• In total there are 7 users online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 7 guests (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Ch. 13 -The market: "greetings from the non-barcode peo

#31: Oct. - Dec. 2006 (Non-Fiction)
User avatar
Chris OConnor

1A - OWNER
BookTalk.org Hall of Fame
Posts: 17019
Joined: Sun May 05, 2002 2:43 pm
21
Location: Florida
Has thanked: 3511 times
Been thanked: 1309 times
Gender:
Contact:
United States of America

Ch. 13 -The market: "greetings from the non-barcode peo

Unread post

Please use this thread for discussing Chapter 13.
MadArchitect

1E - BANNED
The Pope of Literature
Posts: 2553
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:24 am
19
Location: decentralized

Re: Ch. 13 -The market: "greetings from the non-barcode

Unread post

I'm midway through this chapter now, but I'll go ahead and say that what struck me most about it is the way that the USDA seems almost designed to work against the sort of conscientious food production that Salatin and company are trying to foster. The way Pollan tells it, they basically told Eggleston that they weren't going to sanction a slaughterhouse that didn't churn out an undifferentiated mass of industrial product. And because Salatin is prevented by law from slaughtering anything but chickens on his farm himself, that pretty much exhausts the options.What I'm wondering now -- and I'm hoping that Pollan will spell this out later in the book -- is what happens to Salatin's cattle, and the good intentions that go along with them. Does he have to send them through the industrial system in order to get them to market? And to what degree does that compromise his achievements as a farmer of conscience?Another, semi-related though: Eggleston mentions the "we pile it high and sell it cheap" mentality of modern grocery stores. That's a mentality that's magnified exponentially by wholesale outlets like CostCo. (And incidentally, CostCo is getting some modest sanction by the "foodies" at Food Network -- over the weekend I happened to catch a few minutes of one cooking show where they recommended that viewers buy, oh the irony, cuts of beef from the wholesaler.) So the question I have is, how did we, as a culture, get to the point where that seemed like a good view of food?It's probably no accident that I started thinking that when I did. I read that passage in the book only a day or two after Thanksgiving, a typically American holiday -- typically American in that we've managed to adapt the fairly common phenomenon of agricultural festivals into something that has almost nothing to do with agriculture in the traditional sense. And what's the typical emblem of Thanksgiving? The symbol I remember most from childhood is that of the cornucopia, the horn of plenty, glutted with food. So it seems likely to me that this is an idea that's been simmering, if not fully articulated, at least since the pre-Revolutionary period.
AubreyAlexis

I still have hope!

Unread post

Pollan states that the USDA regulatory system is based primarily on issues that came out after the publications of Sinclair's The Jungle. So, like many things in the world these specifications and assumptions of the meat processing industry don't always make any sense. I think that in time, we will be able to let go of many of those bizarre regulations for something that makes more sense for cattle raising etc.Does anyone have a website or a rule of thumb or anything for seasonal eating? I would like to do more of that, but realize that I have grown up so far removed from the seasonality of the foods I crave and eat (they are just always available in stores....aren't they?) that I feel very ill-educated in this aspect. Help!
User avatar
Loricat
Laughs at Einstein
Posts: 433
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:00 am
19

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

There's oodles of resources out there for you.The 100-Mile Diet (www.100milediet.org/home/) people have some great tips.Local Harvest (www.localharvest.org/) is a great resource for finding local food in your area.And every first week of August is Eat In, Act Out week (www.thefoodproject.org/bl...p?ID=226), a chance to celebrate local food.(apologies for the lack of formatted links, for some reason, html wasn't available today!) "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd
MadArchitect

1E - BANNED
The Pope of Literature
Posts: 2553
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:24 am
19
Location: decentralized

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

The Joy of Cooking also makes mention of the seasonality of different foods throughout. I keep meaning to take a closer look at my copy and see if there's a section specifically on seasonality, but I keep forgetting.
User avatar
Loricat
Laughs at Einstein
Posts: 433
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:00 am
19

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

Or type 'seasonal food' into Google and you get:sustnable.woodcraft.org.uk/1_act5a.htmNeato. "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd
AubreyAlexis

