Immediately I picture an episode of Dirty Jobs where Mike Rowe is subjected to the icky tasks of private business owners. This reality TV cover helps me to read through the gory parts I'd rather skip. Pollan is such a good sport throughout too, which allows me to compare him even more to Mike Rowe. He begins by conquering his fear of killing a chicken. Simply reading about his experience made me sick to my stomach and also, deep down, appreciate those honest farmers who still raise and process their chickens by hand. At least, I guess, the chickens lived a somewhat normal life, not like factory raised chickens whose beaks are cut when they are days old to avoid pecking due to the literal absence of personal space for the chicks as they grow. It took me awhile to get through these two chapters because of the difficult subject matter. I'm not much of a meat-eater myself and didn't enjoy the bloody details of how they move from farm to food.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Omnivore's Dilemma Ch. 12, 13
"Slaughter" as chapter twelve is titled, has a passage within it's first couple pages where Pollan describes Joel's reasons for killing and processing his own chickens. These reasons extend a vast range of aspects including economic, ecological, political, ethical, and even spiritual. These seem a bit unclear, even to Pollan, until the process is described.
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I felt the same way about the gory details of the chicken slaughtering, I definitely could have done without that. But, then again that is the food we eat and if we are unable to handle the way it arrives on our plate maybe we should stop eating it. You say you are not a big meat eater and after reading these two chapters I am strongly considering joining you.
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ReplyDeleteI like the fact that you connected it to the show Dirty Jobs. I saw that episode, too, and that's the first thing I thought of. I have to disagree with you on not wanting to hear the "bloody details" though. I found I had an appreciation for the "humane" process in which Joel carries out on his farm. It made me want to go buy my meat products there instead of at the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteThe details were fairly gory but weren't too bad in my opinion. However, I question why chickens must be nearly beheaded and allowed to slowly bleed out to die. I just keep thinking there must be a better way to go about slaughtering them. Maybe there's not, it's still kinda sad.
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