Seasons Greetings

It's been a fun year for Angela and I. I can't say that much is new with us. But perhaps with the current economy, no news is good news. We're still in San Jose. I'm still working as a patent attorney. We're still lucky enough to have our money sitting in a savings account while we try to decide when the right moment to buy a house will be.

We had more fun than I can possibly describe being a part of Thomas' first full year of life. So much fun that we decided to have another kid next year. Surprisingly, Thomas had less of an impact on our adventures than we thought he would. We took him to Germany, Utah, and on an Alaskan cruise. We took him hiking, camping, and to the beach on many occasions. He's such a good kid and we love being able to share all these new things with him.

As always, if you want to be more bored to death about our lives, feel free to visit our blog at http://karlandangela.reeshome.org. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

P.S. We're in Utah for the holidays. Anyone else in town and interested in a get-together?

Food, glorious food

Sorry to comment on the book after Alvin achieved closure, but we've had a busy month.  I finished a while ago but haven't sat down at a computer for a bit.  I've just responded to selected questions.I liked the first two parts of the book, but as I read more and more I found myself, as Peter, with a slight case of indigestion with the tone and the author's personal cameos. I think a movie substitute for the book would be http://www.kingcorn.net/
(1) What is your 'perfect meal'?
 I'm not really interested in food that much, but I think there are three kinds of food: Food that makes you sick, food that fills you up, and food that is exquisite. Food that is exquisite usually costs a lot, with the exception of chocolate chip cookies (which by the way, have been perfected: http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/recipes/dessert_chocchip.shtml  Most of the food I eat just fills me up, and that's just fine, because there are other things I'd rather do than eat.
(3)Is processed food bad at all? If so, at what point?
 I agree there's too much corn in our diet—the imbalance that comes from eating out of a box or a can, etc. is upsetting.
(4) Can we feed the country without the use of large amounts of fossil fuel? If we don't come up with another energy source or if the population of the world out grows our ability to produce food, will we eventually have mass starvation?
I believe President Benson when he quotes: "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare; yea, I prepared all things, and have given unto the children of men to be agents unto themselves. Therefore, if every man shall take of the abundance which I have made, and impart not his portion, according to the law of my gospel, unto the poor and the needy, he shall, with the wicked, lift up his eyes in hell, being in torment" (D&C 104:17-18).   I also love the miracles of abundance in the New Testament.

Were you instilled with a greater desire to eat locally? If so, what motivates you and how are you going to do it?
I listened to an interview with Barbara Kingsolver (Poisonwood Bible) about eating locally just because she was opposed to the petroleum it took to grow and ship food to her. I would love to eat locally, but I would have to have a lot more land in Las Vegas to make that happen.
(7) What did you think of Pollan's version of 'grace'? What do you think is the inherent benefit of actually saying grace (assuming that our food isn't really cursed and won't make us sick if we don't bless it)? Should we really just be much more grateful in our meal prayers for the bounty of the earth and think about where the food comes from? 
I felt very much this way at Thanksgiving—I made it myself since Kristene was in hospital. I picked the apples and made the apple pie myself, and I imagine the amount of labor that went into generating all the food consumed on that single day, as well as the abundance that Our Father has given us. I've been thinking about how disconnected we are from the earth. I think there is a real benefit to being more directly involved with the production of one's dinner from the soil up. Not that I don't like my desk job.
The book, like most food I eat, didn't change my life.  Still, it's a dish I wouldn't have tried had Alvin not recommended it, and I enjoyed it.

The Next Book

Before I wrap up the discussion on The Omnivore's Dilemma, I want to encourage someone to choose the next book for the book club. If we were sticking with the old rotation, it would be Jesse's turn, but I'm sure whoever volunteers first could have the job. Peter, are you going to publish a new schedule? I need some direction in my reading. I have enjoyed the book discussion so far and really want to see it continue.

My thoughts on Peter and Glenn's posts:
Peter, I'm sorry you disliked my book choice once again and for similar reasons. While I hadn't read the book beforehand to recognize the similarity, I'll try for a completely new genre next time. As for your whole wheat, sugar and preservatives diet, my 1 and a half year old, Henry, would agree with that, as he would eat Life cereal for all three meals if he could. Though we consume a lot of milk and cheese in our house, which I suppose comes from corn fed cows. I'm suspicious of your claim that we could immediately go off of petro-chemicals, but it would certainly be interesting to try.

