Precis:
Intertwined and connected, naturally working together as if humans were not in the picture. Verses us humans taking apart their natural ways of living, for our benefit.
Gems:
"Industrial processes follow a clear, linear, hierarchical logic that is fairly easy to put into words, probably because words follow a similar logic: First this, then that; put this in here, and then out comes that." (Page 212)
"it is exactly the model God used in building nature." (Page 215)
"In nature health is the default," he pointed out. "Most of the time pests and disease are just nature's way of telling the farmer he's doing something wrong." (Page 321)
"One of the greatest assets of a farm is the sheer ecstasy of life." (Page 225)
Thoughts & Questions:
Why if something works perfectly fine we find the need to change it or improve it? We are only making it worse.
Especially in the United States most of us have a choice as how we go about living, so why do we feel superior to the animals? Just because some of us choose to eat them, shouldn't mean we change their paths of living and alter what is completely natural for them.
We don't just interrupt the animals, think about all the countries we try to "help", are we really helping them or is it to move our country further along in being ahead of the game? Do we think that if we have control of literally everything our lives will be better?
Chapter 12: Slaughter: In a Glass Abattoir
Precis:
The act of killing animals more specifically chickens is unavoidable in this world at least. The only way for them to enter our bodies is for us to end their lives. Farmers who are not directly linked to USDA are often criticized because of their alternative ways of slaughtering.
Gems:
"The fact that Polyface can prove its chickens have much lower bacteria counts than supermarket chickens (Salatin's had them both tested by an independent lab) doesn't cut any mustard with the inspectors, either." (Page 229)
"Make no mistake, we're in a war with the bureaucrats, who would like nothing better than to put us out of business." (Page 230)
"to come out to the farm, poke around, sniff around. If after seeing how we do things they want to buy food from us, that should be none of the government's business." (Page 235)
Thoughts & Questions:
The government is completely contradicting there philosophy's since they are the ones being so secretive about their preferences for slaughtering. While in the more natural way people are fully allowed to see exactly how the chicken ends up dead, the government has no such option. Is this to say they are trying to put down the good guys to make themselves look better?
What provoked the government to side with industrial farming? Was it because it was cheaper or too complicated for people to question it's imperfections?
If we were to see the way industrial farming actually operated how many of us would reform?
Chapter 13: The Market
Precis:
While big corporations are sending mass advertisements, a certain group of farmers are going directly to the people. By knowing where food comes from not only does it help the customer, but also the farmers message and promoting a better way of life.
Gems:
"A chicken-or steak, or ham, or carton of eggs-can find its way from Polyface Farm to an eater's plate by five possible routes: direct sales at the farms store, farmer's markets, metropolitan buying clubs, a handful of small shops in Staunton, and Joel's brother Art's panel truck." (Page 240)
"Greetings from the non-Barcode people," began one recent missive, before it launched into a high-flying jeremiad against our "disconnected multi-national global corporate techno-glitzy food system" well its "industrial fecal factory concentration camp farms." (Page 241)
"All of this meat comes from happy animals-I know because I've seen them." (Page 242)
"All of which is to say that a successful local food economy implies not only a new kind of food producer, but a new kind of eater as well, one who regards finding, preparing, and preserving food as one of the pleasures of life rather than a chore. One whose sense of taste has ruined him for a Big Mac, and whose sense of place has ruined him for shopping for groceries at Wal-Mart. This is the consumer who understands-or remembers-that, in Wendell Berry's memorable phrase," eating is an agricultural act." He might of added that it's a political act as well." (Page 259)
Thoughts & Questions:
Although I think it is great that farmers like Salatin are trying to help people lead better lives but think about the ratio of these farmers to the amount of people in the country. Big industries have advantages, while the farmers are practically solo, the industries are like an army.
If they got the president on board of this change of food, would it help? Or would they have to pay him a lot of money/benefits to endorse them?
We are all very scared of life... although we may not admit it or even realize it, we are. We conform all the time to new habits because we think it might help us in the long run. If we all respond differently though to food, shouldn't it be up to us how we want to eat? I am not saying I agree with Industrial ways of eating but at the same time in order for things to become known by the whole country by pattern they become industrial.
Chapter 14: The Meal - Grass Fed
Precis:
Although our meat appears relatively the same, underneath the skin, the fat, the bones lies the truth. The only thing that experiences the truth is our bodies, and by that point the skin and the fat have already made themselves at home.
