Chapter 17: The Ethics of Eating Animal
Precis:
I began to notice that I am beginning to feel a dilemma because I'm eating meat. This hadn't happened in a long time, but this was probably because I've been so directly involved in the processes of turning animals into food. The big steak dinner took place this evening right before my beloved steer number 534's slaughter, who I was not allowed to witness or learn anything about it's death date. To be honest I wasn't surprised the meat industry understands that the more people know about what happens in the factories, the less meat they're likely to eat.
Gems:
" That's not because slaughter is necessarily inhumane, but because most of us would simply rather not be reminded of exactly what meat is or what it takes to bring it to our plates." ( Pollan 304)
" Vegetarianism is more popular than it has ever been, and the animal rights, the fringiest of fringe movements until just a few years ago, is rapidly finding its way into the cultural mainstream." ( Pollan 305)
Thoughts:
What are my morals and values exactly? Do I consider food sacred? If so are the animals that are killed also sacred, which means all animals and life in general are sacred? Me and many people have to sit and ask themselves these questions? This new idea of speciesist is very interesting to me is a chimpanzee just as valuable as a human?
Chapter 18: Hunting
Precis:
Hunting in nature believe it or not, is what a lot of kids dream of doing. The smells, and the sounds along with being able to use all five senses in the nature is a dream come true. When I went hunting I was accompanied by the experienced Angelo. In a way I didn't really want to go myself but I practiced shooting my gun and I feel as though I'm ready for the real deal. We drove around in the Sonoma County to a spot where we would hunt pigs. Although I didn't get to kill a pig this time around I will get one next time. One month later Angelo and I would go hunting and I finally killed my first pig. and i was ecstatic.
Gems:
"After hunting here for years Angelo has come to the conclusion there distinct groups sharing the oak forest and the grassy ridge above it like three overlapping nations, each with a slightly different map of good pig places," ( Pollan 335)
" I'm actually writing about the hunter's "instinct," suggesting that the hunt represents some sort of the primordial union between two kinds of animals, one of which is me? This seems a bit much. I recognize this kind of prose: hunter porn.
Thoughts:
I think that it's very good that Pollan is doing something hands on not that he hasn't before. It's good that he combines hands on things with things that aren't hands on. He has a variety of ways of gathering information and expressing It's always good to have many ways to communicate to the reader
Chapter 19: Gathering
Precis:
Out on my expedition for chanterelle, I began foraging for mushrooms. Foraging for mushrooms has become quite the secretive skill since you don't want people to know your spots. As I came to learn with time foraging for mushrooms takes extreme focus to gather and be able to differentiate between beneficial mushrooms and toxic mushrooms.
Gems:
"Without fungi to break things down, the earth would long ago have suffocated beneath a blanket of organic matter created by plants; the dead would pile up without end, the carbon cycle would cease to function, and living things would run out of things to eat." (376)
" The talent of fungi for decomposing and recycling organic matter is what makes them indispensable, not only to trees but to all life on earth.
Thoughts:
Although I hate mushrooms for the smell and taste this chapter like many others makes me want to bear with the taste or give it another chance. I thought the phrase mushrooms give something for nothing was interesting.
Chapter 20:
Precis:
On Saturday, June 18th I basically spent all day preparing a meal that either I personally grew, captured, hunted, or foraged or received help from someone else. The meal was specifically made for Angelo,Issac, Judith, Richard, Anthony,Sue, and myself. The meal contained Fave bean toast, Sonoma Boar Pate, Egg Fetuccine, Power Fire Morels, braised leg and grilled loin of Wild Sonoma Pig, and Wild East Bay Yeast Levain, Very Local Garden Salad, Fulton Street Bing Cherry Galette, Claremont Canon Chamomile Tisane, and 2003 Angelo Garro Petite Syrah Wine. That's quite alot of ingredients for a meal so I was prepared for a very interesting taste. I was a bit disappointed that the meal wasn't exactly amazing but that's probably due to my high standard for food. But the satisfaction of gathering the ingredients and the fact that it wasn't fast or industrial food was worth it.
Gems:
" For we would no longer need any reminding that however we choose to feed ourselves, we eat by the grace of nature, not industry, and what we're eating is never any-thing more or less than the body of the world." (Pollan 411)
Thoughts:
This chapter really made me figure out Michael Pollan's main goal is to educate us and let us know what we consider to be normal food ways are actually very complicated and weird. He showed me what I was really eating even though the companies may try and lie and say otherwise. Me reading this book kind of re-wired my brain in a way. I can no longer eat a meal without being extremely suspicious of how it was made, and what's in it. It is kind of disappointing because food is no longer as enjoyable, and a tedious process now. I suppose it will be worth it in the end and later in life. Hopefully this book has provided me with enough knowledge that I will be able to warn others of the dangers of eating food in America.
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