Next book: "This Earth of Mankind"

Our next meeting is Tuesday September 25 to discuss Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer's, "This Earth of Mankind". This book is a part of the famous Buru quartet, composed orally in installments to his cellmates during the author's 14 year imprisonment for his political views.

Omnivore's Dilemma on Long Island

Tuesday night we had an interesting discussion of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's
Dilemma, about food chains, perfect meals, and corn. LOTS OF CORN. Astrid
and Sébastien provided wine and cookies courtesy of ASAP.

A quote discussed during the book club:

If you eat industrially, you are made of corn. It holds together your
McNuggets, it sweetens your soda pop, it fattens and gives color to your meat.
You also increase our demand for fossil fuel- the corn needs a lot of
nitrogen and gets it from fertilizer instead of the soil, which used to get it
from rotating crops. The corn feeds the stomachs of cows, one of the few
mammals evolutionarily designed to be able to eat grass, since they can't
digest corn they get sick from it, so they are pumped with antibiotics. It is
fed to us in many forms, because it is cheap- a dollar buys you 875 calories
in soda pop but only 170 in fruit juice.

Speaking of the Omnivore's Dilemma, for those of us stranded out here (sorry to those who (have learned to) love it here...) I'd raise the question of food on Long Island. What do you eat? Where do you eat? How do the food choices compare to other parts of the country or world? Any tips on restaurants/farmer's markets/grocery stores to share?

Meeting is this Tuesday, and some links

We meet to discuss Omnivore's Dilemma this Tuesday evening at 6PM in the ASAP lounge!

I haven't quite finished the book, so I don't want to go searching for book reviews yet, but I do want to mention Michael Pollan's website. Some of the sections of the Omnivore's Dilemma have also been published in the New York Times Magazine, such as this one, about Pollan becoming a hunter/gatherer.

If anyone wants to add links to reviews or other writings for us to check out, feel free.