Book Report: Eating Animals

   I just finished listening to Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer on audiobook (I checked out the audiobook version for a recent trip to Portland). In summary, would I recommend the book? Yes, absolutely. I think everyone should know the information contained in this book. Do I agree with Mr. Foer? No, not entirely. Despite the author's very many attempts to bully the reader into sharing his conclusions I do not.

   I agree with most of what the book has to say. The factory farming that takes place in the U.S. is horrific, wholly unsustainable, and needs to stop. The fact that we have a food system whose economic concerns are primary and whose ecological concerns are nonexistent is not just unhealthy, it's insane. I agree that meat is not a required part of a healthy diet and Americans tend to eat too much of it. So, why did I not come to the same conclusions as Jonathan Safran Foer?

   Let me first talk some about the book itself. I am interested to look through a copy of the book to see if the way it is presented on paper makes more sense. My experience listening to the audiobook was similar to watching Pulp Fiction the first time; I spent much of the book wondering where we were, where we were going, and trying to connect the dots. The book seems to bounce around a lot, at times trying to make a point, at other times seeming to try to present a variety of ideas and opinions so as to let the reader decide for themselves, and at times preaching from so high atop a vegan soapbox it is difficult to hear the message.

   The book includes this excerpt from rancher Bill Niman, but never adequately addresses it:

   "But what about the argument that we humans should choose not to eat meat, regardless of natural norms, because meat is inherently wasteful of resources? This claim is also flawed. Those figures assume that livestock is raised in intensive confinement facilities and fed grains and soy from fertilized crop fields. Such data is inapplicable to grazing animals kept entirely on pasture, like grass-fed cattle, goats, sheep, and deer.
   "The leading scientist investigating energy usage in food production has long been David Pimentel of Cornell University. Pimentel is not an advocate of vegetarianism. He even notes that 'all available evidence suggests that humans are omnivores.' He frequently writes of livestock's important role in world food production. For example, in his seminal work Food, Energy, and Society, he notes that livestock plays 'an important role… in providing food for humans.' He goes on to elaborate as follows: 'First, the livestock effectively convert forage growing in the marginal habitat into food suitable for humans. Second, the herds serve as stored food resources. Third, the cattle can be traded for… grain during years of inadequate rainfall and poor crop yields.'
   "Moreover, asserting that animal farming is inherently bad for the environment fails to comprehend national and world food production from a holistic perspective. Plowing and planting land for crops is inherently environmentally damaging. In fact, many ecosystems have evolved with grazing animals as integral components over tens of thousands of years. Grazing animals are the most ecologically sound way to maintain the integrity of those prairies and grasslands.
   "As Wendell Berry has eloquently explained in his writings, the most ecologically sound farms raise plants and animals together. They are modeled on natural ecosystems, with their continual and complex interplay of flora and fauna. Many (probably most) organic fruit and vegetable farmers depend on manure from livestock and poultry for fertilizer."

   I agree that we (Americans, and more recently, peoples of the developed world) should generally eat less meat and I agree that we should not support factory farming in any way. Note I did not say factory ranching or feedlot operations because farming covers more than animals. Mr. Foer fails to point out the industrial mono-cropping of fruits and vegetables as being a problem to the health of us and our planet. He does not talk about genetically modified produce that raises questions of if our fruits and vegetables are really vegan at all. He doesn't talk about pest and pesticide resistant crops, the chemicals that are sprayed on them, or the resistant "super" bugs and bacteria that are being created as a result. My point is that I believe the author's intent is true, but his focus may be a little off target. I fear the book maybe missed the bigger point in favor of an emotional response.

   In the end, Eating Animals provides a lot of really good information and, as I said, I would (and will) recommend it to anyone, but with a caveat. Our entire food system in this country -- not just the meat -- is broken. What we really need is an ecological food system, not an industrial one. On that, I believe the author and I would agree.

Books On Genetically Modified Foods

   One of my most popular posts is Arguments Against Genetically Modified Foods, which details the United Nations' three major concerns regarding GM foods.

   I am happy to see that there is such interest in the subject -- climate change has the potential of being the biggest issue mankind has ever dealt with and how we feed ourselves is intrinsically linked.

   Since the interest is there, I am posting some books on the subject for those who might wish to dig a little deeper:

Spring Cleaning!

   The weather on Sunday and Monday was warm and sunny. The locals news even reported that the weather was the warmest it had been since September. It’s been a long winter…

   As much as I would have liked to load up the backpacks and spend the weekend with the family out in the wilderness, there were priorities at home. The wife got her serger back from the shop a little while back and her mom brought us the table that goes with her new sewing machine just last week. We finally got all of the files transferred from my wife’s old desktop PC and were ready to take it apart and rearrange some things. We moved the nice computer desk from the living room to the office and donated the desk from the office to the local thrift store. The new desktop set up is using the most efficient  components from each of the old set ups. Now that the entire family has graduated to laptops, I expect the desktop probably won't see a lot of use.

