Today's craze that draws the vast majority of people toward industrialized food (mainly corn) has uncanny similarities to the nineteenth century, a time when people had the same attraction and addiction to alcohol. Overabundance is the culprit here, where an excess of an industrialized diet has been connected to diseases and disorders that play a significant role in today's society as obesity and diabetes. Americans in particular fall victim to these patterns throughout time because of notable increases in affluence, the need for convenience and instant gratification as well as overall lazyness.
Gems:
-"A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association predicts that a child born in 2000 has a one-in-three chance of developing diabetes. (An African American child's chances are two-in-five.)"
-"The human appetite, it turns out, is surprisingly elastic, which makes evolutionary sense... Our bodies are storing reserves of fat against a famine that never comes."
-"Add fat or sugar to anything and it's going to taste better on the tongue of an animal that natural selection has wired to seek out energy-dense foods."
Thoughts/questions:
-How can people bear to buy an excess of foods when it has become a statistical fact that more people suffer from OVERnutrition than MALnutrition? I take very special care personally to not over eat (although this is really quite silly coming from me, who only weighs 90 lbs!)
-I guess if I were ignorant and I didn't really care about where my food came from or what consequences my choice will come with I wouldn't be bothered by the idea of abundance- I would honestly be comforted by it (until that sharp pain known as heartburn strikes once again)
-People today, ESPECIALLY those who fall under the "consumer" archetype described in the chapter, need to learn how to be patient. We live in a world where we can decide what movies show on TV when WE want them to (which means there is almost ALWAYS a reason to watch TV and not to turn it off), today's society is so bent on instant gratification that it is coming at a great cost of human productivity and health in general.
Chapter 7: The Meal (Fast Food)
At the end of the industrial food chain is nothing but an illusion in the form of a silly clown- fast food (such as McDonald's) is anything BUT varied, with its extreme dependence on corn and its endless fractions that make up the "supersized" nutritional information known as an ingredients list. Children fall for this trick the easiest, naturally, because they find the tastes and the whimsy of a fast food establishment to be exciting and generally tasteful. What the mirage is REALLY concealing is the fact that while people and their cars consume an excess of corn (along with several horrifyingly toxic chemicals such as TBHQ and BHT), the real loss is the sheer amount of energy necessary to produce these meals. While there is a growing energy crisis across the globe, a disturbing amount is constantly guzzled down by wet mills.
Gems:
-"According to the flyer, a serving of six nuggets now has precisely ten fewer calories than a cheeseburger. Chalk up another achievement for food science."
-"What this means is that the amount of food energy lost in the making of something like a Chicken McNugget could feed a great many more children than just mine."
-The piece about TBHQ, how it is so casually a part of the cooking process while so little of it can be lethal.
Thoughts/questions:
- I REALLY want to go to a McDonalds and ask for "a large fries... but can you hold the lighter fluid please?" My brother always joked about this.
-Why is considered profitable that all of this food energy is sucked into the production of something as feeble as a single nugget? Does anyone EVER consider ending world hunger???
-Speaking of wasted energy, who in the world dreamt of being a scientist so that they could discover the breakthrough that makes a chicken nugget X amount of calories? What happened to the cure for cancer?
Chapter 8: All Flesh is Grass
Meet Joel Salatin, a rare breed of farmer whose goal is to "go beyond organic", the opposite of the food spectrum from George Naylor. On Joel's farm, organisms of a variety of species from pigs to earthworms coexist in an ecosystem where grass is the main supporter. In Joel's opinion, the definition of "organic" has become bastardized to the point that it has become nothing but a claim by the industrial overlords in search of a hefty profit. The secret to his success is not really a secret at all- humans and animals are drawn to grass, which we all feed on (directly or indirectly), resulting in truly "pure" produce. In return, the animals and us humans nurture and support the grass (even if we don't mean to!).
Gems:
-"Because a healthy soil digests the dead to nourish the living, Salatin calls it the earth's stomach."
-"Like what sort of habitat is going to allow that chicken to express its psychological distinctiveness?"
-"Working together, grass and man have overspread much of the earth, far more of it than would ever have been possible working alone."
Thoughts/questions:
-Joel Salatin is a total bad*** for a farmer! As a filmmaker I could imagine a really awesome character in a movie like him.
-In my opinion the whole idea of "organic on the rise" is somewhat false- people are clearly more interested in organic, wholesome products, it's just that what is being provided doesn't exactly hold water.
Chapter 9- Big Organic
Organic foods, an idea that was established with the attitude of cleaning up people's souls from industrialized produce has dramatically changed. The heart and philosophy that had originally made organic foods a righteous and fresh idea among the American people has fallen victim to the insurmountable greed of corporations and even the few farmers responsible. Just how legitimate is the "organic lifestyle"? It has many uncanny parallels to the industrial food chain, such as the inclusion of toxic chemicals, cruelty toward livestock and its increase in convenience toward the consumer and their needs. Organic, which was once laughed at in the face of slim, powerless farmers has now become a franchise that can no longer hold the credibility of a farmer like Salatin.
