post 4

After reading The Scavenger’s Guide… I have a new outlook on hunting. It would be difficult for me to kill and butcher and animal myself, but I think I would be far less likely to waste any part of the animal. I would also be less likely to throw away unfinished food if I grew, gathered, harvested, or killed it. Thinking back to eating in the dining halls on campus my Freshman year, I thought very little about the food I was wasting since I did not have to gather it, prepare it, or clean it up. I would feel better killing a wild animal because it is more likely they have a more natural diet than factory farmed animals and I would know directly how it was butchered and what I am eating. As for middle and upper class people hunting more for sport, as opposed to those below the poverty line, this is an interesting question. I hate seeing animals heads mounted on people’s walls like trophies. So I suppose I don’t really have an answer to that question. As for Steve Rinella killing so many animals for his mammoth feast, at least it was only once (I hope). He also seemed to be an avid hunter-gatherer with an understanding of wild animals. I’m sure a meal like a 10 oz. filet mignon, potatoes, salad, etc… has a huge impact that I will never see, effecting lots of different things. For the steak to be harvested, possible forests were likely slashed and burned to give them grazing land, completely changing the ecosystem and dynamics of the area. That’s a huge impact!

Thompson, A.K. Postharvest Technology of Fruit and Vegetables. Harlow: Blackwell

Science, 1996.

Trubek, Amy B. Haute cuisine : how the French invented the culinary profession.

Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000