Chapter 8, Feb. 15th

Chapter 8 is about Michael visiting and helping out at Polyface Farms. Through his visit here he gets to see the relationship between the animals raised here and grass. This particular farm believes that they should raise animals to create a natural rotation that makes everything better for the land and the animals. They are somewhat practicing the same methods as the Naylor farm, however Naylor farm is much more industrialized, but still holds somewhat organic practices.

Michael's description of laying in the pasture just observing the grass and his surroundings made the farm sound peaceful and surreal. He also talks about how the grass goes through the process of becomming hay. At this point it is not the soft peaceful "hospitable" stuff. It becomes sharp, dry and dusty. I can relate to the description of the hay because I grew up next to a horse pasture. The grass was always the source of food for the horses and they tried to keep it long and luscious. But the hay stacks were dirty and rough. They made my eyes itch, when graass however never did. This reminds me of what the Polyface Farms was trying to do. He fed his animals pure food not the corn which is being fed to animals on many other farms today. People don't think about the fact that what goes into the animal then goes into us later in the processing of food. When we later eat the meat that has been raised on these farms people need to ask what are they feeding us? How are the animals raised, and what are they fed?