the Infinite Monkey speaks: on the eater and eaten
Random brilliance from across the blogosphere…
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The passive American consumer, sitting down to a meal of pre-prepared or fast food, confronts a platter covered with inert, anonymous substances that have been processed, dyed, breaded, sauced, gravied, ground, pulped, strained, blended, prettified, and sanitized beyond resemblance to any part of any creature that ever lived. The products of nature and agriculture have been made, to all appearances, the products of industry. Both eater and eaten are thus in exile from biological reality. And the result is a kind of solitude, unprecedented in human experience, in which the eater may think of eating as, first, a purely commercial transaction between him and a supplier and then as a purely appetitive transaction between him and his food.
– Wendell Berry
from:
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steadily skipping stones 
I’m not sure what to say. Thought-provoking. I want to go pick a tomato off a thriving garden vine and eat!
I know, me too. I never thought about it till I read this, but he’s right. I often view my food that way, as coming from the restaurant or the company. Obviously if I gardened I would have more appreciation for where it really comes from.
Growing your own food really does change the way you view what you put in your body. I try to keep my meals as simple as I can, and keep the food as close to its original state as possible, but it’s not always easy. Michael Pollan writes excellent books about this exact topic.
I was talking to my friend, who is also my health coach, last night and I realized that I am in the middle stage of my whole get healthier process. I’ve mostly gotten past the push-back, this-will-never-work-I’m-a-loser stage \o/ and I’m in the I-want-this-but-still-don’t-want-to-change stage. But I keep thinking about how much better I will feel and how great those healthy, REAL foods taste. I’ve been thinking that maybe next year I’ll grow a little garden myself – just a little start one. I used to love your garden posts that you used to write. My mom started a garden this year – maybe I’ll reap the benefits of her overflow 🙂 But I bet doing all that work and nurturing those plants really does make the food taste better, doesn’t it?
Yes, it really does. It’s a lot of work, though, and sometimes it’s a battle between bugs and beasts. Rhey like all tasty food as well!
Oooh we read this entire article in class for a course! Well written stuff, this 🙂
Me too! That’s how I came across it. It really was interesting and made me think about how I view my food.