The Omnivore's Dilemma

In The Hungry SoulLeon Kass calls this the great paradox of eating: “that to preserve their life and form living things necessarily destroy life and form

We butcher, grind, chop, grate, mince, and liquefy raw ingredients, breaking down formerly living things so that we might recombine them in new, more cultivated forms

The Romans called it “usufruct,” which the dictionary defines as “the right to enjoy the use and advantages of another’s property short of the destruction or waste of its substance

The menu should feature at least one representative of each edible kingdom: animal, vegetable, and fungus, as well as an edible mineral (the salt).

Since the evolutionary strategy of fruiting plants is to recruit animals to transport their seeds, they’ve evolved to get themselves noticed, attracting us with their bright colors

yster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus)can digest a pile of petrochemical sludge in a fortnight, transforming the toxic waste into edible protein. (This alchemy makes more sense when you recall that what saprophytic mushrooms have evolved to do is break down complex organic molecules, which is precisely what petrochemicals are.)

Mexicans call mushrooms carne de los muertos—“flesh of the dead.”)

Most of the fungi we eat obtain their energy by one of two means: saprophytically, by decomposing dead vegetable matter, and mycorrhizally, by associating with the roots of living plants.

white button mushrooms, shiitakes, cremini, Portobellos, and oyster mushrooms

Fungi, lacking chlorophyll, differ from plants in that they can’t manufacture food energy from the sun. Like animals, they feed on organic matter made by plants, or by plant eaters. Most of the fungi we eat obtain their energy by one of two means: saprophytically, by decomposing dead vegetable matter, and mycorrhizally, by associating with the roots of living plants