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.
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
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.
Very seldom does the topic of where or how our finely prepared vegetables are grown or what our medium well steak went through before meeting its ultimate fate as dinner. In The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan discusses learning to distinguish the edible foods found when foraging. In today’s society we depend on agriculture as opposed to hunting and gathering those delicious delicacies grown in the wild. Many common foods that we’ve become accustomed to would be out of our reach if we solely depended on our abilities to forage for wild plants and animals as our ancestors once did. Although some subcultures still relay on foraging expeditions as a means of survival, most people do so for the sheer recreation not by necessity.
Corn illustrates how American consumption’s affecting the environment and the health of the consumers because Americans eat massive amounts of food without knowing where it comes from, how it’s produced and what chemicals are in it. The way our nation consumes and views our food is a major issue. Wendell Berry wrote that “Most urban shoppers would tell you that food is produced on farms.” (100) People don’t really know where food comes from; they just assume their food comes from a farm. People don’t know what farms their food’s produced on or where these farms are. People just buy food off the shelves without knowing what’s in it.
These animals are forced to repetitively give birth, either for creating more meat or producing as much milk as possible, without any concern for their health or wellness. "Is it part of the gulf we draw between ourselves and other animals that leads farmers to talk of animals as 'farrowing' rather than 'giving birth,' 'feeding' rather than 'eating,' and 'gestating' rather than 'being pregnant'?” (p. 341). Changing these words in such a way is meant to make it easier for people who drink milk from a store or eat pre-packaged meat to enjoy such fruits of nature without worrying about the lives of the animals from which they came. Most people do not want to know about the enormous number of animals being confined to small pens, the techniques used to get cows to over-produce milk, or how the animals are slaughtered. The farmers producing these animals
However, animals need a large amount of land to raise. There is a statistic said that cows only produce less than 5% of protein while taking up 3/5 of the world’s land space. On the other hand, people now want to avoid high calories food. Dunkin’ Donuts’ products consist of donuts, sandwiches, cool drinks and so on. These are all mainly high calories products.
Blaming Fast Food Restaurants for Obesity Let’s face it; everyone loves a Whopper every now and then. Yet we are all aware that one too many can bring on dangerous and life-threatening results. Obesity is a growing problem in the United States and more and more children are being affected. But do uneducated families have the right to put the blame on fast food restaurants for their health issues they could have easily prevented? I believe that we are taking it too far by blaming fast food restaurants for obesity and that it is an individual’s responsibility to take the blame.
Why Eat Organic Meat Do you eat organic meat? If you answered no to this question, you are just like other millions of Americans who are oblivious to the fact that non-organic meat is not only bad for you, but is also bad for the environment. Non-organic meat also promotes animal cruelty in some cases. A few reasons why you should eat organic meat include the fact that producers add hormones and other chemicals to generic meat brands; today’s factory farms pollute our environment, and the abuse and ill treatment of animals is often an occurrence for some factory farmers. According to the nutrition labels in today’s generic meat brands such as Great Value, Oscar Meyer, and Hampshire Farms, preservatives and other chemicals such as sodium phosphates, sodium ascorbate, sodium nitrate and hormones are added.
They all end up in the same ruling that its the consumers choice to enter a fast food establishment and consume their products. But it is evident that fast food corporations have caused a widespread epidemic within the U.S from their many caused negative effects. This is why society blames and accuses these fast food companies for being responsible for the ongoing obesity crisis, but even though their food is not considered of good nutrition, in the end it’s not fast food companies forcing their customers to consume their products, its free will of society. The modern history of fast food in America began on July 7, 1912 with the opening of a fast food restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots.