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  • From: Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Fw: Re: Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act - stupid mail reader replied wrong, sorry EE.
  • Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:42:16 -0800 (PST)



--- On Tue, 11/11/08, Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Pete Vukovich <pvukovic1@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act
To: "E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008, 3:40 PM

Pollan's comments seem to echo a 'less is better' philosophy not a 'none is best' philosophy. This is an evolutionary issue which will probaby settle itself in a few decades, its not a new issue either. Nor is it specific to Pollan.

Its not hard to find a plethora of experts who insist meat production is inherently too energy intensive, inhumane, or ineffecient - particularly when they take their data from industrial production/processing/distribution models. Its also not hard to find people who feel that grain production and livestock do not go hand in hand, and that processing native equivalents to grains can only be achieved with livestock and absorbed by eating their flesh, further that distribution is better achieved in this condensed form of energy and nutrient storage.

I think Pollan, like a lot of others fits somewhere in the middle. Realistically people eat meat , they'll continue to eat meat, and some of them may actually have metabolisms that require meat (if the farming fits the farm, the food must fit the consumer). The remaining questions (even for strident vegetarians) is how this is best achieved humanely, efficiently, and in ways that create self reinforcing systems (of crop and livestock). 

There are vegetarians and sustainable omnivores who've evolved to that perspective - over time and with more information I think there will be more. 40 years ago companion planting was seldomn discussed, 30 years ago succession farming wasn't a notable (as obvious as it might seem now) research topic, 20-25 years ago a relatively small community of people (particularly those with some rural blood or upbringing) realized industrial agriculture was inherently counter-survivalist. Granted all this may have been understood more than 200 years ago by native people around the world, but it takes time to rediscover the obvious.






--- On Mon, 11/10/08, E. E. Mitchamore Jr <emitch@att.net> wrote:
From: E. E. Mitchamore Jr <emitch@att.net>
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act
To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Monday, November 10, 2008, 4:34 PM


Harvey and Aliza, I've read all of Pollan's books and many of his articles, and I believe he would think that your approach (diversified small farm - DSF), is optimum.  However, mostly he is not talking to you, the producers, but to the rest of us, the consumers.  For those of us unable or unwilling to undertake a diversified small farm, the best we can do is to a) support the diversified small farmer, and b) grow our own veggies.  I don't think Pollan would disagree with either.  His "beef" (pun intended) is with industrial agriculture, not DSF.  
 
E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act

I totally agree with you Harvey.  But of course I am a solid Weston Price/Mercola type test kind of gal and a very strong protein type.  I eat mostly grassfed meat/dairy protein (all raw or very rare) and fat (in the form of meat fats and dairy fats) and weigh about 115 pounds at age 49.  My body feels awful if I eat grain - though I do indulge at times - and alternative types of protein like beans taste and feel awful to me.  I am lucky in that I raise my own grass fed beef/lamb/goat and drink my own raw goats milk and eat raw goat yogurt. 
 
Diversified small farm systems are the way to go. 
 
Excellent article by Ellen by the way. 
 
Blessings
 
Aliza
 
 
 
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political
Act
From: Harvey Ussery <boxwood@nelsoncable.com>
Date: Mon, November 10, 2008 5:36 am
To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org

>
> Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act
> http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/105667/michael_pollan%3A_eating_is_a_political_act/
> By Mark Eisen, The Progressive. Posted November 8, 2008. ~Posted by Paul

Pollan has done a great job of focusing our attention on the absurdities
of our current agriculture/food system. But he's not a nutritionist, and
there are important ways he gets it wrong in his most recent book, In
Defense of Food. I think he needs to take a closer look at the idea of
getting back to the diversified small farm. In that model, with an
essential reliance on animals as well as plant crops as part of the mix,
I'm not sure that vegetarianism is as much a more-evolved way of eating
as Pollan seems to think. There are also many inconsistencies in In
Defense on nutritional/health issues, e.g. with regard to consumption of
saturated fats.

See Ellen Ussery's review of In Defense of Food from this perspective at:
http://www.themodernhomestead.us/article/In-Defense-of-Food.html

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

I truly believe that as long as we have not found peace with the soil, we won't find peace above the ground. That as long as we justify the exploitation of any organism, other exploitations will follow and we will remain parasites, consuming more than participating, and spiralling into entropy until we commit mass suicide. ~Emilia Hazelip

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  • [Livingontheland] Fw: Re: Michael Pollan: Eating Is a Political Act - stupid mail reader replied wrong, sorry EE., Pete Vukovich, 11/11/2008

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