I recently headed out to the supermarket; check the labels on about 15 to 20 products. All the products contained some sort of corn sweetener ingredient. Corn is being fed to livestock: dairy cows, pigs, chicken and even salmon at all farms nationwide. Corn is cheaper, and less of a hassle to retrieve animals from the fields. All the available, soft drinks and juices for kids contain corn byproducts.
“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.
The beef industry won’t ever do that because it would slow the cattle’s growth and it will hurt the company’s profit. E. coli has also spread to other foods from the run off that is made by the production of corn-fed beef. In the past ten years leafy foods like spinach have been recalled because the beef industry couldn’t keep its E. coli to
Over a period of 1000 years the Native Americans transformed Maize by using selective breeding. Maize was a staple crop and food in their diets. The American Indians would also ground dry corn kernels into corn meal which would be used for cornbread, corn syrup, or corn pudding. The husks of the corn cob were braided into masks, baskets, and dolls. Christopher Columbus first discovered corn in 1492 in Cuba.
Today the top Four companies (Tyson, Cargrill, JBS and National Beef) control more than 80% of the worlds meat market. With such high demands on these companies to produce so much, there are compromises that are made. These companies treat their livestock, and employees in a horrific and sickening manner. The animals are fed mostly corn products and given antibiotics daily. Most animals stand knee high in their own feces all of the time.
Nevertheless, if we studied the American industry, we would find that there is one basic ingredient that seems to be in just about everything: - corn. Our food industry here in America is strongly based on corn, and as the author points out, it is used in countless forms, from being fed to livestock, to being used in processed items such as yogurt or beer. Mr. Pollan also explains just how corn came to govern the American markets and industrial food chain due to a number of factors. He also pays a visit to George Naylor’s farm in
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.
Do Corn Subsidies Lead To Obesity? Commodity corn has become a staple crop here in the United States food and agricultural system. “When food is abundant and cheap, people will eat more of it and get fat”(Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan). When Michael Pollan says this he is generally referring to fast food eateries such as McDonalds which use government subsidised corn to make most of their products, including the sweeteners in soda. There are over 14,000 McDonald’s locations in America alone and they made over 8.5 Billion dollars in 2013 alone.
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.
The government or other organization that are concerned should and need to develop new set of policies that don’t subsidize over production and over eating. Pollan argues that corn is being used as substitutes for all other foods. This is why foods at fast-food outlets are cheap, because they are already paid for. “Farmers in the United States have managed to produce 500 additional calories per person every day” (Pollan-20th Paragraph) Pollan gives out a tone between formal and informal towards his audience. With historical references mixed with a conversational tone.