Comments on Constance Reader Writes Her Own Story: Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One H...

Peppermint: I read Kingsolver's book, too, and...

2012-01-05T14:28:35.091-08:00

Peppermint: I read Kingsolver's book, too, and was really awakened by it. I find it just ridiculously amazing how little thought we give to food, and how we are even encouraged not to think about it.

The fact that eating natural foods is seen as a luxury for those with lots of time and money always shocks me. Yes, it's convenient to be able to buy tomatoes year round--until you learn the toll on other humans and on the environment to be able to do that. I think it separates us from our humanity, I really do.

In Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle she p...

2012-01-05T14:16:23.340-08:00

In Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle she pledged for one year to only eat foods (meat, vegetable, bread...everything) that was locally harvested (100 mile radius, I believe?) She met several members of her community who specialized in one or two products and they all shared the produce. Her description of visiting the farm where chickens were raised and then processed was a little icky but I made myself read it bc of the very comments you made. If I'm going to eat it, I need to be aware of exactly WHAT I'm eating and exactly HOW it got on my table. It's astonishing to me how much we put in our bodies and have no earthly idea where it came from. Great discussion :)

I knew this would be a thought-provoking read. T...

2012-01-05T11:54:43.861-08:00

I knew this would be a thought-provoking read.

To Louise, T&B and Dr. Peppermint (hey, you earned the title!): I have been thinking a lot about this, too. Why I can eat meat that I KNOW was killed by SOMEONE (and until our $17 chickens, usually in a cruel way, after a lifetime of suffering) but balk at the idea of killing it myself. I think it can only be the disconnect that spurred Pelligrini to write this book in the first place: we've become so removed, psychologically, from the DEATH part of dinner that it seems outlandish to us. We can't connect Herbert the Goat with the loin on our plate. It's a weird aspect of modern society, that this should have happened. But is it progress? I don't think so. I think it's kind of a perversion of our natural state.

Like you, David, I prefer not to think about where my meat comes from--or rather, I did. But once I learned of where it comes from, I had to make a choice: stop participating, or find the most humane way to get it. Girl Hunter discusses this: the animals Pelligrini killed live a good life, a natural life, doing the things they were supposed to do in the place they were supposed to do it, not a feed lot. They died a quick, clean death. She knows this, because she was the one who killed them. She takes responsibility. She witnesses it, and "pays the full karmic load" for it.

I'd LOVE to hear more thoughts on this, so if you have them, post them. And I urge you to read this book if you want more on this thorny issue. I'm planning on doing a giveaway of my ARC sometime in the next month, so stay tuned.

I too need to be sedated when Sarah MacLachlan sta...

2012-01-05T08:04:50.795-08:00

I too need to be sedated when Sarah MacLachlan starts singing Silent Night on tv and the pictures of all the homeless, caged animals begin flowing across my screen...my girls and I actually race to the tv to change the channel :/
However, I grew up eating only the meat that was in season...not out of choice but necessity. I am not against hunting, but I don't think I would enjoy it. The only thing that bristles me is hunters who break the law and seem to get more thrill from the kill rather than the harvest of meat.

This sounds fantastic. Like something I would real...

2012-01-04T20:55:10.207-08:00

This sounds fantastic. Like something I would really enjoy!

lol at the butcher stall advertisements. I'm c...

2012-01-04T17:50:44.300-08:00

lol at the butcher stall advertisements. I'm curious about the author's run-in with the poacher and am generally curious about books that address the issue of where we get our food.

From your description of the book, this is one tha...

2012-01-04T13:48:55.908-08:00

From your description of the book, this is one that I could never complete reading, no matter how interesting it seems. I prefer not thinking of where my meat comes from and like to think it gets made in some sort of replicator like on those Star Trek episodes my dad loves so much...or that it grows on trees like fruit. :)

But I did love your review.

Curious - I grew up in a hunting family, around hu...

2012-01-04T05:45:11.464-08:00

Curious - I grew up in a hunting family, around hunting people. It's a way of life in my neck of the woods; in farming country, you have to hunt deer or they will destroy your crops. And probably your car, given their tendencies to play in the roads.

HOWEVER, the first time my sister shot a deer, she found just the smell of the venison from it afterward made her sick. It was years before she could eat any venison at all, and she has to decide each season which she would prefer - eating venison that year, or going out hunting with her husband. She can eat food shot by others, still, but for her, the act of hunting it herself renders the food inedible for her.

For me, of course, I don't hunt simply because I'm such a terrible shot that I would be a danger to myself and anyone around me, but never to my target. So we keep the guns away from me :-)