HW 7d

Chapter 17- Over the years, eating meat has become increasingly controversial and morally problamatic, therefore vegetarianism is much more popular than it was. Personally I don't understand why people are just now starting to consider the ethics involved in the way we slaughter animals, for humans have been eating meat for tens of thousands of years. It is interesting how certain animals such as house pets like dogs will get special treatment from humans, like a Christmas gift on Christmas, and other animals like pigs will be the source of the Christmas ham. Descartes would say that it didn't really matter how animals were treated because humans were the only creatures with souls. But Peter Singer would say that to treat animals so cruely and differently from us would make us speciest, which in his opinion is the same thing as racism.

Gems- "Do you really want to base your moral code on the natural order? Murder and rape are natural, too. Besides, we can choose: Humans don't need to kill other creatures in order to survive; carnivorous animals do." (Pollan, 310)
            "If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans for the same purpose?" (Pollan, 307)

Thoughts- This whole chapter made me think a lot about how much I have not really been thinking for all these years. However, the reason it will not be able to convince me to stop eating meat is because my problem is not actually consuming the meat of other animals, it is the way they are slaughtered. Even if I were to become a vegetarian and completely give up meat-eating, it would not change the way that animals would be treated. Until someone can show me that by not eating meat, I will be helping to stop this cruel treatment of animals mentioned in both my book as well as both of the movies from class, I have no interest in giving up meat. In fact, it almost feels like a waste if I don't eat meat, because then those animals suffered and died for nothing; at least by eating them we convert something horrible into something that benefits our health.

Chapter 18- On my first day holding a rifle in the woods, I found that there is nothing I have previously encountered that could have prepared me for the amount of attention that the task at hand of hunting really takes. I never found myself observing the smallest details before until now. I had some serious nerve issues the night before, and when I fired my gun successfully before, my shoulder hurt for a week. Also, the animal I would be hunting was the California pig, known for its feral and vicious nature as the "dog ripper". I had to give up my first opportunity at killing my own pig because there was no bullet in the chamber. About a month later, I went hunting with Angelo again, and finally got my first pig.

"Angelo clapped me on the back and congratulated me extravagantly. 'Your first pig! Look at the size of it. And with a perfect shot, right in the head. You did it!" (Pollan, 352) I have never been hunting before, but from the tone of the chapter I am under the impression that it is a very exhilerating experience. However, it doesn't seem like killing an animal myself is something I would be too excited about. It would be a life I took myself, and for what? Personal satisfaction, maybe even just for the experience? This idea reminds me of how some people believe that life is sacred while others do not. I think I do believe that life is sacred, and all creatures should be treated with respect, and not killed unless it is necessary for survival. Being slightly religous, I would probably have at least said a prayer for the creature who's life I had taken.

Chapter 19- Now it is time to discuss mushroom hunting. Unlike most food that would typically be gathered, (produce) mushrooms usually grow in the forest which is a place where people like me would have no difficulty getting lost. Foraging for mushrooms is also a difficult task because no one is really able to consistantly be 100% sure about the difference between the poisnonous and non-poisonous as well as those that contain hallucineginic properties. It was also very hard to find a mushroom hunter that would take me along with them, probably because they thought that I would reveal their secret mushroom location in my writitng. All of these difficulties, however, made mushroom foraging all the more satisfying in the end.

"But calories are simply units of solar energy that have been captured and stored by green plants and, as Weil points out, 'mushrooms have little to do with the sun.' They emerge at night and wither in the light of day. Their energies are of an entirely different order from those of plants..." (Pollan, 378) To be honest, this one quote made me think more than anything else in the chapter. I realized that I have heard the word 'calories' so often, but never actually bothered to define it. I also never considered mushrooms any different from regular plants, and now I am sort of wonderinig/ a little confused about how mushrooms get their energy. I am also curious why the author chose mushrooms, even though it is not considered to have a high nutritional value.

Chapter 20- I'm sure that when you here me boast of the perfect meal, you are getting a completely different image then what it actually is. This meal was perfect because of the fact that it was made entirely out of ingredients that I had foraged or hunted myself. I was cooking for my hunting guide Angelo, Sue, Anthony, Richard, Isaac, Judith and myself. Wild California pig would be the main course, and all the other things I had managed to gather would be on the side. Another rule of my meal was that it had to have a representative of each edible kingdom. Unfortunately, the meal was not great as far as the taste standards of my guests, but that wouldn't have been the reason it was perfect anyway. It was still a perfect meal because of the way it defied fast food, and that made it worth all the struggle and effort.

"I don't want to make too much of it; it was just a meal, after all. A very tasty meal, too... The wild pig was delicious both ways, with a nutty sweetness to it that tasted nothing like store-bought pork." (Pollan, 408) This quote, and chapter as a whole, made me realize what I believe to be one of the main purposes of the author writing this whole book- to show how used to the extensive amount of processing our food goes to that to eat non-processed food is a completely different sensation. Michael Pollan showed us what we are really eating no matter what the companies may say in The Omnivores Dilemma, and showed us how far from natural that it is. That is the reason I found this book to be extremely interesting, and something that everyone should read so they can be aware of what is really going into their systems.