Michael Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma, Chapter 17-
Summary-
People are starting to change to a vegetarian lifestyle now more then ever. Even though we have been eating animals for tens of thousands of years, people are all of a sudden concerned with how ethical killing animals is. Philosophers like Peter Singer bring up the point, all people aren't actually created equal. Some are smarter then others, some are taller, ect., but for the most part they aren't treated differently. The problem with that is animals aren't created equally, but are regarded as inferior beings. In general people try to ignore the fact that what they're eating had to suffer to become that steak or piece of ham. Or they question the animal's ability to suffer. The basic conclusion is that most animals suffer somewhat to give us the food we eat, but there is a difference between the lifelong suffering on a feedlot, or the momentary suffering on Polyface. Either way many people are becoming vegetarian, and I am one of them (at least temporarily).
"Gems"- "The industrial animal factory offers a nightmarish glimpse of what capitalism is capable of in the absence of any moral or regulatory constraint whatsoever." Page 318
Thoughts-
-I never really seriously considered vegetarianism, as I enjoy the taste of animals. Not only that, I am one of those people that try to ignore the way that the animal I am eating got there. Though I did agree with a lot of the ideas of this chapter, I don't think it changes anything. Maybe I need to see these animals suffering.
-If the majority of thee world was vegetarian, how different would the world be now?
Michael Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma, Chapter 18-
Summary:
Hunting is the oldest form of getting food, and even though I don't feel totally comfortable with it, I still need to do it for my meal. So my friend Angelo, and his two friends, and myself went wild pig hunting. As I actually began the process of hunting, my feelings changed. I began to feel connected to nature. I began almost to feel high. It was almost as the effects that hunting was having on me duplicated that of smoking marijuana. On my hunting trip I had one good chance to kill a pig, and I wasn't prepared. I didn't kill any pigs that day, I didn't even get a shot off. I was left with embarrassment. But the second time that I went hunting, I killed a rather large pig. I felt accomplished, and horrible at the same time. Especially when we had to open the pig up to "dress" it. This experience made me realize how people can be against hunting, but can still eat meat they buy from stores.
"Gems"- "My emotions were as surging and confused as the knot of panicked pigs had been on this spot just a moment before." Page 343
"So much of the human project is concerned with distinguishing ourselves from beasts that we seem strenuously to avoid things that remind us that we are beasts too." Page 357
Thoughts-
-I've had the oppertunity to go hunting in the past. But I haven't. I don't know if I feel right killing animals. I think if I were to think about something else, it would just seem like shooting a target, which I have no problem doing. I find that fun. So I know the remorse he felt for the animal. I think I may try hunting, but only if I'm going to eat the game.
-What type of society would we live in, if our main way to obtain food was by hunter-gathering?
Michael Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma, Chapter 19-
Summary:
There is another essential form of hunting. Mushroom hunting. It's actually foraging for mushrooms, but they're really hard to locate, making it more like hunting then foraging. There are many types of fungi, ranging from edible, to deadly. Not to mention the ones that cause hallucinations. There is very little knowledge about fungi, nobody really knows how they grow, why they grow where they grow, what makes them poisonous, and what chemicals in them lead to hallucinations. They are nature's mystery. After learning about these fungi from books I realized the only way to really learn the different mushrooms, and hunting techniques, is by hunting with somebody that already knows. So I went hunting with my friend Angelo, and later with a man named Anthony. Both trips were successful, and I had then collected a good amount of mushrooms for my meal.
"Gems"-
"Morel hunting didn't sound like much fun, more like survival training than a walk in the woods. I crossed my finger that Anthony was just trying to scare me and set my alarm from 4:30AM, wondering why it is all these hunting-gathering expeditions had to big at such ungodly hours." Page 379
Thoughts-
-I really didn't think that mushroom hunting would be that hard, considering at my summer house there's alway mushrooms in the woods. It makes me wonder if these mushrooms are edible, though I would never even give a thought to eating them without a trained eye helping me. Anyways, it made me realize how hard finding good food in the wild actually is. You could spend a whole day and come back empty handed!
-What would the chances be if you just picked up a mushroom, it would be edible?
Michael Pollan, Omnivore's Dilemma, Chapter 20-
Summary:
After visiting all those farms, after learning so much about our food systems, after learning how to hunt, it was time to prepare my perfect meal. There were a couple of rules (which I ended up breaking) to my meal. It all had to be in season, not paid for, and prepared by me. My guests for my special meal were, Angelo, Anthony, Sue, Richard, and of course, Judith, and Isaac. For my meal I had prepared a leg and loin of the pig I had hunted, as well as a paté Angelo had prepared from the liver (where the rule was broken) , fava beans served over homemade sourdough bread, some of Angelo's wine, a salad, egg fettucini with the morel mushrooms, and cherry tarts for dessert. Though the taste wasn't perfect, the meal was to me because it was all natural. I collected everything for the meal myself, and it was my meal, and it was perfect.
"Gems"-
"This meal was far richer in stories then calories." Page 393
"For would 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 more or less then the body of the world." Page 411
"It was just still a menu, okay, and it admittedly broke several of my own rules, and leaned rather heavily on Angelo's generosity talents." Page 398
Thoughts:
-I think that this chapter was a good conclusion to the book, as it displays the way that we were meant to eat food. ALL NATURALLY. Industrialization of our food may have brought modernization, but it also brought a lot more problems then we can handle. When we obtain, process, and cook our own food, we know how it go to us, it's a better way to eat and live. Industrial standards have brought our own standards of eating down so much, so I understand why this meal was so important to Michael Pollan. I know I don't have the time, resources, or knowledge to make a meal like his, but one day I will. I think that fishing would be a good alternative to hunting, considering I don't want to spend the time or money to get a hunting license I'm going to use once. In conclusion, I enjoyed this book, it was very educating, and it opened up my eyes to the food world.
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