HW 7c

Chapter 11- I woke up at 6 in the morning on Joe Salatin's farm and was suprised to find that I had overslept. Everyone was already out working, and I learned that chicken feed is the only off-farm source of fertility because manure ferilizes the grass and gives it all the nitrogen that it needs. The whole farm is like a tiny ecosystem, where the chicken feed feeds the broilers, the chicken crap feeds the grass which feeds the cows, and eventually down the chain they feed the pigs and the laying hens. Efficiency is the excuse for all the large-scale industrial farms. Although those farms may be economically efficient, Salatin's farm is efficient on a natural level, and that is just as efficient in its own way.

"Farming is not adapted to large-scale operations because of the following reasons: Farming is concerned with plants and animals that live, grow, and die." (Pollan, 214) This quote really makes me think of how farming is so unlike the image that is given to children of happy animals and crops and people. It is like the nature of farming was forced to change by the greedy people who were trying to make an extra buck, and sacraficed the original values of farming. Reading this chapter has really made me want to visit both a farm like Joe Salatin's and a typical industrial farm and see the differences for myself.

Chapter 12- Now it was the time for the killing of chickens. Six times every month, several hundred chickens would be killed, scalded, plucked, and eviscerated. This is a process that very few would consider, "one of the beautiful links in the chain of farming" but it is also an extremely important process and is completely necessary for people to put food on their plates, even if they don't like to think about it.         USDA inspectors that visit the farm are always critical of the public manner in which chickens are brutally slaughtered, (they would much prefer if they were slaughtered behind "white walls" just like the other barn animals) but Joe Salatin's excuse for doing it this way is that he is trying to build neighborly relationships and that is yet another problem with industrial agriculture. Salatin constantly dealing with USDA, who really just want to put him out of buisness.

Gems- "When the USDA sees what we're doing here the get weak in the knees,' Joel said with a chuckle. ' The inspectors take one look at our processing shed, and they don't know what to do with us, They'll tell me the regulations stipulate a processing facility must have impermeable white walls so they can be washed down between shifts. They'll quote me a rule that says all doors and windows must have screens. I point out we don't have any walls at all, not to mention doors and windows, because the best disinfectant in the world is fresh air and sunshine. Well, that really gets them scratching their heads." (Pollan, 228-9)
            "Make no mistake, we're in a war with the bureaucrats, who would like nothing better than to put us out of business." (Pollan, 230)
            "You have just dined...and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." (Pollan, 227)

Thoughts- This whole chapter had so many gems in it that I just had to make it its own section, even though I normally don't. When looking at the first quote, I feel like it is kind of a good thing that the processing shed doesn't have walls or windows because anyone who visits the farm would be able to see just by looking the way they really get their meat. Joe Salatin has nothing to hide, and its almost like by exposing what he is doing it is making it more of a natural thing, and further differentiates him from the industrial farms. I sort of got the same meaning out of the third quote, and couldn't understand why in the second quote they would want to put the farm out of business. I guess its the same reason that white people decided to enslave black people all those years ago instead of their own kind; because they were different.

Chapter 13- The Polyface Farm is the same as other farms. Most industrial farms just aim to be economically efficient, (in other words save money) but this farm aims to preserve relationship marketing, save earth's resources and reform the global food system. The industrial market only a dollar less than the Polyface Farm per pound, and that is because of the high price of processing (which is usually around a dollar a pound) Polyface farm distributes eggs, chicken, beef, and pork, and has gained recognition all over menus in Charlottesville as "Polyface farm chicken."

