Reymateu Johnson Writing 231 Reading Response #3 November 20, 2014 Reading Response #3 In Omnivores Dilemma: Corn Conquest, Michael Pollan states that most of the industrial food we eat, basically all processed food we find in our supermarkets, can be traced back to corn. Seems and odd concept but scientifically it’s true. The C-4 trick helps explain the corn plant’s success in this competition: Few plants can manufacture quite as much organic matter (and calories) from the same quantities of sunlight and water and basic elements as corn. I found the information in this essay quite interesting. I was surprised to learn that my body had been fundamentally altered by the prevalence of corn.
Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a book about food. In Part I: Industrial/ Corn (pp. 17-65) Chapter 1, 2, and 3 of this book, Pollan explores all aspects, sources and history about corn. However, in the following three paragraphs we will discuss the strengths of the subject, weaknesses of the subject, and the weighing the strengths of the subject against its weaknesses. Pollan begins with an exploration of the food-production system from which the vast majority of American meals are derived.
The Many Uses of Corn The Many Uses of Corn In part 1of The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals chapter’s 1-7 Michael Pollan begins to address three straightforward questions; “What should I eat, what am I eating, and where did it come from?” (Pollan, p.17). To address these three questions Pollan attempts to analyze the ingredients of different food products and shockingly finds that majority of the products analyzed contain corn in one form or another. Part 1 of the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma is a good read and will have even the casual reader wanting to learn more. The book is very informative and credible. Yet on the other hand, some sections are not an easy read and may have some readers confused by the terms being used.
Corn: Production, Distribution, Consumption The history of corn is focused primarily around building an agrarian society. Corn was used to build families, communities and ultimately a country. Since then, corn’s place in society has changed dramatically. Corn is no longer a small operation owned by family farms in America. The change is undeniable.
The only major ingredient found on the nutritional facts on the back of the cereal box would be cornmeal. After researching the origin of this cereals particular cornmeal could not be found. Cornmeal is a kind of flour or meal that is made from ground sweet corn. Sweet corn is found in many different farms. In order to keep this cereal fresh, BHT has been added to the packaging.
I’m sure that the Maya people did hunt and eat meat for their proteins and whatnot, but the fact remains that the first time we see any sort of crops is more than halfway through the movie when Jaguar Paw is running away from the soldiers in the “bad” city. Here we also see an inaccuracy as pointed out by Professor Russell and that is that the corn is all in very straight rows. Furthermore, we learned that all three of the staple crops were grown in the same spots for important reasons; here we just see corn. Something else that struck me as odd when watching the movie and was also mentioned in Stone’s “Orcs in Loincloths” was the geography. Throughout Apocalypto we see a very
Life Science Michael Garcia Virtual Lab #1 8/30/14 Dependent and Independent Variables Introduction The use of transgenic corn crops has increased over the years. This type of modified corn is in use because of its resistance to pests like the European Corn Borer (ECB). In this experiment, the effect of ECB infestation on corn crop yields will be examined. Two varieties of transgenic and two varieties of non-transgenic corn seeds will be used to see how well they weather the infestations. The independent variable for this lab is the ECB infestation, and the dependent variable will be the yield of corn.
Mexican Food is actually based upon old Aztec and Mayan culture. Corn was a popular staple in the native diet and Nixtamal was considered to be a very healthy item. Nixtamal is the treated corn that is used to make masa and hominy. First the corn is cooked and soaked in lime, rinsed and then the hulls may or may not be removed. In 1519, when the first Spanish conquistadors entered the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, where today Mexico City stands, they found the Aztec emperor Montezuma excessively fond of a drink concocted from vanilla and chocolate, and sweetened with honey.
They’re designed by evolution to eat grass. And the only reason we feed them corn is because corn is really cheap and corn makes them fat quickly … The industrial food system is always looking for greater efficiency. But each new step in efficiency leads to problems. If you take feedlot cattle off their corn diet, give them grass or five days, they will shed eighty percent of the E. coli in their gut” (Foodincmovie). There have been many cases where children have died just by eating food that has been processed by the food
We also talked to the employees in the meat department they was very nice and they helped us by weighing items proving us with how many pounds of meats we will need to feed a family of 4 without spending so much money. Whole Foods had products that we can try before we buy, for instance breads that were freshly made it was good and healthy but very different of other breads that I have had. The second market we choose to compare Whole Foods market to was ShopRite which we just picked the same items we gather from Whole Foods to see which prices and quantity is better in which market. For example Whole Foods corn were 4 for $2 and ShopRite were 6 for $2, Whole Food lemonade was $2.99 each and ShopRite was 3 for $5 so