Ch. 8, 10, 11

This section of Omnivore’s Dilemma covers Pollan’s first encounter with “beyond organic” farmer, Joel Salatin. Salatin defines himself as a grass farmer, as opposed to a chicken or beef farmer. His point in this is that everything he raises lives off of the grass of his land. Pollan introduces the method of growing the grass and letting the cows graze on it. I found this part very interesting because the whole process is self-sufficient. This farm has no need to bring in fertilizers, or anything else for that matter, from the outside world since the chickens and cows provide that for the soil. This is a luxury that industrialized farms don’t get to experience due to the large scale of everything on these farms. As far as the biology of it is concerned, I would not be able to explain – which is the beauty of it. It is so complex, yet as consumers, all we see is an assortment of meat we are choosing from to buy on the shelves of a supermarket. We don’t see the means by which it’s made. And this is a shame. How can we really enjoy what we have until we know what it takes to get it? However, this only applies to this type of small-scale farm. As far as I’m concerned, I see no beauty in the industrial farming.