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

Cool! Thank you!
MadArchitect

1E - BANNED
The Pope of Literature
Posts: 2553
Joined: Sun Nov 14, 2004 4:24 am
19
Location: decentralized

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

The last link is from a British website (co.uk suffix, and all), which reminds me that seasonality depends in part on where you happen to be and what varieties of produce are available there. Is British cabbage the same as the most common cabbages grown on the Eastern seaboard of the U.S., where I live? Could be, but maybe not.Incidentally, I did remember to check my copy of the Joy of Cooking last night. There doesn't appear to be a section on seasonality, although the background info the book gives on individual food items often mentions what time of year they're best. Again, the issue of regionality almost certainly makes for some variation. There has to be a better way to figure this all out.I wonder if maybe the best source for this sort of info might not be locally produced almanacs? Or better yet -- though more work-intensive -- asking someone who knows, like a local farmer.
User avatar
Loricat
Laughs at Einstein
Posts: 433
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:00 am
19

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

I have a list for my local area -- it's on a farmers' market brochure for the province. That's all you really need to look for.(and I didn't actually examine the site that I posted -- it just turned up as 1st on the google search )and cooking sites, like epicurious.com, are NA-based, so you won't do wrong looking up seasonal recipes there. "All beings are the owners of their deeds, the heirs to their deeds." Loricat's Book NookCelebrating the Absurd
irishrosem

1E - BANNED
Kindle Fanatic
Posts: 528
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2006 11:38 am
17

Re: I still have hope!

Unread post

I ate chickenier chicken!To be honest, it was relief to eat meat again, well substantial food of any kind. Since reading Pollan's chapters based around Salatin's farm, I've decided to reconsider my eating choices. I haven't yet decided where that will take me. And I have yet to finish researching all my options for local, sustainable food. In the meantime, my first decision was to try to cut out all industrialized, processed food. I haven't been in a supermarket for the past four weeks. The only industrial food that I've eaten since reading Pollan's first few chapters was the Kashi cereal I already owned at the time. As I am sure you can imagine, this has severely limited my diet. I've been pretty much living on the cereal, eggs (sustainable), nuts and produce (sustainable). I already don't eat much meat, not for any moral reason, I just don't cook it very often. Most of the meat I get is already prepared (take-out, restaurants, etc.). Since, for the time being, I have eliminated prepared foods, I haven't eaten meat in weeks. I have to say, after the first few weeks, I started to miss it. Which leads me to my chickenier chicken. The local sustainable agriculture group I found referenced restaurants that support local farms and I tried one this weekend. It was a small BYO, very quaint. I had the chicken dish, which was very rich, but very good. When I read Pollan's "chickenier chicken" claim, I had thought "oh, brother." I just didn't think it was possible to make chicken taste chickenier. I've had "free range" chicken, and kosher chicken, and though they do taste different, I never thought of them as tasting chickenier. So though I was conscious of the claim, I had already dismissed the possibility of finding chicken chickiener. Yet that is exactly what I thought when I took that first bite. A couple bites in, I had convinced myself that it was the sauce that was making the chicken itself taste richer. So I cut out a piece of the chicken, without any sauce on it, took a sip a water to clear my palate and tried just the chicken. Again, it tasted chickenier to me. I decided it was in my head and filled up quite contentedly on my delicious meal. Towards the end of the meal, I offered a bite to one of my dining partners. I had said nothing about the "chickenier chicken." In fact, they knew we were there because of the Buy Fresh Buy Local reference, but they were much more focused on the produce, not the meat aspect. Her response to the chicken "It doesn't taste like chicken." I just exploded and told them all about the whole chickenier chicken thing. I kept saying, it can't be true, can it? My other dining partner tried, and he said it tasted almost like turkey, much more full-flavored than chicken normally tastes. So, the moral of this tale is there is such a think as "chickenier chicken" (I guess). My meal, and my guests' meals according to them, were all outstanding. It was fun seeing the menu that was designed using mostly local ingredients (their menu changes constantly according to what is available to them), and it felt good to support a restaurant that supports local agriculture. I highly suggest it; see if you find the chicken to be chickenier.
Post Reply

Return to “The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals - by Michael Pollan”