The book I am reading is titled Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.
Introduction- In order to understand the dilemma that humans as omnivores face we must look at the three main food chains that enable us to survive: industrial, organic, and hunter-gatherer. All these food chains are connected in the way that they are all tied to the sun and the worlds ecosystem. However, none of these chains have prevented the disease that has infected America; a nationwide eating disorder.
Chapter 1- There is no ingredient on the planet that Americans consume more then corn. Its everywhere, in our sodas, meats, breads. Its even in our vegetables! Corn is packed with carbohydrates and plentiful, making it very cheap. This is the reason why it is 45% of all the items in the average supermarket.
Chapter 2- George Naylor is in charge of a farm in Iowa that is 320 acres and in charge of feeding 129 people. Although his grandfather had success with the farm, he is struggling to feed his family and a family members paycheck is really the only thing keeping them alive. Practically none of his food on the farm is edible, and needs to be processed before it can be consumed.
"We have perturbed the global nitrogen cycle." The quote continues on to say that the effects of this are as unpredictable as the effects of disrupting the carbon cycle, and could be equally or more dangerous. This idea really gave me a sense of how we are disrupting the balance of the earth's ecosystem with processes such as these just for our own short term benefit. Things like spraying pesticides on so many crops and genetic modification must be having a similar effect on the environment, so I hope as I read on in the book that I will learn how these things are specifically effecting the things that I am eating.
Chapter 3- The grain elevator that transports grain to factory farms and processing plants results in a huge pile of food lying around in a not particularly clean place. In Mexico it is considered sacrilegious to leave food on the ground like that, and the pile consists both of George Naylor's Hi-Bred corn and Billy's genetically modified corn. No one boasted of the quality of their corn crops any more, and this 10-billion bushel pile of commodity corn has created a whole new food chain.
The most interesting as well as disturbing thing that the author said in chapter 3 was, "Before the commodity system farmers prided themselves on a panoply of qualities in their crop: big ears, plump kernels, straight rows, various colors, even the height of their corn plants became a point of pride. Now none of these distinctions mattered; 'bushels per acre' became the only boast you heard." (Pollan, 60) From this quote, it seems like nobody really cares about how good the quality of their corn was and only about the quantity. I would guess that this switch of priorities could result in worse quality food for the public, and its not like anyone can avoid it because corn is in practically all the foods we eat.
Chapter 4- As a result of concentrated animal feeding operations, farmers are being forced to feed corn to their cattle. Cows have something called rumen, which is what enables them to eat grass and obtain a lot of protein from it. Therefore, they are not accustomed to being forced to consume corn while being trapped in small pens. Not only was this unusual and uncomfortable for the cows, it was also unhealthy, and it resulted in emergence of mad cow disease of the cattle themselves.
"So why is it that steer number 534 hasn't tasted a blade of grass since October? Speed, in a word, or, in the industry's preferred term, 'efficiency." (Pollan, 71) Apparently, not only is the sanitation of the crops being effected by the industry's desire for efficiency and progress, so is the health of cows. A farmer even stated, "Hell, if you gave them lots of grass and space, I wouldn't have a job." (Pollan, 79) It is evident that while farmers have used corn to solve their efficiency problem, it in itself has caused various sanitation problems that are currently effecting cows and will surely effect us in the future.
Chapter 5-
Unlike dry mills where corn is simply ground into dry meal, wet mills are where corn is processed down to the point where ingredients for fast food and sodas such as rich carbohydrates are extracted. The wet milling process also extracts vitamins, nutritional supplements, and oil from the corn. In the 1970's a breakthrough took place during wet milling- the perfection of high fructose corn syrup, a sweetener that is just as sweet as sucrose. (sugar) After this point, processing foods become much more popular, and the wet milling industry has kept their processing process increasingly secretive.
"high- fructose corn syrup- which is a blend of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose that tastes exactly as sweet as sucrose- came onto the market. Today it is the most valuable food product refined from corn, accounting for 530 million bushels every year." (Pollan, 89) Today, many of us are also aware (or according to the news at least) that high fructose corn syrup is not good for us; its actually worse then sugar. In my opinion, this is a perfect example of how the industry has chosen the cheap and quantity-based way out and how this kind of decision is not exactly effecting people in a positive way.
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