Chapter 3-Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan(Precis)
Turns out Old McDonalds’ happy farm isn’t so much a farm nor is it happy. In chapter 3 I found out Old McDonald (the average meat maker) upgraded from farm to a feedlot or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation which feeds our cows low quality corn and leave them in low quality holders and in turn eat a whole bunch of low quality cow (and I mean a lot, specifically 100 million beef cows).These feedlots, like cheap corn, brought the work ethic of quantity over quality when making meats. Paraphrasing what was said on page 68; when animals live on a farm the very idea of waste cease to exist due to their ecological loop, on the other hand feedlots take this wonderful idea and neatly divide it into two new problems, a fertility problem which is "fixed" by adding chemical fertilizer and a pollution problem that is hardly "fixed" at all (Gem). More importantly the chapter discussed how "You are what what you eat eats" and something interesting that I never thought of, is how in America we do an amazing magic trick which is turn excess bushels of cheap corn into steaks.
Thoughts:
1. The more I read this book the more I find out that I really don’t know what I’m eating and what I’m eating is eating
2. When did these facts become acceptable?
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