Hwk 7

The Omnivore's Dilemma A Natural History of Four Meals
By Michael Pollan

Introduction:
Precis:
"What will we be having for dinner tonight?" is a question we all come across in our daily lives. Many Americans have a hard time answering this question since we tend to change our diets every so often. The "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan pushes individuals to make smart decisions for their next meal. In order for these smart decisions to take place, we must learn how the food that is in front of us got there.
Gems:
“…The three principal food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer. Different as they are, 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 of the earth and the energy of the sun.” (5)
"My premise is that like every other creature on earth, humans take part in a food chain, and our place in that food chain, or web determines to a considerable extent what kind of creature we are." (6)
"Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds." (10)
“Eating is an agricultural act,” as Wendell Berry famously said. It is also an ecological act, and a political act, too.” (11)
Thoughts:
"How are the ways of food in different countries compared to American food ways? Do they have the same ways of processing food as we do?
I found it interesting when the human food ways were compared to animals such as koalas. Humans are aware of different tastes and textures, while the koala will eat anything that tastes like the eucalyptus. Imagine us eating only one sort of food throughout our whole lives. I think it's fascinating for some creatures to depend on only one type of food.

Chapter One – The Plant
Corn’s Conquest
Precis:
While pushing our carts full of a variety of edible items, we struggle to realize that many of these items wouldn't appear before us if it wasn't for corn. Our dependence on corn is growing, with already 25% of grocery store items containing a form of corn as an ingredient. This plant provides humans with lots of carbon. Corn has been consumed for centuries by Native Americans, Mexicans, and Pilgrims.
Gems:
"With out the "fruitfulness" of Indian corn, the nineteenth-century English writer William Cobbett declared, the colonists would never have been able to build "a powerful nation." Maize, he wrote, was "the greatest blessing God ever gave to man." (26)
"...Native Americans had discovered that by taking the pollen from the tassel of one corn plant and dusting it on the silks of another, they could create new plants that combined the traits of both parents." (28)
"...Zea Mays entered the industrial age and, in time, it brought the whole American food chain with it." (31)
Thoughts:
If corn were never to be discovered, what plant would take it's place while bringing the whole American food chain with it?
Since so many Americans have grown very dependent on corn, how would they respond to if a scenario where all corn crops failed? Would they be furious? Would they handle this situation maturley?
Will corn be replaced in the near future with a different plant, perhaps more benficial to our bodies?

Chapter Two – The Farm
Precis:
As time passed by, the choices of farmers regarding farming decreased to a few. Before, they had the freedom to grow a number of fruits and vegetables, while raisng a number of animals. After the prices of corn started to decrease because of over production, farmers were having a hard time making a good amount of money. Farmers started to use different chemicals such as ammonium nitrate to provide their crops nitrogen.
Gems:
"Measured in terms of output per worker, American farmers like Naylor are the most productive humans who have ever lived." (34)
As the Indian farmer activist Vandana Shiva says in her speeches, "We're still eating the leftovers of World War 2." (41)
Thoughts:
Farmers are responsible to produce and care for most of the food we eat; why are they not praised by society for this?
How will the country react if all the farmers went on strike for a higher pay?
In our future do we see technology taking over the jobs of all farmers, in return making them unemployed?

Chapter Three – The Elevator
Precis:
Tons and tons of corn is being produced, but the amount of consumption is limited; what happens to the leftovers? Grain elevators are piled high with leftover corn, which goes through a process of being milled, fractionated, processed and exported. Corn is never wasted under any circumstance, after all it will be used one way or another. In return the over production of corn does not concern many, whereas if corn crops started to fail Americans would find themselves drowning in crisis; this might explain why "the corn" has be renamed as the "commodity corn."
Gems:
What is much harder to see is that all this corn is also the product of government policies, which have done more than anything else to raise that mountain and shrink the prices of each bushel in it." (61)
"My plan when I came to Iowa was to somehow follow George Naylor's corn on it's circuitous path to our plates and into our bodies. I should have known that tracing any single bushel of commodity corn is as impossible as tracing a bucket of water after after it's been poured into a river. " (63)
"These two companies (Cargill and ADM) now guide corn's path at every step of the way: They provide the pesticide and fertilizer to the farmers; operate most of America's grain elevators (Naylor's member-owned cooperative is an exception); broker and ship most of the exports; perform the wet and dry milling; feed the livestock and then slaughter the corn fattened animals; distill the ethanol; and manufacture the high-fructose corn syrup and the numberless other fractions derived from number 2 field corn." (63)
Thoughts:
What alternatives can be found to transport the corn other than the grain elevator?
Is corn to blame for America's eating disorder?

Chapter Four – The Feedlot: Making Meat
Precis:
Beef. How does it get that marbleized texture and succulent taste? Corn; that's right, corn. CAFOs are forcing corn down the throats of farm animals such as cattle; in result making their bodies take shape of a mature steer at an early age. In order to keep up with the high demand of beef, these cows are fed corn to decrease the amount of time needed for them to end up at the slaughter house. Besides corn, cattle is fed protein, fat supplements and drugs.
Gems:
"In my grandfather's time, cows were four or five years old at slaughter, Rich explained. In the fifties, when my father was ranching, it was two or three years old. Now we get there at fourteen to sixteen months. Fast food, indeed." (71)
"A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef." (75)
"...thicker across the shoulder and round as a barrel through the middle. He carried himself more like a steer now than a calf, even though his first birthday was still two months away." (80)
Thoughts:
America's diet is getting unhealthier at a very high rate, and this is a concern for many of us. But why isn't the diet of cows a concern as big of a concern for us? Constantly being fed corn, cows look as if they are a steer when in reality they are a calf. Corn is the reason why many Americans are overweight, so why not start from the source and work our way down? Are we just being too lazy?
Cows are considered very sacred in India. Is the country aware about the treatment of cows in the United States? If so, how do they react? Can they change Americans food ways regarding the consumption of beef?

Chapter Five – The Processing Plant: Making Complex Foods
Precis:
Eating corn off the cob is a tradition for many Americans during a barbecue, for some this is the only unprocessed corn that is consumed; which is only a mere fraction when compared to all the heavily processed corn consumed. Corn starch, corn syrup, beer, and cereal are just a few items created from processed corn. All the corn that is leftover from feedlots, is taken to wet mills, breaking down the leftover corn into a variety of edible food items with of course the help of science. Because corn is so cheap, it is used to create new products which will catch the eye of innocent consumers.
Gems:
"Wet milling is an energy-intensive way to make food; for every calorie of processed food it produces, another ten calories of fossil fuel energy are burned." (88)
"Corn syrup became the first cheap domestic substitute for cane sugar." (88)
"The primary difference between the industrial digestion of corn and an animal's is that in this case there is virtually no waste at the end of it." (90)
"This leaves companies like General Mills and McDonald's with two options if they hope to grow faster than the population: figure out how to get people to spend more money for the same three-quarters of ton of food, or entice them to actually eat more than that." (95)
"These dubious substances came to be consumed by humans at their own risk." (97)
Thoughts:
What if out of the blue, all the corn crops in the U.S. started to fail, in return causing the prices of corn to reach rocket high prices...Do Americans have a "plan B" if such an event occurs?
Can an average American survive without consuming products containing processed corn? Or have we become oh so dependent on these items that we will consider death without them?