February 22, 2010

I found Chapter Seventeen of The Omnivore's Dilemma especially interesting in this assignment of reading. This chapter is entitled The Ethics of Eating Animals and it discussed just that. Michael Pollan says "it seems we either look away or become vegetarian." This fact intrigues me because even if you look away the fact still remains the same that the meat you are eating was once an animal and it suffered in order for you to have the pleasure of consuming it. I relate a lot to this idea because I always knew that animals were treated horribly, but once I actually saw the horrible conditions they are exposed to and the genetic alterations the often undergo when we watched the movie Food Inc. I could not believe I had been consuming meat for 17 out of the past 18 years (I was a vegetarian for a brief time at the age of 10). After viewing this movie last Tuesday I decided that I was going to give up meat for at least the next forty days, not necessarily for Lent, but it dovetailed nicely. However, this relinquishing of meat probably will not last for the rest of my life, I am going to make the effort to eat meat that is free range, humanely treated, and organic.

February 15, 2010

In this last reading of The Omnivore's Dilemma the main topic was grass. It was discussed how grass is the foundation of all farming, this is because it feeds animals which in turn feed us humans. It states that the grasses grown at Salatin's farm become this vast amount of food ranging from beef to rabbits to eggs. This fact is extremely interesting to me to think that grass, which seems like such a simple basic output, is essentially the basis of our existence. Without the careful production and maintaining of grass, many of the foods we enjoy would be unavailable.

Michael Pollan also touches on the fact that while out working on the farm he loses his focus to gaze upon the grasslands, a reaction that he observes to be an innate human characteristic. This fact struck home with me because being from the pacific northwest I have always been surrounded by lush green vegetation, but in travels and even here at Washington State I find myself often longing for the verdure I am so familiar with. It is nice to know that I can blame this desire on the human civilization, which has allowed us to see the beauty in something that might normally have been overlooked.

February 8, 2010

In chapter 12 of The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan writes about his experience "'processing' broilers." During this time he assisted in the catching and crating, killing, plucking, gutting, and clean up afterwards of 300 hundred chickens. The first was definitely the most difficult for him, but while slitting the throats of the chickens that followed he became aware of the fact that it was no longer having an impact on his morals, as the first one had. It no longer seemed like taking a life, just something that was done. With each chicken he slaughtered it became that much easier to finish the next one. As he looked around he saw men doing this exact same thing for their entire lives and it no longer had even the slightest impact on them. He started to feel eerie about his sudden apathy, however realized that it was a part of the territory in the food industry. As Joel said "slaughter is dehumanizing work if you have to do it every day." Chicken is not necessarily a life form that is particularly lovable, but it is still a living organism and has the sensory to feel pain. This feeling, or lack of feeling, for that matter is quite frightening to me and it is disturbing to think that an act that can be considered immoral is able to become such a mundane task simply through repetition.