   Where the desk was in the living room we set up the sewing table, craft table from the office, and other crafty stuff scattered throughout the house. While we were at it we rearranged the rest of the living room furniture. Now the office is back to being a dedicated office and my wife has a functional craft space in the main living area.

   In the course of all of the moving and rearranging we were able to do a lot of spring cleaning. We opened all the windows and cleaned as we went along. We also thinned out a lot of stuff to donate, freecycle, and trade at the used bookstore.

   One reason we weren’t able to take a trip was because I had a work meeting scheduled for Sunday afternoon. While I did that my wife went out and picked up some tomato and pepper plants for the garden. We have a few starts from the heirloom seeds, but with the season getting such a late start we agreed we needed something further along if we were going to have much of a harvest. She also cleaned up the kitchen!

   After getting the office and living room rearranged we decided to focus on a few organization issues. The first part of Monday we spent running errands. We traded in some old books at the used bookstore (I picked up a 1st Edition copy of Fawn Brodie’s, Thomas Jefferson, an Intimate History. Inside was an old postcard from Monticello the previous owner had been using for a bookmark!), returned and picked up some things at the library, dropped off another load of stuff at the thrift store, and found a small bookshelf for the living room and a large bookshelf for the office at the local consignment shop.

   After cleaning the shelves and setting them up at home, we set out for the second round of errands. We stopped by the post office to mail a bunch of kid’s videos back to the friend who loaned them to us. We had a gift card for a big-box store, so we went in seeking some organizational help. We found some bed risers to create storage space under our son’s bed, magazine holders, a file box for our son’s extensive collection of Lego building instructions and magazines, and a set of stainless steel measuring cups to replace our plastic ones. After tax we had $0.31 left on the card. Dang near perfect! From there we stocked up on some things at Costco (most noteworthy – Costco had recycled bath tissue for the first time! We’re set for months now).

   When we got home we put the food away, put our son’s bed on risers, reorganized the books and magazines, and I spent some time rewiring and organizing the office.

   Today the weather took a turn. It was cold and wet. I made a run to the butcher store and produce stand and then spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen. Our most recent order from Amazon arrived this afternoon as well.

   I may have to go back to the produce stand tomorrow and get something to run through the food mill…

The Danger of Civilization

"The danger of civilization, of course, is that you will piss away your life on nonsense"


I will be looking for The Beast God Forgot to Invent by Jim Harrison at the library this week. If the quote above is any indication, I expect to find much truth there.

Book Report: Food Rules

   I just found out this week that Michael Pollan put out a book in 2009, Food Rules. The other day at the library I borrowed a copy. It's a pretty easy read -- 140 pages covering 64 rules or guidelines for eating healthy as described in Pollan's earlier book, In Defense of Food.

   In fact, I came away from the book feeling that it was a great refresher for In Defense of Food. On the other hand, for anyone who hasn't read In Defense of Food, Food Rules is a great primer. Pollan even breaks the book up into three categories from the previous book, "Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much." Pollan says up front that the book is intended to be a simple guide not weighed down by the science and debate covered in earlier books. Still, his introduction includes a lot of compelling information and every now and then a rule explanation will dip a little into the science behind it.

   As I said, it's an easy read. I understand Pollan is working on an expanded version of the book. I will most likely acquire a personal copy as it would be nice to be able to pick it up from time to time to pick apart bad habits that may creep back in. Actually, the book lends itself to a "Tip-a-Day" calendar type format.

   If he can come up with 365 Food Rules, I'd buy it.

The Girl With The Best Book Title Ever

   My wife is reading The Girl Who Played With Fire, having just finished The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. She informed me last night that the author, Stieg Larsson was dead. It turns out he died of a heart attack in 2004 and the three Millennium Series books were released after his death.

   I told her it was too bad because he had hit on a title concept that could go on infinitely (as it turns out, only The Girl Who Played With Fire was the only original title -- the other titles were changed for the American translations). Some titles we came up with included:

The Girl Who Had Too Many Shoes
The Girl With Low Self-Esteem
The Girl With Terrible Gas
The Girl Who Couldn't Help It
The Girl Who Hated Shopping
The Girl With The Dog Face (but a Heart of Gold)
The Girl With The Lazy Eye
The Girl, The Gold Watch, and Everyt... oh wait, scratch that one...
The Girl Who Just Wanted To Have Fun
The Girl With The Club Foot
The Girl With Something In Her Teeth

   My sincere apologies to the late Stieg Larsson.

   RIP