Growing a Farmer 2

Even though I am interested in neither farming nor this book, I would say that the author taught me important lessons about food and business through this book.

I love food. I love to eat and cook. I am always thinking what to eat for lunch and dinner during classes. In spite of my passion for food, this book made me realize that I have no idea what kind or food I put in my mouth. I believe most of them are produced in large quantities with chemicals which the author calls "plastic". It is not possible for a person like me, who does not own a farm to grow vegetables and meats by myself and do not buy anything from the supermarket. However, I can bring a small change to my life. I could buy food and products at the farmers market on campus. I also can avoid products containing a lot of chemicals.

I also found that I lack appreciation for food after reading the slaughter part in this book. Since I was small, I was always told not to waste food, and  I rarely threw food away because of that. However, as I started living away from home, I became less reluctant to discard food. Reading the part of slaughtering animal made me think that wasting food is such a disrespectful to animals we killed for our own desire. I cannot give up eating meats but I can at least try not wasting food.

 In addition, I was surprised by Matt's the idea of showing the process of slaughtering of animals to his daughter at first, but I think it would be a great lesson for children to understand the importance of appreciating what we eat.

The last but not least, although it is disappointing that I did grow my interest in farming after reading this book, I respect that the author has a great passion for his farm. He did not have any experiences in farming, and he started with nothing. After all struggles and challenges, he now owns a small but lovely farm. I am sure that giving up his successful business and investing his time and life in something he has never done before must have not been easy for him despite his passion for farming. Taking a risk, however, is crucial to be successful in business as many says. He may not make good money to be called successful businessman yet, but I believe he has potential to be one as he sets a clear goal of expanding cheese making business which he enjoys.