Glenn, for some reason I didn't realize you were such an expert in this field. The book made me feel, or at least tried to, like I hadn't sufficiently lived if I'd never killed my own meal, so since you have slayed chickens with your own hands, I admire you. Your thought about animals hiding pain was insightful. Your comment about "Eating's not a bad way to get to know a place." made me think of the black beans and eggs I had for every breakfast and dinner for 2 years in Guatemala. I remember asking an 80+ year old member what his perfect meal was, and he said if he could have anything it would be black beans and eggs. Our culture and, more importantly, us as parents, are imprinting on our kids desires that will stick with them all their lives.

Alvin stole the title for my posting

I meant to add to the food discussion sooner, but the ox was in the mire, and then after I got the ox out of the mire it was a little dirty and took several hours to clean up. I did however listen to about half of The Red Badge of Courage while working on those projects that needed my attention. Like Alvin I listened to The Omnivore's Dilemma, so there may be a slight disconnect between what I heard and what I remember.

In addition to Alvin's questions, I will add a few questions/thoughts of my own.

Discussion Questions:
(1) What is your 'perfect meal'?
Homemade soup and bread, along with a nice green salad (preferably from the garden). Soup and bread are my comfort foods.

(2) What rights do you think animals deserve?
Veterinary Ethics was a required class at UC Davis (as it probably is at all US schools of veterinary medicine), and this topic was discussed. It is such a big question, that it would need to be answered in a space that even google may not be able to accomodate (doubt it). In veterinary medicine we try to balance the animals' right/needs with that of the humans' (owner/consumer/veterinarian/veterinary technician/etc.). I agree with Peter that we are wise stewards.

(3) [I]s processed food bad at all? If so, at what point?
I believe that processed food isn't bad so much as it is less nutritious. It becomes bad when melamine is added to it, or it becomes tainted with C. botulinum toxin, or Hg. The poison is in the dose.

(4) Can we feed the country without the use of large amounts of fossil fuel? If we don't come up with another energy source or if the population of the world out grows our ability to produce food, will we eventually have mass starvation?
In one of my undergrad classes, I was taught that US agriculture is the only part of the US economy that has a positive trade balance. That may or may not be true (help me out here guys), but the positive trade balance has been decreasing. Is this because we are exporting less food or importing more (probably the latter). I don't think it is the energy supply alone that will determine whether or not there is mass starvation. I think there needs to be better management of resources (what to plant, what gets used, what it gets used for).

(5) Were you instilled with a greater desire to eat locally? If so, what motivates you and how are you going to do it?
I enjoy going to the local farmers market. I don't feel like I can afford to exclusively eat local, but if I were made aware of a Poly-Face type farm here, which was competitely priced, I think I would go for it.

(6) Are those of you that are for more government regulation in the financial market, are you for additional regulations in the food market? Did the regulation of the organic market help or hurt the organic food industry?
I don't like the idea of price fixing, but I agree with Peter that health standards are important. Upton Sinclair inadvertently helped out with that.

(7) What did you think of Pollan's version of 'grace'? What do you think is the inherent benefit of actually saying grace (assuming that our food isn't really cursed and won't make us sick if we don't bless it)?
I don't remember Pollan'ts verson of "grace." As a kid I used to worry about the food not being good if it wasn't blessed. Now I see meal-time prayers being an opportunity to be thankful for abundance and good healthy food, though I do believe that if I pray for added energy, or that my body will be better able to use the food, God will hear and answer my prayer.

(8) Has reading this book changed the way you will eat?
Not in and of itself, but it has given strength to ideas I already had about food: eating less processed foods, being more thankful for the food that I have, slow down and enjoy what I eat.

Now, thoughts that I took the time to stop and list as I listened to the book:

A) Rats, the other omnivore, can't vomit, therefore it's dilemma is even greater.

B) The human is not at the top of the food chain, the marketing firm is.

C) There is something very satisfying about eating a meal from food grown yourself or even meals cooked from scratch.

D) I wonder how the individuals and businesses that were interviewed feel about the book after having read it. I wonder if there are/were any regrets or gripes with the author.

E) The author quoted someone who said that if an animal is suffering, we will recognize it. This is not necessarily true, especially in prey species which may hide pain and illness to make themselves less likely targets for predators. What can we translate from that understanding to humans? There are definitely people who hide their suffering (physical and emotional).

F) The author suggested that if animal processing became transparent, most people would become vegetarians. This implies to me that most individuals who work in meat processing plants are vegetarians. Perhaps they thought about becoming vegetarians after the first day or two of work, but the repetitiveness of their job probably dulled their senses to the nature of what they do and they overcame their distaste.
Some of you may remember that I worked at the BYU Meat Lab during my first semester at BYU. Though I did not become a vegetarian, I did develop a temporary aversion to hot dogs, not because of what is in them or any cruelty or morbidness in the processing of them (which there wasn't), but simply because after handling thousands of cold wet frankfurters each day, I wanted a bit of a respite.

