2/23 English Reading Response

Omnivore's Dilemma Chapter 16 Response

Essentially I gathered two concepts from this chapter. FIrstly I understood that one reason human might have a higher intelligence than the other species of plants and animals that cover the earth, is because of not only what we eat, but also how we eat it. By cooking things, humans found a way to unlock nutrients that would otherwise be harmful to them. Also, I understood that in current times instead of humans being able to eat freely and safely (which would be due to all of the knowledge that has been collected over the centuries about what is and what is not safe to eat), they instead must be just as cautious as they were hundreds of years ago, because instead of natural defenses, companies that produce food have now made other types of unsafe edibles, and we must again interpret what is safe and what is not. I find this interesting, because I never quite understood what the big deal about additives was, but now I see that food additives can be just as dangerous of natural ones.

Chapter 17 Response

This chapter of Pollan's ever fascinating book was something that I think about often. In this part of the book Pollan discusses how killing an animal has far more consequences than just dietary, and humans ought to know the exact process of killing an animal in order to understand the moral issue behind it. The reason this chapter was intriguing to me, was because though I am a huge supporter of animal rights, but I am also a huge supporter of anti-vegetarian diets. Though it may be hard to understand how I can be both, I do indeed love animals, and my cat is my baby, but I also love to eat meat. I guess I just feel like some animals have to die, but since it's only a few species of animals that are routinely eaten, I feel like that makes it ok. Really I guess its not. This issue if this omnivore's dilemma.

Reading Response #2

They Say, I Say (ch 4-5)

Chapters Four and Five of They Say, I Say peeked my interest. In my junior year English class my teacher always told us that as a rule, when responding to someone else's argument, we should always take a firm stance. It was either in the affirmative or the negative, no in-between, though we could reflect on something that was said, which might indeed have some validity. In They Say, I Say however, the author's took a bit more lenient position and suggested that while you should state your position as early on in the writing as possible, you may indeed take a yes, no, or a combination of the two viewpoint. I really enjoyed reading the different methods of establishing different arguments, and while I will keep my teacher's advice in my head, I will also remember that rules were meant to be broken.

Also, the fifth chapter, while informative, wasn't quite as interesting in my opinion. I usually don't have difficulties with distinguishing my ideas, from that of someone else's, because my viewpoint is often in opposition to theirs. I do however, take note that this chapter can be of very great help, when one's own thoughts are similar to that of another's.

Omnivore's Dilemma (ch 12-13)

As I have stated many time in class, I am the type of person that does not care where there food comes from as long as it's good, and won't make me sick. Reading these two chapters actually changed my views, but not for the reason's one might think. While I still kind of don't mind that my chicken was produced in a large factory, I have now have reservations about the fact that this hurts small farmer's businesses. In these two chapters of Omnivore's Dilemma, it was shown that not only are small farm's food healthier, but the work is "honest" and it is community building. Just as large books stores like Barnes and Nobles make it hard for mom and pop book stores to flourish, the same happens with large meat producers and small scale farmers. Just as finding a one of a kind book loses it's magic when said book is available instore, online, as an iphone app, and on Kindle...having a truly delicious piece of chicken loses its appeal when it was raised for the purpose of being food, and led no kind of happy life what so ever.

Big Organic Blog Response

While reading the chapter Big Organic in Michael Pollan's Ominvore's dilemma, I had quite a few thoughts. Admittedly, I am the type of person that doesn't usually care much about where their food comes from as long as it's good. As I read this chapter, however, Pollan actually began to convince me through his positive words about Whole Foods, that maybe it is worth it to pay a bit extra to have food from a cow that was grown on a farm where he lived a happy life. For the first time probably ever, I actually leaned towards eating exclusively from health food stores...and then I read on.

As the chapter continues the truth emerges. While packaging of foods from stores like Whole Foods to indeed display literature which soothes the consumer's conscience about how their food got on the shelf, it is not displayed in all honesty. As Pollan delved deeper into the marketing of the "organic" food, he found that often the truth was stretched about where the food came from, and the food at the supermarkets that have been injected with hormones and raised specifically to be food, is very close to the "all natural" and "free range" food promoted at health food stores. Ultimately this chapter let me know that I would be just as well off eating food from my local non organic grocery store as I would be from eating only food from Whole Foods. Thanks Pollan.