farm had to offer, but I was wrong because I was yet to visit the slaughter shed. This was one of the few farms where the slaughter took place behind the farm instead of many miles away. The slaughtering process is not what one would initially expect, there are some techniques that are put into place, for example you don't just cut the head right off you cut the artery alongside the bird's windpipe. After that happens is the hard part to sit there and watch as the chicken begins to have spasms, watching the other birds wait there turn, wonder if the chickens suffer a lot, what were the other chickens awaiting their slaughter thinking. Lots of thoughts begin to run through your head. Killing is no easy task it can affect you in may ways.
Gems:
" I wasn't at it long enough for slaughtering chickens to become routine, but the work did begin to feel mechanical, and that feeling, perhaps more than any other, was disconcerting: how quickly you can get used to anything, especially when the people around you think nothing of it."(Pollan 233)
" In a way, the most morally troubling thing about killing chickens is that after a while it is no longer morally troubling."(Pollan 233)
Thoughts:
I wonder how slaughtering chickens day after day would take a tone on me? I guess after doing something like this one may be able to value life more, there certainly is something positive and negative to be learned from here.If I was a customer coming to this farm or any farm at that I would certainly want to see my food "slaughtered" in front of me, it sure would give me a good idea of what goes on behind those close doors.
Chapter 13: The Market
Precis:
The Polyface Farm supplies strictly eggs, produce, chicken, pork, and beef to restaurants, markets, shops, and local customers. Their goal is to save Earth's resources and energy,preserve relationship marketing, and reform the global food system. Polyface food is about a dollar more per pound than the industrial market charges. This is because of the governments rules on food processing and the prices of industrial foods which aren't that good. Joel's food was be even cheaper if it wasn't for the high cost of processing at least a dollar per pound.
Gems:
" If we could just level the playing field take away the regulations, the subsidies, and factor in the health care and environmental cleanup costs of cheap food we could compete on price with anyone." (Pollan 243)
It's true that cheap and industrial food is heavily subsidized in may ways such that its price in the supermarket does not reflect its real cost. But until the rules that govern our food system change, organic or sustainable food is going to cost more at the register, more than some people can afford." ( Pollan 243)
Thoughts:
What I thought was interesting was when Pollan noticed how Americans today spend less on food than any other industrialized nation, and probably less than any people in the history of the world. This means that there are many of us who could afford to spend more on food if we actually chose to. When I come from lunch sometimes my friend Rossi Cruz will sometimes ask me "where did I go" and I'll tell him Cosi's. He then responds " How much is food there because you go a lot." This signals me that price of food is important to him and it's not really about the quality of the food it's about the price. Which is perfectly fine. I then respond "well I usually get the chicken ceaser salad when I go there which is really good and an orange juice." The price is about $7.59 for a salad and $1.00 for the orange juice. You also get free bread with a choice of white or whole grain. This may seem really expensive and it is, but 1. I'm full and 2 I think it's healthy compared to most foods in New York City. Rossi responds " Wow your crazy I went to the Chinese restaurant and paid about 5.00 for chicken wings and french fries." Rossi Cruz could have paid more and ate at Cosi's with me which is a nice little restuarant with lots of seats, air conditioning, and you can see some of your food made in front of you depending on what you get. He simply chose not to go with me because he didn't want to pay more to eat healthier food. I could have paid less to eat fried chicken and fries and many more things could be included into the meal that I we don't know about. The point here is it's all about what you chose to eat the choice is yours.
Chapter 14: The Meal
Precis:
While at the Polyface farm I began gathering goods from the farm so that I can prepare dinner for a family I have been friends with for a long time. I prepared two roasted chicken, prepared a salad and corn, and made them a souffle( a half dozen eggs flavored by sugar and chocolate). This was an extremely nutritious and good quality meal. No corn was fed to any animal in this meal, there was no genetic breeding that took place, the animals were allowed to live and eat naturally which most aren't really allowed to do and no chemicals/pesticides were used.
Gems:
"Taking the long view of human nutrition, we evolved to eat the sort of foods available to hunter-gathers, most of whose genes we've inherited and whose bodies we still( more or less) inhabit. (Pollan 267)
"Animals raised outdoors on grass have a diet much more like that of the wild animals humans have been eating at least since the Paleolithic era than that of the grain-fed animals we only recently began to eat." (Pollan 267)
Thoughts:
This was a chapter that really made me think about the animals I eat a lot. When I eat I usually never think about the animal that I am eating. When Pollan said that the animals are usually not allowed to live naturally and eat naturally, something clicked in my head. That's animal abuse, not allowing to let the animals live naturally or eat naturally. What makes people at industrial factories any different than Michael Vick. He abused dogs in a different way but nonetheless these are both still forms of abuse and that's terrible.
Chapter 15: The Forager
Precis:
I decided to try something new I decided to prepare a meal using the shortest food chain possible. When I say shortest food chain I mean hunting my food, foraging my food, and even growing it on my own. This could potentially be a very good experience for me. While doing this I was hoping to be able to connect to nature more, and preparing a meal while fully aware of everything that is going into it. I eventually called upon the help of my friend Angelo and began taking a hunter education course.
Gems:
"Now, there are some people ( though not all that many of them anymore) for whom such a radically self-made meal exists firmly in the realm of possibility."(Pollan 277)
"Why go to all this trouble? It's not as though the forager food chain represents a viable way for us to eat at this point in history; it doesn't." (Pollan 279)
Thoughts:
I really was able to peer into who Pollan is and how he became who he is today. Not entirely of course but a bit. I learned of his childhood which is a significant time in a person's life. Pollan is an extremely curious man and questions almost everything. If I recall right some guy named Albert Einstein was the same way.
Chapter 16: The Omnivore's Dilemma
Precis:
Humans like many other organisms are extremely interesting and go about things in the same or and entirely different manner. Humans have unique eating habits and a varied diet. Humans are most prone to appeal to a type of food is the food is culturally "tasty" or just tasty to themselves. Many countries with the obvious exception of America of course are able to be healthy without eating less than us necessarily.
Gems:
" Like us, rats daily confront the bounty of nature and its mainfold perils-perils designed to protect plants, animals, and microbes from being eaten." ( Pollan 286)
"Also similarly, we humans manufacture toxins to keep rats from eating our food."( Pollan 288)
Thoughts:
Humans are able to adapt to many situations and environments. Our tendency to favor sweetness which once helped us in the past now dooms us.
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