RSS FeedWhat I’m Reading: Holy Cows and Hog Heaven
Table of contents for Book Reviews - 2008
- What I’m Reading: The Blind Watchmaker
- What I’m Reading: Good Calories, Bad Calories
- What I’m Reading: The World Without Us
- What I’m Reading: In Defense of Food
- What I’m Reading: The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved
- What I’m Reading: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal
- What I’m Reading: Holy Cows and Hog Heaven
- What I’m Reading: The Fattening Of America
- What I’m Reading: Wild Fermentation
- What I’m Reading: The Road To Immunity
- What I’m Reading: The Farmer And The Grill
Right after finishing Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal, I tucked into Holy Cows and Hog Heaven, also by Joel Salatin. In retrospect, that was probably a bad idea as the two books contain a lot of the same information and Everything… is a lot more in-depth. However, that doesn’t make Holy Cows a bad read. If “Everything I Want…” (EIW) is focused on the relationship of the government and the small farm, Holy Cows is focused on the relationship between the small farm and the consumer.
In this book, Salatin discusses how to be a good local food consumer, how to find a good farm, questions to ask the farmer, and how not to be a royal pain-in-the-rear. Salatin talks about all of the benefits of venturing out to the farm and meeting the farmer and talks a bit about sharing “grocery” responsibilities amongst families to reduce the number of trips to the farm. For instance, with four families and one weekly trip, each family only makes 13 trips a year rather than 52. He delves a little bit into some of the more political/bureaucratic hurdles that make up EIW, but they are largely just a skimming of the surface.
I have to give this one a lower rating than EIW, though I have a feeling that it’s not a fair rating. It was only be sheer coincidence that Holy Cows came in at the library while I was reading Everything and they ended up being read back-to-back. I give it a 7.5/10. It wasn’t as in-depth as EIW, but it is likely a better book for the average Joe/Jane to read. It’s only about 125 pages and you can get through it in no more than a few days. I view it kind of as a long introduction to EIW. It provides enough information to get people excited about learning more, but not so much that the eyes glaze over (not that the other book isn’t engaging too).
And sorry I can’t provide a review without copious comparisons to that other book. As I said, it was probably unfair to read them back-to-back and in the order I did, but such is life.
If you enjoyed this post, share it on StumbleUpon or Health Ranker (or both!)
- Other Stuff You'll Enjoy:
- What I’m Reading: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal
- What I’m Reading: The Omnivore’s Dilemma
- What I’m Reading: The End of Food
- What I’m Reading: The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved
- What I’m Reading: Survival of the Sickest
Print This Post
Filed in Eating Locally 2 Comments so far
Alex on 08 Apr 2008 at 12:28 pm #
Love the new look! And I really enjoy the book reviews.
Thanks!
Anna on 08 Apr 2008 at 12:46 pm #
Total agreement, Scott. I read HCHH first, on the heels of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, probably a year or so ahead of EIW. Definitely a better reading order.
One of the things I liked about HCHH is that is gives the consumer a much better sense of how to go about sourcing food outside of the conventional food markets. There are lots of good books out about making better food choices (organic, seasonal, and/or local) at supermarkets, but HCHH is the only one I know of that isn’t focused on supermarket shopping, or even on farmer’s market shopping.