Pollan's Link To Emerson

As I've recently revealed I've been reading Michael Pollan's fascinating book The Omnivore's Dilemma. It is my first real experience of reading a contemporary writer on the subject of nature, as up to this point my focus has been on what I've come across in the Harvard Classics, therefore only up to the early 20th century. One of my favorite sources has been a few of the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Specifically his essays on Nature and Land got me to think how pleasant it would be to have a well-cultivated piece of ground, replete with flowers, plants, trees and grasses of the rarest beauty and usefulness.

Last night I was reading some more of this thrilling book by Pollan when I came across the following Emerson quote: "You have just dined, and, however scrupulously the slaughter-house is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity..." Pollan was talking, of course, about his dinner of chicken and how that most of us never look back to all that was involved in getting the bird to the table. The quote is from Emerson's essay entitled Fate, and was a poignant reminder of how important it is to consider from whence our meals come.

Okay, this is a bit of a jumbled-post, but I'm just ecstatic over the connection, albeit a small one, between Pollan & Emerson.

***UPDATE***
In reading through Pollan's articles on his website, I came across the following piece that further shows he's an avid reader of Emerson. Click here for a wonderful essay on weeds in which one very small, interesting bit of information concerns Tumbleweed, that icon of the west, and that it wasn't even introduced to America until 1870. He also suggests that when it comes to weeds, "to do nothing, is tantamount to letting (others) plant (our) gardens".