Gems:
-"Indeed, the longer I shopped in Whole Foods, the more I thought that this is a place where the skills of a literary critic might come in handy- those, and perhaps also a journalist's."
-"But the free-range story seems a bit of a stretch when you discover that the door remains firmly shut until the birds are at least five or six weeks old- for fear they'll catch something outside- and the chickens are slaughtered only two weeks later."
-"The original organic ideal held that you could not divorce these three elements, since (as ecology taught) everything was connected. But Gene Kahn, for one (and he was by no means the only one), was a realist, a businessman with a payroll to meet. And he wasn't looking back."
Thoughts/questions:
- We shop at fairway, where there are BIG organic claims, and I question my "grass fed beef" that sits in the fridge right now... any farms near here...?
- How can Kahn, someone who was once basically a hippie, transform into such a greedy businessman? I guess money does talk...
- So what exactly makes these "organic meals" the right meals? Is there any meal we can eat that we can feel GOOD about???
Chapter 10- Grass (Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pasture)
Precis: Joel Salatin, who claims to lead a farm that goes "beyond organic" has figured out the true secret to ultimate sustainability: grow grass, feed the cattle that grass and in return the cattle support the grass. The methods he showed me over the week I visited are energy efficient, helpful toward the planet and lacking of any trace of the toxicity that is the industrial food chain. Growing corn like that of George Naylor might be cheaper and more productive in an industrial standpoint, but it gives little back to the Earth (what little it gives is quite harmful) and Joel's farm is not only keeping animals and humans healthy, but the grass and soil that are so necessary for the sustaining of life in his ecosystem.
Gems:
-"The reason environmentalists in the western United States take such a dim view of grazing is that most ranchers practice continuous grazing, degrading the land by flouting the law of the second bite."
-"Cows eating grasses that had themselves eaten the sun: The food chain at work in this pasture could not be any shorter or simpler."
-"... if the sixteen million acres now being used to grow corn to feed cows in the United States became well managed pasture, that would remove fourteen billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road."
Thoughts/questions:
-If there are such extreme environmentally friendly possibilities with pastoral farming, why do environmentalists waste so much time talking about things like recycling? It sounds like ALL of the causes of global warming come from food.
-The bit about electric fences in Joel's farm kind of disturbed me. Isn't that cruel? How are cows supposed to know what is electric until they touch it? I can't help but think of a feedlot.
-In connection with Cuba (strictly speaking about your comment Andy) I am curious as to if there is any data supporting the vast improvement that the Cuban foodways had when their supply of subsidized oil was cut off. You have to wonder if the U.S. could simply shy away from all of this demonic corn production even if we WERE cut off. I would think that more people would starve here before willingly taking on Joel Salatin's job.
Chapter 11: The Animals (Practicing Complexity)
Precis: Joel Salatin is not a slave to his animals, he is merely an orchestrator who lets the job get done by the ones most capable of doing it- the actual animals. In the eyes of this rare breed of farmer the animals are not simply a machine for the produce they give, but caregivers and nurturers toward the health of the other animals, and in turn, themselves. So why doesn't every farmer strive for what Salatin has? Because it not only takes real physical and mental input, but it simply does not net the profit nor efficiency that most industrial farmers live for. It takes innovation, a true passion for the message and belief that Joel and his father established, and other farmers today are simply too lazy and greedy to give something so "unconventional" (by today's standards) a try.
Gems:
-"Unfolding here before us, I realized, was a most impressive form of alchemy: cowpatties in the process of being transformed into exceptionally tasty eggs."
-"With the industrialization of agriculture, the simplifying process reached its logical extreme- in monoculture."
-"The idea is to not slavishly imitate nature, but to model a natural ecosystem in all its diversity and interdependence, one where all the species "fully express their physiological distinctiveness.""
-"...in one long, beautiful, and utterly convincing proof that in a world where grass can eat sunlight and food animals can eat grass, there is indeed a free lunch."
Thoughts/insights:
- The bit about the pig's tails was very disturbing to me. Beating a pig who had his tail cut off and didn't even know a good life to death? Ouch.
-Being a city person, I get incredibly uncomfortable with the outdoors... I think Joel Salatin might actually convince me that the farm life can be quite comfortable!
-Also, I envy those locals who get his food... why can't we get such tasty eggs or produce in the city? Wait... it's the city...
-I really admire Joel's philosophy and innovation toward his passion. His inventions of the eggmobile and the Gobbledy-Go show a passion and love for his profession that very few other farmers out there possess.
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