The Pleasures of Eating

I expected to come into the readings of Berry and Pollen knowing very little, and to leave knowing a few steps I could take to show me how to eat healthier, but I'm afraid that's not the case at all.  In "The Pleasures of Eating," Wendell Berry poses a question at the outset of his article: What can city people do to eat healthier?  It sounds like a simple question, no doubt, but I expected the writing to feature an in-depth look at what people can do to form healthier eating habits.  I didn't expect was some cut-and-paste "do this, then that, and you'll find that this . . .", because very few things in life are that simple.  With something as complex and convoluted as the food industry, simple answers are next to impossible.  I didn't expect Berry's writing, however.  For the most part, the article reads as a critique of the food industry, with very little in the way of answering the questions he presents in the very first lines.

Instead, the reader is given quotes like, "The industrial farm is said to have been patterned on the factory production line. In practice, it looks more like a concentration camp" (Berry).  While all that is true, and no doubt disturbing to anyone that sees it, it doesn't exactly tell me what I need to do to go about healthier eating habits.