Gems:
"There was nothing terribly subtle about this meal, but everything about it tasted completely in character." (Page 271)
"the actual and direct sensation of a need being satisfied," a sensation we share with the animals-and the uniquely human "pleasures of the table." These consist of "considered sensations born of the various circumstances of fact, things, and persons accompanying the meal"-and comprise for him one of the brightest fruits of civilization." (Page 272)
"The pleasures of the table begin with eating, but they can end up anywhere human talk cares to go. In the same way that the raw becomes cooked, eating becomes dining." (Page 272)
"All such transformations were very much on my mind that evening, coming at the end of the week of farmwork that had put me in much closer touch with the biology of eating than the art." (Page 272)
Thoughts & Questions:
As someone who only eats fish, I often feel like I have chose a better way of feeding myself. I guess not.
I wonder what real food tastes like... I have never seen a label that says. "grass fed animal", my parents who eat meat are always so excited when it is free range. It is even a double bonus when it is organic. My mom thinks eating like this is so obscure but I don't think she realizes that she is not alone. However if she brought home a grass fed animal, I would be impressed.
Are there any grass fed stores in New York City? If there are not, I think someone should open one soon.
Chapter 15: The Forager
Precis:
Unconsciously or consciously depending on how you look at it, dominantly in the United States the human race has adopted and conformed eating habits. No longer do we gather our berries, search for our animals. The most searching we do is filling our shopping carts right to the top. By examining our ancestors it is quite easy to see their connection with the food. A method that we no longer practice. This unknown leads us to believe a strong reasoning behind the food disaster we have created for ourselves.
Gems:
"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. For one thing, there is not enough game left to feed us all, and probably not enough wild plants and mushrooms either." (Page 279)
"So even if we wanted to go back to hunting and gathering wild species, it's not an option: There are far too many of us and not nearly enough of them." (Page 279)
"... so I threw it out. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had impaled myself that afternoon on the horns of the omnivore's dilemma." (Page 286)
Thoughts & Questions:
There is quite a obvious connection between current food ways and our countries informal way of life but we always want to be two steps ahead. We want our cows to get fatter faster, so we can eat them quicker, we want to be the number one country, who has control of the world. However, our ancestors lived a life of connection to the world around us, the animals around us and instead of thinking and doing so fast (as many of us do today) they understood where things came from, and their importance and significance.
I wonder what it would be like if New York City converted back into a hunter-gather way of life. Would Central Park be our forrest? Would there be enough wild animals for us?
I think the only way to change your lifestyle is to do it on our own. If we can't convert a nation right now, the only way to start is to make the choice to change the way we live. Eventually people will catch on, if not everyone a large group of people, who will probably be happier and healthier people who live longer more full lives.
Chapter 16: The Omnivore's Dilemma
Precis:
Unlike quite a number of species we have the ability to eat whatever our little hearts desire. However, throughout our lives we figure out through the process of eating what affects us positively and what affects us negatively, and by doing so we create our own menu's. To some of us though, deciding what to eat may be some of the hardest decisions we make in life...
Gems:
"The omnivore's dilemma is replayed every time we decide whether or not to ingest a wild mushroom, but it also figures in our less primordial encounters with the putatively edible: when we're deliberating the nutritional claims on the boxes of in the cereal aisle; when we're settling on a weight-loss regimen (low fat or low carb?); or deciding whether to sample McDonald's newly reformulated chicken nugget; or weighing the costs and benefits of buying the organic strawberries over the conventional ones..." (Page 289)
"The fact that we humans indeed omnivorous is deeply inscribed in our bodies, which natural selection has equipped to handle a remarkably wide ranging diet." (Page 289)
Last but not least, cooking abruptly changed the terms of the evolutionary arms race between omnivores and the species they would eat by allowing us to overcome their defenses." (Page 293)
Being an omnivore occupying a cognitive niche in nature is both a boon and a challenge, a source of tremendous power as well as anxiety." (Page 295)
"The success of food marketers in exploiting shifting eating patterns and nutritional fashions has a steep cost. Getting us to change how we eat over and over again tends to undermine the various social structures that surrond and steady our eating, institutions like the family dinner, for example, or taboos on snacking between meals and eating alone." (Page 301-302)
Thoughts & Questions:
The act of eating is such a person to person basis. We all eat differently, both food and setting. However, regardless of the differences we all have the ability to adapt to whatever our circumstances may be. This makes me think of anorexic people, they are hardly eating anything but the human body has the ability to realize the situation and hold on to all of the important parts of what they are putting in their body. Therefore they are gathering and saving up for whatever might happen in the future, just like many animals do in the winter, as well as humans do as well.
When we are babies our main food source is baby food... is this to say that we are unable to recognize the food entering our body, so we have to start with mushed up soft food at first? Or is this mainly due to the fact that we don't have teeth at that point in life?
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