To eat or not eat, .... that is not the question! but, shrimp or beef?

I feel emotionally obligated to express how much I enjoyed reading the chapters “Graze Anatomy” by Richard Manning and “All You Can Eat” by Jim Carrier this week.  Now, as for answering why I believed these chapters were considered as part of the Best Science and Nature Writing in 2010 book, below you have my comments.

All you can eat.  Carrier’s style of writing was clear, captivating, creative, well-argumented, and flourished in tips for fully capturing the reader’s attention (like me!).  I believe that the key for this chapter is the combination of reality, familiar case studies, analogies, metaphors, colloquial sayings, scientific information, research, dates, sources, economy and health aspects, reader friendly text, and rich vocabulary made a very special “reading cocktail” for me as a reader.  Associating the major topics (e.g., US broken shrimp industry due to overfishing and the growing problem of the food quality of imported shrimp) to our everyday life examples (e.g., shrimp price for a family or a daily financial profit of a shrimp boat) and real familiar names of places (e.g., Red Lobster Restaurant and Ecuadorian shrimp farms) made interesting and facilitated the connection of all ideas into the shrimp story.  Intermixing dialogues, quotes, descriptions and passages through the story spurned me to keep avidly reading and wondering on what new issue this author was bringing up next into it.  Now, as a reader and part of our society, I am just wondering when I am going to have my next shrimp-based plate in a restaurant located at least 100miles away from the coast! or, should I just ask for a cocktail?

Graze Anatomy.  Manning’s style was rich in writing techniques, clear, interesting, informative and up to date as well.  One thing that manning did in his text was to use subtitles to enhance the information coming up and linking it to the whole picture of the story.  In scientific writing the use of different sections and subheadings is important, but Manning gave me another example of how a writer can drive the attention of the reader towards any desirable point or to emphasize part of the “take home” message.  The change from grass-fed system (grain production for cattle) into pasture and organic crop farming (e.g., perennial grasses for cattle) sounds very promising and desirable, but the globalized economic system and our multi-cultural approaches to farming in the world are two major obstacles to fend before this idea comes to reality.  Manning forged a excellent text linking ecological, social, health, financial, and political issues into a congruous, appealing, documented story.  By associating the production of beef (milk and other derivatives) on grass pastures (e.g., corn, wheat) with aspects of global warming, climate change, product nutritional value for humans, crop productivity, physiology, flooding, erosion, carbon sequestration, and sustainability, Manning gives me a solid outline of a very complex problem that we are currently facing.  As Carrier did, manning provided with specific numbers and quantities to support his statements which gains more credibility from the reader.  Although I did not see any scientific reference throughout both chapters, I perfectly understand this fact due to the nature of the book.

In summary, I am confident in saying that I enjoyed a lot reading and learned from both chapters, but I must also say that my favorite one was “All you can eat” by Manning.  Both chapters were presented with a technically diverse, informative, and clear writing format under a coherent, flowing style which simply put these stories into the Best Science and Nature Writing 2010 book.  Another relevant point that these authors made me remembered was the importance of a short, explicit, eye-catching title for a text, do you agree?