Gems- "Oh, those beautiful eggs! The difference is night and day- the color and richness and fat content. There's just no comparison. I always have to adjust my recipes for these eggs- you never need as many as they call for." (Pollan, 252)
            "I just don't trust the meat in the supermarket anymore" (Pollan, 242)
            "Okay, a happier chicken, great, but frankly for me it's all about the taste, which is just so different- this is a chickenier chicken." (Pollan, 252)

Thoughts- I can understand the industrial farming market's greedy desire to be economically efficient all the time at the cost of the quality of their food, because it means more money in their pocket. What I don't understand is why they do not seem to notice that the people will buy produce, meat, and eggs that TASTES better and fresher, even if it costs them the extra dollar or two. Look at the person who stated the first quote listed above- they are saying that the eggs are so good that they don't even need to use as many when they cook. So in the end, that person will probably end up spending less money on eggs in their lifetime then someone who will buy their eggs at the supermarket because those eggs will not be as good quality, so they will need to buy more of them. The cheaper prices of industrial foods are just an illusion, hiding the fact that you will need to spend more money because you will have to buy more food.

Chapter 14- Before I left Joe Salatin's farm on Friday, I decided to prepare a meal for some old friends in Charlottesville. I decided to pick out two of the chickens we had slaughtered on the farm as well as a dozen eggs. The prices for these items were comparable to how much they would have cost at whole foods. I ended up slow roasting the chickens, and everyone was very happy with the meal, but not only because of my cooking. This was a good meal because these chickens were not fed corn and were not a result of genetic breeding or pesticide/chemical use.

"When chickens get to live like chickens, they'll taste like chickens, too." (Pollan, 270) This quote pretty much summed up one of the biggest ideas of the last few chapters for me. The way to get better quality food is to give everything on your barn a better quality life. The problem with industrial farms is that they have stopped caring about the quality of the life that is supported there, and they don't have a natural system like Salatin does. Reading this chapter made me want to visit a farm like Joe's even more just to see the difference for myself, but it seems pretty clear which kind of farm is able to give higher customer satisfaction.

Chapter 15- Now there is only one meal left that I want to make, and the key to it is that it consists of ingredients that I had hunted, gathered and grown myself. To me, this seemed to be the only way to satisfy my desire to have a full awareness off what my food really is and how was it really prepared. This should be interesting, because I have never hunted in my life or even fired a gun before. For me, the first important step I must take before creating that meal is to learn what is and is not edible in the forest. Fortunately, I will have help from a 58 year old Sicillian man named Angelo, who will be teaching me the ways of the hunt.

"There was one more meal I wanted to make, and that was the meal at the end of the shortest food chain of all. What I had in mind was a diner prepared entirely from ingredients I had hunted, gathered, and grown myself." (Pollan, 277) This quote, along with the whole chapter, reminded me of an article we read in class this year. The article was comparing and contrasting the lives of hunter-gatherers to the lives of those who had embraced agriculture. It contained statistics about how when people switched to agriculture, their life expectancy along with their height suffered decreases. Overall, this chapter made me very curious about how I would feel about hunting in general after I finish this section of the book and if the meal that the author prepares in the end would be more or less healthy/satisfying than his previous meal.

Chapter 16- Humans have very large brains relative to the size of their stomach and guts, which makes  humans unique in the way that they require food that is not only healthy and tastes good, but it also has to be environmentally friendly as well as culturally and ethically pleasing. This is an effect of a varied diet as well as sensory capabilities and memory storage. Many other countries that have just as much variety in their diets as America succeed in eating healthy while simultaneously maintaining cultural values in their diets.

"Cuisines embody some of a culture's accumulated wisdom about food.' Often when one culture imports another's food species without importing the associated cuisine, and its embodied wisdom, they will make themselves sick." (Pollan, 296) My thoughts on this chapter relate mostly to the variety in human diets. I think that another important difference between humans and other animals is that most animals eat only because they have to in order to survive, but humans eat because they love to eat. (and it helps them survive as well) To quote the author, Americans have an "obsession with food" and it is one of the reasons that we are becoming obese. This also reminds me of something I heard about a long time ago, where other countries would accuse America of having not culture at all because it is just a blend of people from everywhere. Could this be the reason that America is getting fatter, because so many people don't have any real cultural foods that they just eat everything?