Reading Response 7d

Chapter 17 10/18/10
Have you ever had food that is directly off the farm? Well most likely not, I know that I haven't. Michael cooks a meal for his friends from the chickens raised, the corn grown, and the eggs that were laid on Polyface farm. He notices many differences in the foods. The fresher eggs have a more solid yoke for example. The way Michael explained this meal made it sound amazing. I would really like to try all of this food fresh. I like fresh fruits when I had them in the past. Does this mean that organic foods aren't only better for you but taste better as well? Maybe if people focused a little less on the quantity and more on the quality then food in the U.S. would possibly be some of the best in the world.
Chapter 18 10/19/10
Now most of us get our food at the supermarket. We look to shop organic to be healthy or just get whatever is at the local supermarket. There are also some who grow their own food. They farm their food the old fashion way. But how many of us go into the wild and do the natural thing. Find and eat the food that mother earth has given us? There is a lot of food in the wild that is all natural and may be a lot healthier then the same thing you see in the supermarket. There's such a large variety of stuff in the wild like fruits, vegetables, and even fungi. Then we can hunt our own animals as well. The way things were meant to be. Getting food as easily as we can is nice but is it really worth it. How truly different are we to those chickens who could barely walk in food inc.?
Chapter 19 10/20/10
Precis- Being a vegetarian is not as easy as it sounds. As humans we have evolved to live off of meat. But it may be hard to eat meat when you hear about the slaughter houses and treatment of the animals we eat. There is no doubt that the American industrial food chain is a disgusting and horrific sight to see, if your unlucky enough to see it and definitely are horrible event to even think about. The owners of these big food chains see these creatures as raw materials to make money rather then living creators that live and die just like humans do. It is part of these animals nature to be eaten by humans, they are domesticated animals. They have evolved to live by, be used by us which includes being eaten by us. But it is not part of their nature to live in a dark cage or on in a crowded feed lot standing in their own feces. It is not wrong to kill and eat animals but it is wrong to take the away the nature of them.
Gem- Before Temple Grandin created the double-rail cattle slaughter system there were stories of cows still being alive while they were being skinned and butchered.
Thoughts and Questions- Something that I found particularly interesting was when McDonald's hired Temple Grandin to make a quick and painless slaughter system. Since when has McDonald's cared about the cows going through the system. It is good that they would do that but why is that all they do? There are so many more ways that they can improve the system for the cows, why are they only doing that?
Chapter 20 10/21/10
Precis- Michael is going to go hunting for his first time. This is the first time that he has tried getting his own food. Michael doesn't like killing animals but he wants to try to hunt and gather his own meal. What he is hunting for is wild bore in California. The first time that Michael went hunting he didn't kill anything. He had the chance to but since he didn't exactly know what he was doing his rifle was not cocked and would scare of the bores if he did. So he went hunting another time with only his hunting instructor. The instructor didn't look at the bore as a creature, just as future food. This time Michael did kill the bore. He was very excited about it until later when he felt bad about kill the animal.
Gem- Wild pigs aren't actually wild. Since they are domesticated animals they are considered feral, which means domesticated and living in the wild.
Thoughts and Questions- I thought that the difference in the reactions in the two men was very interesting. Michael who in a way represents the normal American citizen can barely look at what he hunted. But Angelo, his french instructor thought of the killing as nothing. So if that is how Michael would all of the other normal American citizens be able to deal with killing their own food?
Chapter 21 10/23/10
Precis- To complete Michael's meal that shall be purely hunted and gathered he goes into the forest to look for and gather fungi. There are a lot of mushrooms that are very unsafe to eat and can kill a person so fungi hunters have to be careful what they pick. The mushroom that Michael and his friends were looking for are called chanterelle mushrooms. These should be cooked before eaten. Michael was only able to find five but Angelo found a lot more. Most of the fungi is underground and the mushroom is only one part of the whole fungi. Humans know very little about fungi even though it is the third kingdom of life on earth. It is a very hard form of life to observe.
Gem- People who gather fungi call it hunting instead of harvesting because picking the wrong mushrooms can kill a person.
Questions and Thoughts- Once again the normal guy, Michael only comes out with five mushrooms when the experienced hunter comes out with many more. I think this shows how much most people depend on America's nightmare industrial food chains.
Chapter 22 10/23/10
Precis- Now that all of the food that Michael hunted and gathered is together it is time to cook. Michael is now going to cook a big meal from that food. All the food that was caught and gathered is in season, so this is basically the perfect organic meal. He decides to only buy the salt at the store because the salt that he got out of the salt pond in San Francisco tasted bad. All of Michael's friends and family loved his meal.
Gem- To get salt one must take water and evaporate it.
Thoughts and questions- This Perfect meal that Michael has made is just impossible unless of a special occasion because people just don' have the time to go hunting, look for mushrooms, and cook a meal that takes eleven hours. The only way we can change everybody's food is by changing the food system,