7d

Chapter 17
Precis: Slaughter houses are considered to be a bit barbaric for some people. This creates controversey over whether or not it should even be allowed since animals feel pain and suffer the same way we do. To justify this process which these animals must go through, the lives of animals should be treated with respect and kindness.

Gems:“The proper measure of their suffering, in other words, is not their prior experiences but the unremitting daily frustration of their instincts" pg 310
“If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans for the same purpose?” pg 307

Thoughts & Questions: There is always the prey and the predatore, in our case we are usually always the predator. It's very natural that one must live off the life of others and us humans being at the top of the food chain, I believe it is already justified. If you feel pity for all the animals we eat, then they should stop complaining and just stop eating them personally.

Chapter 18
Precis: We were born hunter gatherers, we have always survived off the death of other animals. Even now many of us hunt animals and enjoy feeling the power of holding up our game. Yet when it comes down to the food industry, we see how barbaric the process of mass killing is.

Gems: “Only the hunter, imitating the perpetual alertness of the wild animal, for whom everything is danger, sees everything and sees each thing functioning as facility or difficulty, as risk or protection" pg 343
“Predator and prey alike move according to their own maps of this ground, their own forms of attention, and their own systems of instinct, systems that evolved..." pg 336


Thoughts & Questions: Hunting is a process of survival for all living beings, in one way or another. The origin of our survival and existence now is killing and consuming. The process is a natural cycle, yet people who want to protect nature see killing animals as a threat. To a certain extent it can be seen as animal cruelty, but if it is in order for us to survive it still should be considered very much humane. We do the same now, but in an accelerated speed while we raise our animals.


Chapter 19
Precis: Alongside hunting, humans have access to consuming plants and in order to do so we gather. Though the process is not as physically challenging as hunting for meat, we face dangers due to lack of identification. 


Gems: “For the individual human, his community and culture successfully mediate the omnivore’s dilemma, telling him what other people have safely eaten in the past as well as how they ate it" pg 372
“If the soil is the earth’s stomach, fungi supply its digestive enzymes " pg 375


Thoughts & Questions: Our current system we use to make food is way too fast paced for gathering. Instead, agriculture has adapted us into growers of what we have gathered. Based off information brought down over the years of edible plants and fungi, instead of searching for them we grow it where ever we please. 
It seems though, that mushrooms are much more interesting than they seem. The lunar energy that they say mushrooms consist of seems like an appealing idea, especially as a source of energy being pulled out of a fungi. Sounds like science fiction.


Chapter 20
Precis: By creating food out of meat from animals seems cruel at first, but consuming nature is a significant bond we have with the earth. We appreciate nature through consuming it and living with it. 


Gems: “Reserving the historical trajectory of human eating, for this meal the forest would be feeding us again" pg 399
“Another thing cooking is, or can be, is a way to honor the things we’re eating, the animals and plants and fungi that have been sacrificed to gratify our needs and desires" pg 404


Thoughts & Questions: I find this chapter to be very liberating and especially unbiased. Instead of bashing on our new system of processing food, it reaches into the core of what food really is and its significance. I believe Michael Pollan executed the balance very smoothly.