Hw#7C

Chapter#11-More Big Organic:Meet Rosie, The Free-Range Chicken

Precis

I visited the "rosie farm" and found out a lot of how the "organic way" chickens were made. Even though they are proven to me more organic they are not much different to how non-organic chicken is made. Organic food is not cheap but it does provide you to be more healthy than other food that people eat.

Gems

When i was reading i thought it was interesting how all the chickens were kept in a pens and how they were not allowed to go outside once they hit a certain age which by then they didn't even feel like going outside because they were used to being trapped for so long.

Thoughts/Questions

I think that people should not have to spend so much money on buying "better foods" in order to make them healthy. I think that is unfair on our part. People want us to be healthy and not obese but they want to make food so expensive in that case make the food a decent amount of cash. When i read about how the chicken were raised they make it seem likes it's any better they are overcrowded and they get fed almost the same things as the other chickens.

Chapter#12-Polyface:Green Acres

Precis

I decided to polyface farm and boy was my work cut out for me. Being on his farm the way he did things were very naturally and nothing like the machinery and industrial the way today agriculutral companies were doing it. The way Joel Satatin grew his farm was with natural habit and not cold-hearted.

Gems

"Polyface farm raises chicken, beef, turkeys, eggs, rabbits, and pigs, plus tomatoes, sweet corn, grapes, and berries. They do all this on 100 acres of pasture mixed in with another 450 acres of forest" i thought that it was cool how he raised all this things and did not come about it in the wrong way. Also how he mentioned he was a grass farmer which is like how? when you raise all these thing but the grass is what really helps this whole process.

Thoughts/Questions

From reading the book so far, this was probably my favorite because it didn't discuss they ugly side of what is in my food but showing the postive side of raising your own healthy organic food with no bad chemicals. I think that if we had more farms like Joe that would be in better shape in food or come across it with wider arms but since the money makes the world go round it's just eat what's there and die.

Chapter#13-Grass:Monday

Precis

When it comes to grass you don't really think about it, looking at Polyface grass i learned about if from different angles not all the grasses where the same they were very unique. Joel didn't let the cows take more than one bite to allow them to grow so he would move them which would not only be healthy for them but more organic. Joel has come a long way from his father's being and is very proud of his accomplishments.

Gems

On page 152, i thought that the different grasses where interesting and show kind of what their jobs is and how different they were from each other. I liked the fact that cows no the dfference between two different grasses when we don't like it said on page 151 "These two plants are as different to her as vanilla ice cream is frm cauliflower. The cow opens her meaty wet lips, curls her sandpaper tongue around the bunched clover like a fat rop, and rips the mouthful of tender leaves from its crown" so vivid.

Thoughts/Questions

I think that it's cool how Joel the farmer is so passionate about what he does and how is particular about his food and him beinig a grass farmer. When we think of grass we don't think all the things it can do with animals and the ground and with the food that we eat but it has to do with everything we just don't know it because we are not taught about it.

Chapter#14-The Animals:Tuesday

Precis

Chickens are not just to be eaten but they help alot. Joel moves the chickens all the time just like the cows so their manure fertilizes the grass and supplies nitrogen. Joel has a eggmobile to transport eggs and clean up messes. Not only does he take care of them but he lets them be free and do what they like letting them explore their natural habitat unlike industrial factories. Each animal has their own job in what they do such as the pigs, rabbits, turkeys, and chickens. The Salatins farming is not all easy work but they do it with great pleasure and eat healthy because they want not to make more money or have more outputs just because that is their natural habitat.

Gems

I thought that it was inpressive how much progress and hardwork they did in how much they had produced. "30,000 dozen eggs, 10,000 brolers, 800 stewing hens, 50 beef cattle, 125 hogs, 1,000 turkeys, and 500 rabbits". I wish i could do something like that and no only was this so much but it was done in the "correct way".

Thoughts/Questions

How long does this really take, the whole process? I never thought that trees can help us so much with our foods with chickens, insects etc. The Salatins make these people look like amaeturs and do not what they doing. Is possible to change the industrial machinery like this?

Chapter#15-The Slaughterhouse:Wednesday Morning

Precis

Today was the day of slaughtering. I learned how to cut the chickens at the at veins and watch the blood pour out i was very timid but go used to it, i then watched them take aprt the insides. Each chicken was killed, scalded, plucked and gutted. People came to pick up their chicken while i was cleaning up. The remains of the chicken and blood was dumped and made into compost which would help with grass.

Gems

I think that it's cool how instead of throwing out all the remains of the chickens unlike the industrial who would something like that, they take everything and reuse it to make compost and grass. I never really thought of it like that. They are being green with every situation they have.

Thoughts/Questions

I never really thought that there was a technique to killing a chicken. With them they are warm-hearted unlike others who are cold-hearted. Its the way they go about the slaughting and farming that makes it different compared to others and makes it better.

Chapter#16-The Market:Greeting From The Non-Bar Code People

Precis

Polyface food makes people feel more connected to their food in a way that local supermarkets cannot. People nowadays willing to pay for something more like technology but not better foods. Our bar codes tell us nothing where our food comes from shouldn't we know as they do in Denmark? The Polyface transport a lot of food places showing people how great their food is and how the seasonal food is best eaten during what time.

Gems

I thought that it was fasinating how the people like Joel want to make people out in the world see what food were are eating and try to make a positive view to eat right and have local foods instead of buying food out of season and taking days to get shipped.

Thoughts/Questions

I think that Polyface is right about what they are saying about the food we are eating. It's like we spend all this oney on ipods and new phones but we can spare antoher extra dollar to eat the right foods. If i had the proper money i would convert to the ideas on what they are saying but for right now i can't.