Chapter 6 (The Consumer: A Republic of Fat)
Precis
In the nineteenth century, the only way to chomp through the corn surplus was to create an abundance of cheap corn whiskey to sell to consumers. The corn whiskey of the 1820s had brought an obesity epidemic among its consumers in The Alcoholic Republic much like that of America's Republic of Fat, where super-sized meals reign and our desire for sweet calorie filled foods have become important. Food that becomes more accessible and abundant overtime no longer holds demand or value but instead, take its place in the diets of people who can afford the high-fat western diet. As a result of the success in the production of cheap super-sized meals, such as the McDonald's Big Mac and 7/11's Big Gulp, big food corporations are determined to keep its bounty of corn running prolifically and its consumers fed with cheap detrimental calories.
Gems
"Our bodies are storing reserves of fat against a famine that never comes" (Pollan 106).
Thoughts
When the topic of super-sized meals rose, I began to think of the movie Supersize Me. I had watched this movie at a very ripe age and was utterly terrified but, honestly that didn't stop me from sneaking a fry or two. The temptation of foods filled with cheap calories, is far too hard to resist even for those who are wealthy and can afford obscenely priced organic foods. Even though we are the Republic of Fat, have we reached an extent to which there is a stopping point? How much farther can we sink into the "virtues" of synthetic foods and stray away from natural foods? If there are cheap calories, what are rich calories? Will this bounty of corn endure throughout the entire course of my life from beginning to end?
Chapter 7 (The Meal)
Precis
In 1983, the famous McNugget branded itself into the fast food industry, making convenience more accessible and supplanting beef as the most popular meat in America. Just as the nugget made its mark in the food industry, the generic fast-food taste became a distinct childhood past time of many adults. Even now, the taste of a McNugget has no distinguishable relevance to chicken because the nugget had established itself as a entirely different genre of food. As we blindly bite into the fruitful tree of the fast food industry, we forget we are eating animals. The industrial food chain obscures the histories of the foods it produces along with our sight for all-natural foods.
Gems
"According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can compromise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget" (Pollan 114).
Thoughts
As a young child, I loved the greasy fries and crunchy chicken nuggets. It's no lie that I still do. Fast food is a distinct memory in my childhood. The smell of fries made me impulsively inhale the smell for as I long as I could. As I read this chapter and found out that nuggets contain butane, I felt ignorant followed by disgust. I had eaten nuggets this summer and I can't bear knowing I had consumed butane. Quite honestly, I'm not as utterly disgusted as I say I am because the talk of chemical additives in foods has become a repetitive song in my head. If the talk of unhealthy synthetic ingredients go into foods, why do most people try to ignore the facts? If people are aware, why do some choose to be ignorant when the consequences are more than obvious? Will knowledge overcome fear or will our fears just be consumed?
Chapter 8 (All Flesh is Grass)
Precis
The pastoral idea is very much alive serving more than just a utilitarian purpose but a necessary factor in our lives. Grass is the foundation of our food chain and ultimately our sustenance. Through biophilia, we are naturally bonded with plants, animals, and landscapes with which we coevolved. Joel Salatin allowed us to see diversity of animals on a farm is possible without the use of industrial machinery. The term "organic" has been misconstrued and used improperly as there are organic farms that claim they produce all-natural foods while using the very industrial methods they arrogated as detrimental to the environment.
Gems
"Our species' coevolutionary alliance with the grasses has deep roots and has probably done more to ensure our success as species than any other, with the possible exception of our alliance with the trillion or so bacteria that inhabit the human gut" (Pollan 128).
Thoughts
The idea of several pastoral farms sounds fundamental but, the fact that farmers like Salatin refuse long distance shipping, the production of more pastoral farms would be hard to achieve. The organic food chain wouldn't be ideal if organic farmers export their foods to america's supermarkets and fast-food outlets. Is the ideal the enemy of the good? Is industrial organic really a contradiction all on its own?
Chapter 9 (Big Organic)
Precis
The many health accompanying names on food products alleviate us and lead us to believe that "certified organic" or "humanely raised" is directly correlated to its speciality among other foods. A foods value increases if it is accompanied by stories that tell of grassy scenery and stress-free environments. The term organic has completely changed over the course of time and consumers can be easily sucked into the implicit narratives that go along with the overpriced "organic" food. Organic is merely a label to increase profits and disguise its true nature, the entirety of an industrial artifact. We, the consumers, conjure up the virtues of organic foods thereby, creating a distinct difference between good and bad foods.
Gems
"The organic food industry finds itself in a most unexpected, uncomfortable, and, yes, unsustainable position: floating on a sinking sea of petroleum" (Pollan 184).
Thoughts
Has the "industrial" part of industrial organic farm hidden itself in the eyes of the consumers? Is it our fault we overemphasize the meaning of organic? What qualifications does a food need to fit in order to be considered organic? When the word organic comes to mind, I think of Whole Foods. What does my first thought of organic food tell me about my food perspective? I look into my own cabinets and refrigerator and wonder which foods have been processed or rather, passed through an industrial food factory? As these questions stump me, I know one thing is for sure, the boat of simplicity has sailed.
Chapter 10 (Grass: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Pasture)
Precis
As a society, we overlook the importance grass holds. Grass that spreads across the pasture not only creates a scenic view but, allows us to capture solar energy. Agriculture surrounds this idea of converting solar energy into quality human energy. Management-intensive grazing guarantees efficiency without higher capital and petroleum energy inputs. Through Salatin's farm, we can see simplicity is possible and natural methods of farming can be carried out efficiently and can increase the diversity of species in pastures. However, this productivity cannot not be achieved several times because the success of industrial farms is far too large.
Gems
"Cows eating grasses had themselves eaten the sun: The food chain at work in this pasture could not be any shorter or simpler" (Pollan 195).
Thoughts
I have a vivid memory of my pushing out my hand with pellets of food to the sheep on the other side of the fence. I was more terrified about the well being of my hand than worried about whether the sheep in front of me was going to get the pellets I shoved into his sight. My composure is stiff when in the presence of animals much larger than me and so, my memory of the farm itself, was blurry. However, nursery rhymes would always put the idea of farming at ease. A picture of a red barn and cows grazing over a pasture was a part of my childhood. If farming was put out to be so natural, beneficial, and easy-going, why can't there be more polyfarms? What would come out of a drastic transition from industrial to non-industrial? If farmers like Salatin refuse to FedEx or ship their goods, how do they expect to expand their successes?
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