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‘Eating Is an Agricultural Act’
The Wendell Berry quote that frames Michael Pollan’s environmental writing
Eating is an agricultural act.
— Wendell Berry
I’m not a farmer. Or a gardener. And I wouldn’t even call myself a decent potted-planter. I like the idea of becoming a gardener, though. The same way I liked the idea of becoming a baker: because fresh bread is delicious.
Flashback
When I was a high school exchange student in France years ago, I recall a few late nights after skateboarding, drinking at outdoor cafés, and muddling through drunken French discussions. Discussions about the weekly student grèves (strikes), French hip-hop, or Bush’s America (this was the early aughts).
When the evening wound down, mes amis and I were pulled through the streets of my small town in Ardèche like moths to a light.
The light, in this case, was a small bakery, selling off its first bread of the day at what seemed to be a ridiculous hour for someone unfamiliar with the baking business: 3 a.m.
The smell of baking dough wafted through the air, and once we got our bread, we all fell into a state of altered consciousness while we drunkenly munched our bread.
