Wendell Berry, the author of “The Pleasure of Eating”, defines the pleasures of eating as eating with gratitude, understanding and enjoyment. He strongly supports that people should not be passive consumers who buy what they want without thinking about certain critical questions about the quality and the cost of the food. He suggests that people can get the pleasures through creating food for themselves, learning the origins of the food, dealing directly with a local farmer and knowing economy and technology of industrial food production. I think the definition of the pleasure that the author mentions is just a kind of connection between humans and the whole world.

In my opinion, I partially agree with the author that we should try our best to know what we are eating and pay attentions to the sources and quality of the food that we are eating. But sometimes we have to consider some limitations of factors, like income and regional difference. For example, when Berry tells that he eats fresh seafood instead of red meat when he is traveling, does he consider that there are still a large number of people in this world cannot get what they want?

The pleasures of eating are not just about the satisfaction after you eating some healthy food but about some emotional and psychological satisfaction when you have the power to control what you eat, gain the achievement and have the accurate consciousness of living and the world. I really like the position that Berry stands but I find that he examines the question too personally since he didn’t consider the factors of income difference and regional difference.