Omnivore's Dilemma - Chapter 16

Chapter 16 was very interesting to me on many levels. The chapter starts off talking about a psychologist named Rozin who studied food behaviors in rats. He was looking at how rats use innate defenses against poisonous plants such as only taking a small nibble of an unknown food and waiting to see if it would get a stomachache. I found this very interesting because I thought rats would have very poor memories but it turns out they can remember which foods caused them turmoil and it is ingrained with them for the rest of their lives. All omnivores such as rats used various techniques for identifying possibly eatable foods. However, once humans came along with our invention of fire, the defenses of plants stood no match, and no amount of evolutionary resistance could occur quick enough to counter the new technique of producing fire. I think humans have done a reasonably well job controlling the power of fire. I mean, we haven't destroyed the world, yet.
I also found it found it very important to note that humans are biologically accustomed to digesting meats to gain vital micro-nutrients such as Vitamin B-12, which can only be found naturally in meat, as well as digesting plants for micro-nutrients such as Vitamin C. Because of the fact that humans are omnivorous, it is important that we make sure we kill animals humanely and mindfully. We have such a wide variety of possible foods that I think allows us to be able to take the time and humanely kill the animals we need and harvest them in a wise and appropriate way.

Chapter 12

The title of Chapter 12, "Slaughter" is very fitting. The process in which chickens are killed on Joel's farm seem like animal cruelty to me but I guess all anyone cares about is how quickly and efficiently chickens can be harvested. The fact that they are manhandled to the slaughter line and allowed to bleed out seems like a fairly horrible way to go to me. "Daniel explained that you wanted to sever only the artery, not the head, so that the heart would continue to beat and pump out the blood." I think that this very graphic quote makes it fairly evident that the animal's suffering is taking a back seat to killing the animal as quickly and efficiently as possible. I think that the USDA should regulate animal processing and require all farmers to process livestock in official facilities because on farm processing seems fairly secretive and can't be thoroughly inspected to find forms of animal abuse and cruelty. I also found it very interesting how towards the end of the chapter Joel defends the way in which chickens are killed by referring to the Bible. Maybe it makes him feel better about what he's doing or how he's doing it?