Chapter 6: The Consumer
Precis:
For a large majority of us eaters we are unknowingly having our taste buds hypnotized by big food corporations. Once the food enters our body it essentially taps into our brains, and allows us to recreate memories over and over again. We become immune to the sugars, salts and fats, and don’t see the harm in having these ingredients. Since we are so naïve the idea of a consequence seems much more distant, little do we know the hypnotizing is ticking slower and slower every time we consume these products.
Gems:
"Three of every five Americans are overweight; one of every five is obese. The disease formerly known as adult- oneset diabetes has had to be renamed Type II diabetes since it now occurs so frequently in children." (Page 102)
"Yet since the human desire for sweetness surpasses even our desire for intoxication, the cleverest thing to do with a bushel of corn is to refine it into thirty pounds of high-fructose corn syrup." (Page 103)
"Researchers have found that people (and animals) presented with large portions eat up to 30 percent more than they would otherwise. Human appetite, it turns out, is surprisingly elastic, which makes excellent evolutionary sense..." (Page 106)
Thoughts & Questions:
The way we eat is as if we are sitting at the last supper every meal of every day of our lives. We are so worried that the world is going to end or we are going to die, so we better sneak in that extra piece of cake...
If we keep eating like this will we be able to live at all? How can we all live with diabetes? The movie Wally isn't so far off, at a certain point we are going to get so big we won't be able to move around, we are slowly creating the end of the world for ourselves.
Even though the general public is given warning signs, how much change is really happening? What will it take for everyone to drop the bad stuff? How much more can we tolerate?
Chapter 7: The Meal
Precis:
Most of our clothes and technology comes right from China. However, when we are buying a new coat or a flat screen TV are we honestly thinking of its original origin? The answer for most of us is probably no. So why when we order our fish fillet or cheeseburger from McDonald’s would we think about the fishes or the cows? Unfortunately we don’t which is probably the main reason why we are in so much trouble, and furthermore we no longer associate food with the animals they come from because in all honesty how much is it really a fish or a cow anymore? We are living in a all you can eat corn buffet.
Gems:
"My eleven-year-old son, Issac, was more than happy to join me at McDonald's; he doesn't get there often, so it's a treat. (For most American children children today, it is no longer such a treat: One in three of them eat fast food every single day.)" (Page 109)
"Like other comfort foods, it supplies (besides nostalgia) a jolt of carbohydrates and fat, which, some scientists now believe, relieve stess and bathe the brain in chemicals that make it feel good." (Page 111)
"Where does it come from? It comes from McDonald's." (Page 115)
"And so it goes, bite after bite, until you feel not satisfied exactly, but simply, regrettably, full." (Page 119)
Thoughts & Questions:
Regardless if you eat at McDonald's the information given to us makes me feel like we are drenched in corn, dripping from our pores making up our entire being. We no longer have a voice. The corn does, what the corn wants the corn will get. Fortunatly the corn drips from our cars, from our food and from practically everything around us.
Why is junk food classified as comfort food? If from a early age people thought of carrots or celery as comfort food would are body adapt to this concept as we do with junk food? Are our brains programed to recognize this taste and link it to a specific area of feeling?
Chapter 8: All Flesh is Grass
Precis:
Within the concept of organic are subsets. Many farmers claim they are organic but yet they still have similar methods of farming as those who are truly industrial farmers. There are very few people who bring purpose into the picture and involve every little thing around them.
Gems:
"And none of it happens without the grass. In fact, the first time I met Salatin he'd insisted that even before I met any of his animals, I get down on my belly in this very pasture to make acquaintance of the less charismatic species his farm was nuturing that, in turn, were nuturing his farm." (Page 117)
"For half a century now, which is to say for as long as industrial agriculture has held sway in America, the principal alternative to its methods and general approach has gone by the name "organic," ... Before my journey through the organic food industry I would of thought that virtually any organic farm would belong on the Polyface side of this ledger. But it turns out that this not necessarily the case." (Page 131)
"... the organic food chain couldn't expand into America's supermarkets and fast-food outlets without sacrificing its ideals. I wondered if this wasn't a case of making the ideal an enemy of the good, but Salatin was convinced that industrial organic was finally a contradiction in terms." (Page 133)
Thoughts & Questions:
A large portion of the food in my kitchen is labeled organic. However, how much worth does that word even have anymore? Just because something appears good on paper doesn't mean it is going to live up to its standards once you see it up close and personal... This commercial: http://wn.com/Happy_Cow_Commercial is a perfect example of a company who may or may not be telling the complete truth. Now read this, the truth revealed... but who has time to look up this information? http://www.johnrobbins.info/blog/the-dark-side-of-happy-cows/
Does the idea of organic help people sleep better at night and not worry?