I might also add, that during vet school, I did a poultry medicine rotation which included a trip to a lab that used chickens in their research. I slaughtered dozens of chickens, which was difficult the first couple of times, but became disturbingly easy quite quickly. It was never as difficult to euthanize sick pets, probably because I wasn't killing them with my hands as I was with the chickens.

G) "Eating's not a bad way to get to know a place." I don't remember the context of that quote in the book, but food is a great way to learn about different cultures.

I enjoyed the book, especially the technical and historical aspect of corn/agriculture/fertilizer/processing/etc., but not so much the author's story about being a farm hand or Rambo or Julia Child. The efficiency of Poly-Face farm was pretty cool.

Thanks for the book, Alvin. It was delicious.

Congratulations to those of you who actually read all the way through this post.

Choice and Accountability in What We Eat

Caveat emptor: I haven't finished the book, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that I'll find the time to polish off the last 100 pages before Christmas, so I'm going to write my thoughts on what I have read.

Overall Impression: I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of the book. There were a lot of things I found aggravating, not the least is Michael Pollan's writing, which grates on my "self-importance" nerve, much the same way Tracy Kidder's did. Except moreso. I felt like when the author was able to get out of the way of the story he was telling, it was pretty good, but overall I found the writing distracting.

I also didn't like the tone. Pollan's shifting back and forth between science, philosophy and narrative is exactly the sort of thing I should love, but instead I found it extremely aggravating. Perhaps part of it is my own bias against soft-thinkers like Pollan (he teaches journalism) trying to attack issues of science, philosophy and ethics. But there are other people I think do it well (see, for instance, William Saletan's Human Nature blog on Slate). No, the thing that bugged me about Pollan (I think) was that he didn't seem interested in the science and philosophy in and of themselves, but only as a method for advancing his own opinions. Rather than determining opinions from facts and logic, this seems like an attempt to justify an opinion with convenient truths.

And finally, I didn't like the logic. His arguments that an "industrialized food system" are causing environmental disaster, obesity and starvation, and the overall degradation of America were largely unpersuasive to me, primarily because I feel he stacked the deck (those "meals" that form the structural narrative are total straw men) and left out significant details. But above all, I was annoyed by the complete lack of culpability he places on individual consumers; he seems to be saying it's essentially impossible for food consumers to eat healthy, short of a sort of poly-face act of rejection. I mean, he vilifies petro-chemicals and billionaire farmers and the federal government, and says that because they create the product of course we're going to eat it. And the way to combat it, rather than through individual acts of improvement, is through societal transformation. I don't know, it all just seems hare-brained to me.

So to summarize, I didn't like what he said, why he said it, or how he said it. But I still think it was a useful book, if not an enjoyable one (for me)

Uses I found in the book: I started reading ingredient labels. And I was surprised at how few of the things I eat actually do contain identifiable corn products. Not my bread, not my cereal, not my pasta, not my crackers. Pretty much the only labeled food product I eat regularly that I could find corn products in were my granola bars (in this case, it was that devilish HFCS). But besides finding "not corn" in a lot things, it was interesting to see to what degree the things I each are processed foods. A lot of what we as a family buy and eat is whole grain wheat, sugar and preservatives.

I also really liked the poly-face farm. I'm a pastoralist at heart, and the conservativism I believe in is very much a rural, pastoral conservativism. I like Wendell Berry, even though I think he's quite a bit too radical. I feel like much of what's wrong socially and politically in our country would go away if we returned in significant ways to the sort of balanced agrarian/industrial/educational society Joseph Smith envisioned establishing in Missouri (although my pastoralism is probably more due to J.R.R. Tolkien than Joseph Smith). I also like the application of soil science that Pollan so admires Joel Salatin for. While I think Pollan's off the reservation in his ecstatic descriptions of the beauty of the symbiosis of Salatin's farm, I do find the evident efficiency remarkably wonderful.

Discussion Questions:
(1) What is your 'perfect meal'? Thanksgiving dinner comes pretty close. Lots of vegetables and starches, some fruit and bread, a little meat and some pie. Just about perfect.

(2) What rights do you think animals deserve? I think we have a responsibility to be good stewards to the earth, including animals. I don't know that animals have rights, of themselves, but I do think God will hold us responsible for the degree of kindness and care we give to His creation.

(3) [I]s processed food bad at all? If so, at what point? I don't know that there's some threshold. I think "badness" comes through imbalance, rather than processing. I don't tend to eat processed foods, not because they're processed, but because the balance of nutrients in them is unappealing to me.

