The good news is: Obama signs were evident, even outside of Charlottesville (where Doug once went to grad school, btw). There were plenty in Staunton, even way out in the boonies on winding dirt roads in the heart of Appalachian farm country.
We spent a very rainy Saturday morning rocking and rolling and winding our way to Swoope, VA where Polyface Farms is located. Man, was I taken back to my stomping grounds. The whole area, it's like my hometown. I was stunned. When I saw lazy winding creeks running through grazing fields where cows and sheep and goats grazed, I remembered hiking along those same paths as a kid, climbing Blue Creek Mountain.
We couldn't take a self-guided tour of the farm because it was pouring rain, but I took photos of what we did visit while it was only sprinkling:
http://cleandraws.com/2008/10/26/what-i-did-on-my-autumn-break/
As I noted on the blog, one of the things the farm did for me was put flesh, so to speak, to my recent memory of the smell of skinning sheds.I had to laugh when I realized that what had made Saletin queasy and what he found most difficult to get over was the stench of the killing. I kind of shrugged at the time, not sure what he meant. I have sure been around plenty of field dressing, animal slaughter and even skinning and plucking (turkey, quail, pheasant, duck, geese). I didn't remember anything that bad. So I figured it was whatever the chicken guts had been mixed with that made it worse.
Nah. The sales room where we selected our meat and eggs was filled with the stench of none other than what the old skinning shed smelled like. Annoying after awhile, but hardly anything to get all queasy over or to have it linger on your mind for so long that you're not sure you can chow down a yummy meal on a growly stomach.
:p
http://cleandraws.com/2008/10/26/what-i-did-on-my-autumn-break/
I have concluded that Pollan's secret desire is that we all visit those farms, to catch a whiff of the scent, and then no one will want to eat meat again -- if they react as he did. hah.
shag