Andy made a point a couple of days ago saying how if a family is peacefully eating a meal of McDonald's and enjoying ones company they will probably live longer. However if a family eating a complete meal of organic and no corn but they are arguing they might not live as long... How important is the label in the long run...?
Chapter 9: Big Organic
Precis:
Don't judge a book by it's cover... just because something appears to be good on the surface doesn't mean that once we start unfolding the truth everything is going to be just as great. In our country today many of the big influences of organic food are actually industrial organic. And what lies underneath their "great" purpose isn't as great as we would think.
Gems:
"Yet the organic label itself-like every other such label in the supermarket-is really just an imperfect substitute for direct observation of how a food is produced, a concession to the reality that most people in the industrial society haven't had the time or the inclination to follow their food back to the farm, a farm which today is apt to be, on average, fifteen hundred miles away." (Page 137)
"To the eye, these farms look exactly like any other industrial farm in California-and in fact some of the biggest organic operations in the state are owned and operated by conventional mega-farms." (Page 158)
"And so, today, the organic food industry finds itself in a most unexpected, uncomfortable, and yes, unsustainable position: floating on a sinking sea of petroleum." (Page 184)
Thoughts & Questions:
This summer when I went to Costa Rica we visited an organic coffee farm. The tour guide had us taste two different cups of coffee, one was organic and one wasn't. There was no difference in the taste.
If we are forcing animals to change their natural eating habits, isn't it weird that we are also changing our natural eating habits... the way we eat is one thing after another. We are constantly expanding our personal menu's... has or was there ever a normal meal plan for the human species?
Is there any solution to this problem? If the food that is organic is coming from far away places regardless how much better is it for the planet, the people, the animals? Why do we trust everything that is said to us? Why are we so lazy to go into depth to really understand where everything comes from?
Chapter 10: Grass: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pasture
Precis:
The sun may be very far away physically from us but it's purpose to us is very close. This idea may seem crazy but that small yellowish-orange sparkle that glistens (almost) everyday in the sky, is a huge source of energy. It feeds the grass, which feeds the cows, which feeds us. Unfortunately most farmers today have conformed to the industrial methods and very few use the natural techniques.
Gems:
"They had largely detached their household from industrial civilization, and not just eating from land that had virtually no economic or ecological ties to what Joel variously called "the empire," "the establishment," and the "Wall Street." ... wanted nothing to do with "institutional anything," but especially the institutions of government." (Page 203)
"Grass farming with skill involves so many variables, and so much local knowledge, that it is difficult to systematize. As faithful to the logic of biology as a carefully grazed pasture is, it meshes poorly with the logic of industry, which has no use for anything it cannot bend to its wheels and bottom line. And, at least for the time being, it is logic of industry that rules." (Page 202)
"Why did we ever turn away from this free lunch in favor of biologically ruinous meal based on corn? Why in the world did Americans ever take ruminants off the grass? And how could it come to pass that a fast-food burger produced from corn and fossil fuel actually cost less than a burger produced from grass and sunlight." (Page 199)
"This productivity means Joel's pasture will, like his woodlots, remove thousands of pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year; instead of sequestering all that carbon in trees, however, grasslands store most of it underground, in the form of soil hummus. In fact, grassing over that portion of the world's cropland now being used to grow grain to feed ruminants would offset fossil fuel emissions appreciably." (Page 197-198)
Thoughts & Questions:
The concept of industrial farming seems so much more complicated to me than natural farming. Maybe I am not alone in this, and maybe the complicated method is over looked because people don't think they will ever understand it. Therefore the government is making the surface of the situation to thick for us to dive in and really see what is actually going on.
Is stopping industrial farming the answer to end/slow down global warming?
Who is controlling the cheap aspect of industrial farming? Is the government purposely putting price tags that are lower on these items for a specific reason?
If natural farming is our answer why is it not mentioned more frequently? Are the media and government working side by side to sensor the information being given to us?
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