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 - outside the culture dilemmaI have to admit that I did not finish this book. I got to the part where the author talks about really feeling his he-man roots and enjoys killing an animal. From a person who grew up inside a hunting culture, I can only say that from my perspective, he gets it all wrong. His conclusions are based upon an educated adult outside the hunting community and he assumes that hunting is "naturally" enjoyable. I can only say that my upbringing shows me that it is a terrible and terrifying experience to boys and that it is only peer pressure that causes them to start to like it in order to be part of the "adult" group. And then, they perpetrate this horror on their own children, and the whole sadistic cycle begins again. Please don't bother with his over educated conclusions, I think he just wants people to think he is "manly". Rating:  - Eye Opening!I could barely put this book down! The writing style is casual and gets a bit wordy and technical sometimes, but it's so worth it! All the information is really necessary to open our eyes about factory farms, our food supply and who's in charge of it!(I'm still shocked about all the conflicts of interest! YIKES!) I've seriously changed my eating habits! Read this book, I highly recommend it! Rating: - Pass the Grain of SaltWhen I opened this book, I expected something along the lines of the social history of food...but what I got was something much better! Pollan's writing, always self-effacing, humorous and insightful, became the perfect and certainly never preachy vehicle for a painless exploration of exactly what's on my plate and how it got there. Politics, animal rights, organic foods, economics and even mushroom-hunting all make an appearance amid farm machinery and well-cooked, tasty meals. Marvelous! His always-witty first-hand observations of the increasingly tragic state of affairs in American (and perhaps World) farming were not only informative but thought provoking. Visits to the grocery story will never be the same. I strongly recommend this book to anybody who has never set foot on a farm, to those who (like me) grew up surrounded by cows and corn, and to those who simply like to cook and eat...and would like to keep eating. We owe it to ourselves and our world to understand that our foodchains do not begin with the supermarket. Rating: - A Great ReadPollan creates a very informative and interesting book that us simple folk can enjoy and learn from. Rating: - We can turn anything to calories, but should we?I read this along side his new book and parts of it reminded me of a really dry Super Size Me or The Evolution Diet, but there's a good moral here: Don't let some stupid government program based on the war machine dictate what you should eat. Instead, eat natural foods if you can afford and/or procure them. I was a big fan of the Saltins when reading the book- funny characters!
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