On Jess's recommendation, I picked up The Omnivore's Dilemma from the library.
Conclusion after reading chapter one of part one: if a disease develops that wipes corn out, civilization will collapse.
Correction: this conclusion was after reading section one of chapter one of part one. But the conclusion didn't change after reading the rest of the chapter.
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I just finished reading "Working in the Shadows" by Gabriel Thompson-good read and I read "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer a while back. Both are good books. I like Pollan's books, but liked these better.
I now consider myself a "selective omnivore", by locally, we even bought 1/2 a cow from a CSA last year and ordered 1/2 for next year. We had stopped frequenting fast food places a long time ago (Elena even figured out McDonalds=stomachache on her own), but watched "Supersize Me" and that was it.
I refuse to eat chicken now since reading "Eating animals". Factory farming is out of control in the US and unless I can get local meat or guaranteed organic. Free range in factory farming is an area of 8 1/2" x 11" and a window somewhere in the room. I also buy my eggs locally now.
And, for the record, they say it's because American's want cheap food, well the 1/2 a cow, grass fed, with humane processing cost us approx $4.50 a lb for black angus meat-cheaper than the supermarket. And yes, you can taste the difference.
Both books should be available in the library.
I'll check those out when I'm done this one... thanks! :)
Thanks for the tip on what "free range" means. I must admit, I was wondering just how "free" the chickens actually are, since I couldn't see supermarket "free range" eggs coming from chickens wandering around a farmyard. *sigh* I don't buy a lot of eggs, but I do need them occasionally for baking.
Living in an apartment with only the top-of-fridge freezer, buying half a cow isn't practical for me... but I am trying to figure stuff out. (Perhaps one day...)
Another book to consider is: The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. The authors look at a variety of diets and their cost to health and the environment (and surprisingly local sometimes is more detrimental.)
I could go on forever about food choices...but I won't ;-)
Thanks! I'll add it to the list. :)
I'm not going to say I agree 100% with Pollan, but he makes some good points about some things. Mostly I like to read lots of different sources and then come up with my own decisions on things. It's all fascinating to me, though. Hope you enjoy it -- Deneen and Sara mentioned some other books worth reading too. :)
There's definitely some exaggeration, but he does make good points. No, I won't follow him blindly, and yes, I'll do more reading too. ;)
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