VTReader

Folks, This Ain’t Normal Ch 4-5

Now we’re getting somewhere!  Chapter 4 is all about the ridiculous amounts of pakaging we use for food.  Salatin brings up the most obvious points about people being over sterilized and the mountains of waste we create with our germophobia.  I’m often enraged by grocery store produce that is wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam.  I want to touch that produce, not stare at it.  I should be able to fully check out my food before I bring I home.  Salatin, like me, has problems shopping in super markets because there is very little food in there, replaced mostly by packaging.

Chapter 5 is all about urban food systems and the need to stop fearing food production. Gardens are not dirty.  Growing your own food is not a liability.  It’s a right.  It’s an honor.  Farmers, rural and urban alike, should be praised. We should all aspire to grow even a little o our food.  We should never decide that it is too dirty, or too unsafe for a child to work in a garden.  I agree that anyone with the opportunity should grow something.  Schools should have gardens. Restaurants. Prisons.  Get rid of your lawn and plant something edible.  What is the sense in spending money to water and poison our front yards to have a green carpet that doesn’t provide anything.  Grass is a weed.  The world needs more eggplant.

I’m starting to like this book again.

Folks, This Ain’t Normal Ch 1-3

I started out loving this book, but the more I read the less I am enjoying it.  I agree with many of Salatin’s points, but I think he’s kind of a jerk.  He clearly thinks women belong in the kitchen and men in the field.  He also seems to dislike anyone who disagrees with him, and he seems to think that if you don’t agree with him, you’re probably an idiot.  As a reader, I feel a little alienated and attacked.  Even though I think he makes some compelling arguments, his insistence that things will only work the way he does them, is a little irritating. Not to mention his constant attacks on “greenies” and “animal folks.”  Who does he think his audience is?

I’m hoping some of this will wear off and he’ll get tired of making the same points over and over again.  I’m also hoping he’ll find a way to make his arguments apply to city dwellers, single people, and people who actually like certain things about the modern world.  Salatin makes no secret of his annoyance with the internet and seems to blame most of the world’s problems on ignorance caused by too much TV, video games, and Facebook.  A little too cliche I think.

And now, I read on.