HM7

Omnivores Dilemma by Micheal Pollan

Originally, the goals of agriculture were to simplify the process and for the good of the people. As often with a good idea, the execution has not been so successful. It's had the opposite effect and has made an already some what solid area one of dangers and shortcuts.

Gems:

"All three food chains are systems for doing more or less the same thing: linking us, through what we eat, to the fertility of the earth and the energy of the sun. It might be hard to see how, but even a Twinkie does this" (Pollan pg 7.)

"We've discovered that an abundance of food does not render the omnivore's dilemma obsolete. To the contrary, abundance seems only to deepen it, giving us all sorts of new problems and things to worry about." (Pollan pg. 7).

Thoughts:

In our modern day society it seems we have so much influence in our diets. Whether it be the media, or friends or even our family. Everybody has an opinion on what we should be eating. But hardly anyone knows what is truely happening with our food, where is it going? Where has it been? How was it made? Long gone are the days where we can track our food back to a rural family owned farm, and here are the days of mass produced, vile food. Maybe people don't want to think about a peasant worker that helped farm the animals for the burger they are demolishing. Because then would it taste as good?

Chapter One:

The industrial food chain somehow always reverts back to the roots of the American Corn Belt. Corn is such a versatile crop that it can be used for a vast variety of things. It

has the ability to grow in bulk, adapt to the varying environments easily

, and thus has found its way into our everyday diet.

Unbeknown to the uneducated eye, the vast majority of things we eat can be related back to processed corn, from the burgers to the twinkies.

Maize is a C-4 that is frequently being massed produced in America. Its a crop which contains more carbon than plants usually do which makes it sustainable to store more energy.

Gems:

“So that’s us: processed corn, walking.” (Pollan p.23)

"Corn is the hero of its own story, and though we humans played a crucial role in its rise to world domination, it would be wrong to suggest that we have been calling the shots, or acting always in our own best interests." (Pollan pg 23)

Thoughts:

Although I would never have thought it, its apparent that corn is an essential staple in our diets. Albeit not for the best reasons, it is such a vast majority of things we eat. Why wasn't corn considered one of the many food fads that have come under scrutiny in the past? Do the pros out way the cons? Although it may have some flaws is the overall use of corn in our interest?

Chapter 2:

Farmers are responsible for growing such an influential crop to society, and sometime this can be a burden. "Hybrid corn" has been invented to make industrial farming easier because the corn is stronger than average, which allows more of it to be harvested, and therefore more profit. George Naylor, a farmer owns a farm that solely relies on corn and soybeans.

Gems:

"The true socialist utopia turns out to be a field of F-1 hybrid plants." (Pollan p.37)

Thoughts:

Generally I think we need to start thinking a lot more about what we put in our bodies. We are supposedly all doing this for vanity, but the crucial factor of what is actually in the food, rather than the amount of calories rarely comes into play. The Hybrid corn may be stronger, but we need to ask ourselves, is the overall quality better and how does the growth of Hybrid corn effect the growth of regular corn? This food industrialisation makes me fear for the future, how far will things go? Will we never revert back to our modest farming roots?

Chapter Three:

Although there may be ludicrous things that go on in the food industry, corn has to be grown to certain standard before it is can be packaged and sold. Farmers who can produce the biggest bulk of corn (mass production at its best) do so for financial gain from the Farmers Cooperative and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Instead of farming for joy, or in the interest of the general public, all focus is on the profit.

Gems:

"In America before the 1850s a farmer owned his sacks of corn up to the moment when a buyer took delivery, and so bore the risk for anything that went wrong between farm and table or trough. For better or worse that burlap sack linked a corn buyer anywhere in America with a particular farmer cultivating a particular patch of earth" (Pollan pg 59).

Thoughts:

"When is enough,enough" comes to mind. When will this process stop? And how far will it go until then? Is there no stopping the corn industry, and is there nothing it cant be used for? No longer does the decision between quantity or quality come into play, as it will forever be quantity. Number 2 corn barricades any option of a farmer being known for their quality, but they have no choice as if they do not continue with the trend, someone else will and they will profit off it.

Chapter 4:

In recent years, more factory farms have utilized the surplus of corn through cattle feed. Cows, by nature are not corn eaters so farmers were forced to remove the animals from their once lush,grass filled pastures to teeming feedlots, confined in pens and taught to consume the convenient surplus. not only were they now being fed the foreign, mass produced corn, but with a side of drugs and other hormone enhancing proteins to beef the naive animals up for slaughter. Queue Mad Cow Disease.

Gems:

“(about 60 percent of it, or some fifty-four thousand kernels) goes to feeding livestock,…” (Pollan p.66)

Thoughts:

It seems that unfortunately we will continue in this vicious cycle for some time to come. The scary thing is that I cannot see what will stop it. The dominant discourses related to food are not willing to inform us about what is going on with our own food, so why would they do something that in the long run is going to be expensive and time consuming when supposedly, they seem to be profiting nicely from the current situation. It was our own greed that caused for the change in the industry, but when we are supplied with it, we aren't happy. If only there an easy way out...

Chapter 5:

Slowly we can see the basics of food deteriorating. No longer do we natural and real, but we are presented with modified and fake. Every part of a corn kernel is utilised. Its nutritional supplements are extracted and processed to become an vital part of nearly every Americans diet. For example, a fifth of the corn river at 'Iowa Farmers Cooperative's' elevator transports to wet mill plants and eventually becomes everyday products for the average person to consume. Enter: Corn Syrup. The cheapest, most domestic substitute for sugar in the world. Currently found in everything from juices to cereals. In the wake of wet mills in the 1840's it became more and more apparent.

Gems:

"The food industry has gazed upon nature and found it wanting - and has gotten to work improving it" (page 97).

Thoughts:

I feel conflicted, as science has done so many amazing things for our current world but I feel it is becoming apparent in areas it isn't needed. Rewind 60 years ago, there was no need for any genetically modified foods then. People were raised on a wholesome diet of natural foods. They could go to a butchers or a bakery and know where there food was coming from. I would be much happier to know who had contributed to my food,or how it had been made. But now, the food industry is based on secrecy and lies. Corporations feel the average consumer does not need to know the most basic things. I think it means alot that food is either portrayed "as medicine or disease in the media" (Andy) as we can no longer see the middle ground. We are constantly shocked by new information as we know nothing about where our food is coming from. Is ignorance really bliss?