Reading Ch. 18, 19, and 20

Within these chapters assigned for reading, Pollan discusses his ambition to create the perfect meal and creates a rule set. The ideology Pollan attempts to create his rules around result from the research he’s done thus far on the fast-food industrialized meal. His concept of cooking the meal himself and attaining a food source from each edible kingdom seems to be symbolic of the freedom in America which allows choices to be independently made. Amongst his peers and friends whom helped him attain his food successfully Pollan serves as a representative of the hunter and gatherer community found in ancient past times within Afro-Eurasia and America. Although focusing on providing sustenance for his small representative community Pollan goes above and beyond in creating the perfect meal. As defined by Pollan the perfect meal exists in a society where each member can contribute to the goal of the community itself. Whilst Pollan spent hours on end reaching to attain abalone and inevitably many calories, he redefines the food itself in the industrialized world. No more could Pollan be dissatisfied in his result than he was in attaining that cheap fast food meal with empty calories for his family to be consumed in ten minutes. Duly Pollan achieves his goal of making the perfect meal when he separates himself from consuming the concept or notion of a food item since he reveals that the impossible task of gaining enough abalone for sustenance of an entire nation and veers more along the lines of complacency in living freely in the American Dream. Pollan was opportune in his environment without taking complete advantage of its fruitful bounty that nature provides each of us with.

Readings Due: 2/09/10

Within the assigned readings, I found that the word “organic” was mentioned a few times. The word organic is now owned by the U.S. government to be a certification process through the USDA. Although “organic” often refers to the method of growing certain foods or creating sustenance without use of chemicals, the definition itself is misconstrued most times and becomes misleading. The harmful truth of this certification process lays just under the “diesel fuel coated foods” which owner of PolyFace Farm, Joel Salatin, describes as indisputably not organic by his definition of the word. At PolyFace Farm the organic method which he defines is evident due to the satisfactory lifestyle provided to his animals for they rely amongst each other’s natural habits of sustaining nutrition. Not only are his animals happy and healthy, but also they do not remain closed off to the world in the mockery of what today’s standards consider organic growth in an indoor crowded facility where “organic” fed chickens are standing up to their bodies in fecal matter. To this extent, Salatin is relying upon his animals to do the work at PolyFace, as opposed to the industrial agrarians working towards upkeep of protein output at the end of the day, and his 550-acre farm reaps arable benefits duly to his responsibility in his method of farming. I feel as though Salatin has redefined the true meaning of organic farming in a just manner and his wholesome method reveals itself to be a catalyst in an environmentally responsible habitat for creating sustenance.