Food, Fruit, and The Botany of Desire

A well-reasoned and well-sourced OpEd in the Times today (Oct 30) by Nicolette Hahn Niman argues that the problem with carnivory in the context of greenhouse emissions is with the industrialization of the meat industry, not with meat-eating per se. She details how meat can be raised for food without excessive greenhouse emissions, which is essentially a case for conscious, local, organic, free range, non-industrialized meat-raising. (NYT OpEd: The Carnivore's Dilemma)

Some further thoughts:
The industrialization of food production occurred not in order to feed the planet's growing population, but rather to create gigantic profit-vehicles for multi-national corporations vying for dominance in the food supply "industry".

It has in fact weakened or destroyed local food production wherever "free trade" has penetrated.

I was thinking about an eating strategy for future humanity when I wrote the earlier post about fruit. It seems to me our best strategy would be to develop partner species which produce for us our food willingly, without us having to kill individual beings on a massive scale. In return we give them warmth and comfort, and a survival alliance for their species.

Ants do that for example. They feed and care  for their aphids, which make the ant's  food.

We humans have fruit. Fruit fits the bill. Fruiting trees compete with each other to be desirable and beneficial to humans, as we are it's primary partner, the seed-spreader. (Though we are no longer leaving the seeds in the forest under a mat of our own natural fertilizer, we fulfill that part of the contract in a different way by offering a survival alliance whereby we humans assure the long-term well-being of the species.)
So far we've only bred fruit trees for such traits as appearance, sweetness, long shelf life. We should get serious about the potential of fruit and select for nutritional targets, so as to replace other sources in our diets as we make the transition. Fruiting plants are happy to comply- one might even say they are happy to be drawn into what for them may be a kind of conversation with us humans, species to species.

And by the way…

This conversation is in a way the theme of Michael Pollan's fascinating book "Botany of Desire", as seen in our relationship with the apple, tulip, potato, and marijuana.
Whether you've read the book or not, you'll enjoy the excellent PBS Special based on it, and especially the smart and attractive show's website, with 'web extras'- like the interview segments with Pollan linked above, and a graphically rich dedicated website to explore further the themes and frames of the book.

PBS show segments and extras online
Botany of Desire- website