The Choice Seems Obvious

What I find most interesting about chapter ten, is how much better grazed pastures are for the cows and the environment instead of corn-based systems. And in the end, it ends up benefiting us as well because the animals are healthier, meaning their meat is better for us. What makes this way of raising the animals even more desirable is “… remove thousands of pounds of carbon in trees… would remove fourteen billion pounds of carbon from the atmosphere  each year…” (Pollan 197-198). Not only would the grass be better for the animals, but the benefit for the environment would be significant. The way Pollan brings up all of the facts about the benefits of grass-pastures effectively argues to the audience about how much better this way of bringing up animals and the environment is compared to the corn/industrial method.

Chapter twelve is one of my favorite chapters so far in this book. While the method used by Joel doesn’t produce vast amounts of chickens at cheap process, every other aspect of his process is truly better. When it comes to the chickens themselves, it is much more humane. The chance of them getting killed without an error or feeling much pain is much less done his way versus the process in the industrial plants. The point that Pollan made that hit me the most is how Joel’s process of being wide-open to the world exposed to fresh-air and sunlight is the best way. “… transparency is a more powerful disinfectant than any regulation  or technology,” (Pollan 235). Customers know exactly what they’re buying; there aren’t any closed doors in which people can’t see what’s happening. When Pollan introduces this point with all of its imagery and diction, his argument supporting Joel’s process and others like it really hits hard. The audience feels complete support for this method and is completely against the industrial “standard.”

The Right Way to Do It

Joel Salatin is the definition of an American farmer that all Americans should support and buy their food from. His ways of raising cows through grass feeding is the correct way a cow should be fed and is the humane way to do it. In a world where our food is lost in industry and food-processing,  a farm like Salatins, is what we as people need. Salatin’s cows are healthier cows that are raised the correct way, unlike the cows that are seen at feedlots like the one Pollan attended earlier in the novel. Salatin’s farm is a place where food is done naturally, as the sun feeds the grass, the grass feeds the cow, and the cow feeds the human. This is how food should be processed and like Pollan says, “Instead of diminishing the world, it (the farm) has added to it” (199).

The slaughtering of animals is something that meat-eating humans do not like to think about when they are eating their food. Some consider it wrong and inhumane, while some consider it as a must for survival in this world. But nobody wants to be the person to have to perform the process of slaughtering an animal. When reading how Pollan describes the process of slaughtering chickens, it was horrifying to think about, but it was most likely the most humane way to do it. There is no true humane way to do those type of things, but in this situation, Salatin’s farm does it the right way. Also, Salatin lets people watch the whole process of slaughtering, so people know that they slaughter chickens with integrity rather than profit. The prices are slightly higher for Salatin’s chickens, but in today’s world, that extra price is worth it when you know your food is being done the right way.