His sense of humor is displayed in the description of foods, how they were prepared and packaged. His curiosity peaked when he visited the processed section and saw the diverse cans of corns. The questions of where our food came from caused him to take a look at the industrial food chain. In his book, Pollan made us aware of the evolution of corn. He took us back in time when corn was the staple of the Mayans.
“Calories are calories…protein is protein,” as stated by Michael Pollen in his book, The Omnivores Dilemma, when discussing the industrial logic many factory farms associate with feeding cattle corn and rendered cow parts (Pollen, 2006, p.75). This is true at a molecular level; however, there are unwanted substances in corn fed beef. For example, there is an increased amount of saturated fat. “A growing body of research suggests that many of the health problems associated with eating beef are really problems with corn-fed beef” (Pollen p. 75). Adding in additional substances to the cows corn diet, such as remnant cow parts, has led to e-coli out breaks in humans and continued to spread mad cow disease.
Book Review on Part I: Industrial: Corn from The Omnivore’s Dilemma There are a lot of issues in this world of ours, and eating and eating disorders is only a fraction of the issues that we need to deal with. Author, Michael Pollan, wrote a book called The Omnivore’s Dilemma which was published in 2006. Part I: Industrial: Corn will be reviewed that includes the first three chapters which are “The Plant: Corn’s Conquer”, “The Farm”, and “The Elevator”. Throughout the sections of Part I, Pollan had successfully done the following common expectations which are that he is very detailed to bring the readers to where he was, readers learn about corn and its history, and he keeps the readers’ attention. Being able to visualize what Pollan is saying to the point that the readers are there and/or make them feel what he was feeling, it makes the reading more interesting.
Some people have asked if grass fed beef tastes better because you either know or feel like it had an easier life grazing somewhere nice and sunny with lots of grass to eat. Can that have an effect on the taste of the meat or does the grass in the cattle’s diet really change the flavor of the meat? The debate is not only about the taste of the meat but many other aspects of the cattle's life and surroundings. In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma a Natural History of Four Meals Michael Pollan discusses where our food comes from. There are a lot of different topics the book covers but the bottom line is the difference in organic foods and manufactured or industrialized food, which makes you really think about what you are eating and where it comes from.
The first three chapter of The Omnivore’s Dilemma were amazing, frightening, and moving all at once. The premise of part one of the book by Michael Pollan is that everything we eat and the way we spend our money at the grocery store and the countries obesity epidemic are all related, and in one way or another it is all because of the mass production of corn. It was very enlightening, however being enlightened only served in my case to make me feel guilty that I have been unintentionally contributing to the problem, through buying from major food companies, for years. Pollan describes so many problems in the first part of his book, however it is difficult to list three specific things because the whole point of The Omnivore’s Dilemma is that everything is connected and one problem only leads to another problem. I am an animal lover, so to me the most upsetting part of all of this is that ruminant animals, specifically cows, have such amazing digestive systems and are able to turn grass into protein but instead of being able to utilize that function that are just treated as future food and they are fed species inappropriate diets to fatten the up faster for slaughter.
Farmers are persecuted and sued for accidentally infringing on Monsanto’s seed “rights”. More than 70% of processed foods on American shelves contain genetically modified ingredients. Can you believe that meats and milk from cloned animals will soon be on American food shelves? Cheap genetically modified corn is fed to cows, chickens and even farmed salmon. More than 30% of America’s land base is planted with corn.
Thirty percent of land bases are growing corn. Because of this excess supply of corn, many modifications have been made to it so that it can be used as an ingredient in almost every food. Corn creates products such as high fructose corn syrup. This creates foods that are harmful and unhealthy to the body. A great alternative to these products is organic or farm grown foods.
Pollan made me think of how much corn that I myself consume, to a point II started looking through my own cupboards to check ingredients. The author went into great detail into the science and anatomy of the corn plant. Pollan described the origins of the plant and he went into, what this reviewer feels as an overkill, of the molecular structure that was like a high school science review that escalated to a college botany course. Pollan began talking about the sex of corn and the germination process to a point that I was hearing late night Cinemax background music. When the author traveled to the Iowa farm I found very interesting, as far as the description of the land, the sounds of the tractor and the feel of the weather.
If you need a second page, staple them together with your name on each. 1. Which two major plant crops are incorporated into the vast majority of Genetically Modified Foods? Briefly describe how it is that these ingredients are in just about all processed foods. Corn and soy.
By having these small “farms” it allows the Locavore movement to take on new heights. Standard Locavore only consumes the food that is imported to the nearest farmers market from a 1000 mile radius. This “small slaughter house” chain is very similar. Only certain areas will raise, for example, lambs, while the others raise cows. The consumer will then only travel to where the animals he/she wishes to purchase.