(4) Can we feed the country without the use of large amounts of fossil fuel? If we don't come up with another energy source or if the population of the world out grows our ability to produce food, will we eventually have mass starvation?When energy costs increased so dramatically last year, there was a global food crisis. Much of the world is starving, or barely subsisting, if news accounts can be believed. I think we could immediately move to a food system that didn't depend on petro-chemicals. I think food in the US would become much more expensive, but it wouldn't dramatically effect food prices in the areas of the world that are on the subsistence end of the spectrum. And I think the result would be that people would eat less meat and less sugar, more vegetables and whole grains; some people would suffer but the population would generally be healthier. However, I wouldn't advocate doing this by fiat, or government imposition. It doesn't seem the cost (in terms of loss of standard of living families would realize as a result of paying more for food, as well as those who simply couldn't afford the new regime and so would need to be supported by the whole of society) justifies it to me.

(5) Were you instilled with a greater desire to eat locally? If so, what motivates you and how are you going to do it? No. Although I was interested that Poly-face can generate competitively priced food. The most I can say I will do is look into the real cost (rather than my assumed cost) of local produce and dairy.

(6) Are those of you that are for more government regulation in the financial market, are you for additional regulations in the food market? Did the regulation of the organic market help or hurt the organic food industry?I think there should be health standards, as far as toxins, etc. I think the "irradiation" solution Pollan decries isn't a terrible one, but I think there may be better solutions that are only marginally more expensive.

(7) What did you think of Pollan's version of 'grace'? What do you think is the inherent benefit of actually saying grace (assuming that our food isn't really cursed and won't make us sick if we don't bless it)? Should we really just be much more grateful in our meal prayers for the bounty of the earth and think about where the food comes from?I guess I could see an increase of gratitude as a result of moving away from processed foods. That's an interesting thought.

(8) Has reading this book changed the way you will eat? Not really. I feel I eat fairly healthily. As I said, I did start looking reading food labels, but beyond that I doubt I will change much. I'll still go to McDonald's occasionally, and I will not start foraging for mushrooms.

Food Glorious Food

Note: As usual, I only listened to the book, so please excuse any misspellings and misquotations of the book and its subjects.

An Overview
Overall, I was very pleased with the book in that it helped me to think about my food, not something I do enough of. It was both informative, and it delved into philosophy and politics, which I hope will make for interesting topics of discussion. The author, at times, spent too much time telling his own story and espousing his own personal views. Still, in general, I thought it was well written, well thought out, and I hope you all found it worth your time. Of course, books that directly mention Decatur, IL (my birthplace) tend to get good reviews from me.


My Thanksgiving Dilemma
I found that I don't typically struggle to much with the question, "What should I eat?" I generally eat whatever's available, much like I did in my Merrill Hall days. My wife is a fine cook, but really, I am not a picky eater. If you have seen Ratatouille, I am like the main rat's family. It's more important to me to fill my tummy quickly than to fill it with quality. My biggest concern at Thanksgiving wasn't the quality of the turkey (you can always smother it in mashed potatoes and gravy if it's not ideal). My dilemma was simply how I was going to fit all of the wide variety of foods on my plate.

Thus, I didn't find the cooking show part of the book very interesting. I often find the heavily descriptive language of menus to be more appetizing than the actual food, which only leads to disappointment. So while all of the description of his hunted and gathered food was nice, my tendency was to think it wasn't worth the work, or the ink.

Discussion Questions: Am I alone? Are there closet chefs out there? What is your 'perfect meal'?

Life as a Speciesist
My favorite part of the hunting/gathering section was the discussion of the morality of eating meat. I though for a bit that he was going to advocate that we all become vegans, at which point I would have not trusted anything he said in the entire book. I thought Pollan did an excellent job of explaining the vegetarian point of view and building a philosophical argument against it.

Still, there is the problem of animal rights. I don't think that every animal needs/wants to roam freely or that only animals that live on a Polyface farm type of environment are happy or have a good life. My human ancestors didn't live in such a crowded environment as I do here in DC, and sitting in a chair in front of a computer isn't what I evolved to do, yet I still consider myself happy. That being said, I see no reason that animals should be raised in circumstances that makes them go crazy or express suicidal or masochistic tendencies. I'm happy that the chickens in CA are getting bigger cages, but I would never legislate a Polyface farm type environment. I still believe in efficiency and cheap food.
Discussion Question: What rights do you think animals deserve?

