I recently finished an excellent book on this very subject by Michael Pollan entitled The Omnivore's Dilemma. In the book Pollan undertakes an arduous journey took eat/cook/create three meals based on three primary food chains, the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer. For each meal he attempts to trace each ingredient to its origin (i.e. field, animal, forest, etc.) and follow its journey, with all its twists and turns, to his plate. Along the way Pollan gives an excellent critique of the problems and advantages of each food chain and comments on his own experience. Pollan, to his credit, does not specifically condone a particular food chain or completely lambast another food chain but leaves up to the reader to make their own decision.
This book was a breathe of fresh air in an otherwise stagnate atmosphere of fad diets and rampant food ignorance. I learned much more in this book than I ever wanted to know about where my food comes from and, consequently, have changed the way I view, eat, and think about food. Don't read this book if you don't want to seriously question what it is you eat. It has changed how I eat and it most likely will change how you eat to.
After reading Pollan's book I decided to try my own form of creating a meal and following a food chain to it's origin. Since I would soon be leaving to attend a vegetarian grad school (Loma Linda, CA) and thus in all likelihood not be eating much meat, I figured now would be the best time to attempt this task. Near Au Sable in the small town of Kalkaska there is a wonderful little farm called Shetler's Diary farm that raises grass fed, no hormoned (And yes I realize that isn't really a word but I am going to use it anyway) milk cows. Never have I tasted such wonderful milk or had the chance to simply pause for an afternoon and pet calves. In a crazy attempt at following Pollan's example I decided to buy one of their steaks and cook it (Note: I had never actually cooked a steak before) While there I also picked up a half gallon of whole milk and received (Wonder of wonders) a free jar of buttermilk to tenderize/marinate the meat (These people are awesome). This past Friday night I marinated the meat in the buttermilk plus rosemary, minced garlic, and pepper (Courtesy of my fellow roomate Josh) (And yes I realize that the rest of these ingredients I did not trace to the source) and refrigerated the meat till morning. Saturday night I, with the help of my friend Paul Wiemerslage, grilled my steak on a charcoal grill. As I sat eating that delicious meat (Which incidentally tasted amazing) and sharing it with my friends, I could not help but think of the cow that died to give me this meat. It, unlike most cows, did not spend the majority of its life eating corn in a confined feedlot, but, nevertheless it still died to bring me this steak. The cow, a living, breathing, beautiful creature of God that exists to bring him glory was killed to fill my stomach. What do I think about that? Still not sure but working on it. I recently read an amazing book on the subject, On Animals: A Systematic Theology: Volume 1 by David L. Clough, but I don't really have room in this post to go into everything I learned from that book. Another post perhaps. In the meantime you can salivate admiring a picture of the steak I cooked and ponder where your food comes from.
Delicious Grass Fed Steak from Shetler's Dairy Farm
Some Useful links
The Omnivovers Dilemma
The Omnivovers Dilemma
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