A few excerpts from this entertaining and enlightening book:
But in the end this book is a book about the pleasures of eating, the kinds of pleasure that are only deepened by knowing. [p.11]
I would submit that most pleasures are only deepened by knowing. We have developed a culture of ignorance that encourages us to stop learning. As a consequence, we miss out on an activity that some experts claim is better than sex.
Drawing on the theories of Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter, [Allan] Nation [in Stockman Grass Farmer] had distinguished between industrial and artisanal enterprises to demonstrate why attempts to blend the two modes seldom succeed. Industrial farmers are in the business of selling commodities, he explained, a business where the only viable competitive strategy is to be the least-cost producer. The classic way any industrial producer lowers the costs of his product is by substituting capital -- new technologies and fossil-fuel energy -- for skilled labor and then stepping up production, exploiting the economies of scale to compensate for shrinking profit margins. In a commodity business a producer must sell ever more cheaply and grow ever bigger or be crushed by a competitor who does.
Nation contrasted this industrial model with its polar opposite, what he calls "artisanal production," where the competitive strategy is based on selling something special rather than being the least-cost producer of a commodity. Stressing that "productivity and profits are two entirely different concepts," Nation suggests that even a small producer can be profitable so long as he's selling an exceptional product and keeping his expenses down. Yet this artisanal [not yet a word according to typepad's dictionary] model works only so long as it doesn't attempt to replace skilled labor with capital; it must not grow for the sake of growth; it should not strive for uniformity in its products but rather make a virtue of variation and seasonality; it shouldn't invest capital to reach national markets but rather should focus on local markets, relying on reputation and word of mouth rather than on advertising; and lastly it should rely as much as possible on free solar energy rather than costly fossil fuels. [p.249]
"Eat your view!" is a bumper sticker often seen in Europe these days; as it implies, the decision to eat locally is an act of conservation, too, one that is probably more effective (and sustainable) than writing checks to environmental organizations. [p.258]
All of which is to say that a successful local food economy implies not only a new kind of food producer, but a new kind of eater as well, one who regards finding, preparing, and preserving food as one of the pleasures of life rather than a chore. [p.259]
It is highly unlikely that society will produce those who have the will to prepare -- let alone the skills -- meals overnight.
"We don't have to beat them," Joel [Salatin] patiently explained. "I'm not even sure we should try. We don't need a law against McDonald's or a law against slaughterhouse abuse -- we ask too much salvation by legislation. All we need to do is empower individuals with the right philosophy and the right information to opt out en masse. [p.260]
A tension has always existed between the capitalist imperative to maximize efficiency at any cost and the moral imperatives of culture, which historically have served as a counterweight to the moral blindness of the market. This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism -- the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society. Mercy towards the animals in our care is one such casualty. [p.318]
I might add that lack of knowledge has contributed towards the lack of mercy towards wild animals as well. There are those who permit their well-fed domestic cats to prey on the birds in the neighborhood. These same people proudly display a "Wild Washington [State]" label on their license plate.
Applied knowledge is truly a wonderful thing.
