chickens will fly

Tian Xiwei as Fan Changyu

My grandfather responded by calmly explaining what he was doing, step by step. Explaining why he was skinning the deer, and quartering it, taking it from this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer to this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venison

By the time he was cooking tenderloin medallions and plating them up to me with grape jelly (don’t knock grape jelly on meat until you’ve tried it!) and instant mashed potatoes, I wasn’t startled or concerned anymore. I had a deeper understanding of the way the world worked, of my role as a consumer, a predator. Of the responsibilities that entailed. I couldn’t have explained it then, of course, with my 4-year-old mind and vocabulary - but Philosophy had been set into motion. This is a core memory for me. 

I did not have nightmares about the butchered deer. 

People have such a romantic view of farming and growing food but a lot of my summers as a kid was spent trying to come up with ways to stop birds from eating our vegetables, planting other plants and releasing insects to keep other insects away, and pulling weeds.

Food doesn’t just sit there all pretty growing in the sun. Everything wants to steal it away from you. Agriculture even on a small scale is a never ending battle against insects, other plants stealing water and sunlight, birds, small mammals. You are not the only one who wants the fruits of your labor.

the author, Hiromu Arakawa (she done did the full metal alchemist), litterally grew up in a family of farmers

Actually she has a whole other self biography farming manga about herself you can read here (its really fun!)

but back to Silver Spoon, that manga/anime is a real eye opening look at the reality of farming (and a REALLY eye opening look at the difference between America's farm industry and Japan's!)

Like it does not shy away from the discussions and visuals of raising animals for meat:

Like damn. And for context? Thats the main character who just sent a pig he raised from a piglet to the slaughter house, like today

its fucking probably happening at that exact moment

and he wasn't raised as an unsentimental farmer's kid, he's just a normal ass middle class city kid who went to farm high school to escape the pressure of having to succeed in highschool and go to a good university

anyways you should read/watch it, its peak

Manga:

Anime:

oh and you should know, the manga was forced to end prematurely because of the author's family issues, so it just kinda suddenly ends in a not so satisfying way :(

🐮bonus comic🐄