Corn Derivatives
Before I read this book I remember pondering how my Twizzlers (a road trip essential) were invented and what made them edible and plastic, for example, inedible. Now I know licorice is basically just corn. I enjoyed learning how corn is broken down to it's most basic form and reformed into processed products. It really is amazing the technological and scientific knowledge that makes red licorice possible. Throughout the book I was consistently in awe of both the complexity of nature and the complexity of man made food processes.

Discussion Questions: Are food derivatives as dangerous to the physical health of the world as mortgage derivatives have been deadly to the financial health of the world? Our world economy functions based on specialization and dividing jobs into parts. Similarly, most of our food includes parts of so many things. How can one realistically maintain the 'big picture'? Or is processing food really what is supposed to happen? I mean, as he was cooking his own meal, Michael Pollan talks about cooking the meat in two ways and how cooking is about breaking down what we find in nature and creating something better with it. That's why we're successful as humans. So is processed food bad at all? If so, at what point?

Oil and the Industrial Food Chain
Michael Pollan repeatedly brings up the oil and carbon resources that are used to ship our food around, using this as a hammer to bang on the industrialization of the food industry. Fossil fuels are clearly a non-renewable resource, and I am not trying to make this an environmental discussion. Quite the opposite. One day soon (before the oil runs out or the planet is destroyed), I believe humans will discover a new, renewable energy source to supply the global food chain (i.e. garbage, as in Back to the Future). I think oil is only temporary, and it's discussion belongs in another book, not here. The discussion of how many fossil fuel calories it took to bring me my dinner may be interesting, but I didn't think it contributed much to the discussion of the quality of my food. Imagine a world in which we didn't have fossil fuel energy. Most of us would probably be farmers because we wouldn't be able to produce as much food as we currently do.

Discussion Question: Can we feed the country without the use of large amounts of fossil fuel? If we don't come up with another energy source or if the population of the world out grows our ability to produce food, will we eventually have mass starvation?

Eating Local
The bigger question is perhaps should we eat local food and at what cost. Personally, I think it makes sense to trade things, and it doesn't bother me that my bananas traveled half way around the world in the last 24 hours. However, I can't get the Word of Wisdom out of my head where it says to eat fruit while it is in season. I don't even know what season is banana season.

Discussion Question: Were you instilled with a greater desire to eat locally? If so, what motivates you and how are you going to do it?

The Organic Food Bubble
This topic really belongs more as a comment on Jesse and Karl's posts, but I'm trying to break the record for the longest post here. Did you catch the snippet where the organic farmer got caught up in the organic bubble? I mean, there are always bubbles in a free market economy, right? We all agree that the bad government regulations made things worse, but better regulations (whether that be more or less) will not keep us from avoiding another bubble. Aren't bubbles good?

Goverment Subsidies and Regulations
I felt like Pollan gave conflicting messages about the typical farmer. At first, the poor modern farmer was underpaid and couldn't make a living, but later in the book, he said the farmers didn't have to work more than 50 days a year and most weren't very intelligent.

Pollan is clearly against the government subsidizing of corn, making it cheaper than the true cost to produce it, especially when you factor in the environmental costs. I certainly don't like the idea of the government skewing the true market value of anything. Yet at the same time, I don't know what the correct alternative is.

Discussion Questions: Without government subsidies, would we have enough farmers in the US to produce the food to feed ourselves? Is it a national security issue? Without the subsidizing of corn, what would that do to food prices?

Then there is the government regulations that Polyface farm was so upset about.

Discussion Questions: Are those of you that are for more government regulation in the financial market, are you for additional regulations in the food market? Did the regulation of the organic market help or hurt the organic food industry?

Wisdom of Food Traditions
I liked the small section where he said that often food traditions have inherent nutritional wisdom in them, "like the Asian practice of fermenting soy and serving it with rice, turn out to render these plant species much more nutritious than they otherwise would be." This reminds me of how religious 'traditions' have so much inherent value. Relevant to this book, I thought of how we are encouraged to eat together, but I think all of the commandments have much more value than we may currently understand.

Discussion Questions: What did you think of Pollan's version of 'grace'? What do you think is the inherent benefit of actually saying grace (assuming that our food isn't really cursed and won't make us sick if we don't bless it)? Should we really just be much more grateful in our meal prayers for the bounty of the earth and think about where the food comes from?

Thinking about my food
This book didn't stop me from overindulging at Thanksgiving, but it did make me feel more guilty about it afterwards (when I finished the book and really started thinking about it). In the effort to think more about my food (and my food does deserve more thought than I've given it), I have given up sweets from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve. I'm only a couple of days into this endeavor, and I'm already suffering from withdrawal.

Discussion Question: Has reading this book changed the way you will eat?