267).
During his stint at Polyface Farm, Pollan enjoyed a connection with the land and the food in a way that most people can barely imagine, let alone experience in their own lives. Preparing to write the third part of his book, Pollan wanted to get even closer to the food supply. He wanted to make a dinner prepared wholly from ingredients he personally hunted, gathered, and grew (Pollan, 2006, p. 278). Pollan confessed that, although he had a lifetime's experience raising vegetables and eating from his garden, he had never fired a gun and was equally ill prepared to forage for fungi. He set about learning to do both.
Pollan felt uneasy about hunting after his close proximity to live animals at Polyface Farm, so he was surprised at the initial exhilaration he felt after his first kill. Pollan was soon revolted by the sight of the dead wild pig as it was prepared for consumption and then felt disgusted by the joy he had felt, however briefly, after killing the animal. The whole experience, he found, was "even messier than the moralist thinks" (Pollan, 2006, p. 361). The pig Pollan killed eventually served as the main course of a meal the author dubbed "perfect," not because of its tastes and somewhat exotic menu items but because he procured everything himself.
With the end of this meal comes the end of Pollan's book. He points out the stark contrast between this final meal, prepared at great expense with respect to time and emotion, with a meal from McDonald's he described at the beginning of the book. The meal for which he hunted and foraged is not realistic for most people to try to duplicate. The McDonald's meal, too easily duplicated, is not one he recommends as anything more than an annual treat.
As Pollan noted early in his book, fast food meals are a daily indulgence for many Americans, including children. Although the premise of Pollan's book is the distance between the food sources and end consumers, implications for the nation's health resonate clearly. Pollan does not explicitly say so, but it seems clear that there is a link to obesity and associated health problems and Americans' disconnectedness to the food they eat. It is a cause...
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