A French poet famously referred to the aroma of certain cheeses as the โpieds de Dieuโโthe feet of god. Just to be clear: foot odor of a particularly exalted quality, but stillโfoot odor.
Michael PollanIt has become much harder, in the past century, to tell where the garden leaves off and pure nature begins.
Michael PollanThere's a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig - an animal easily as intelligent as a dog - that becomes the Christmas ham.
Michael PollanCorn is an efficient way to get energy calories off the land and soybeans are an efficient way of getting protein off the land, so we've designed a food system that produces a lot of cheap corn and soybeans resulting in a lot of cheap fast food.
Michael PollanMeasured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact itโs one of the most powerful things an individual can do - to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.
Michael Pollan