On Food and Cooking

plants, are rich rather than starchy.
Because fat is critical to animal life, most
animals are able to take advantage of
abundant food by laying down large stores of
fat. Many species, from insects to fish to birds
to mammals, gorge themselves in preparation
for migration, breeding, or surviving seasonal
scarcity. Some migratory birds put on 50% of
their lean weight in fat in just a few weeks,
then fly 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers from the
northeast United States to South America
without refueling. In seasonally cold parts of
the world, fattening has been part of the
resonance of autumn, the time when wild
game animals are at their plumpest and most
appealing, and when humans practice their
cultural version of fattening, the harvest and
storing of crops that will see them through
winter’s scarcity. Humans have long exploited
the fattening ability of our meat animals by
overfeeding them before slaughter, to make
them more succulent and flavorful (p. 135).