Reading Response

The Omnivore's Diet, Michael Pollan Chapter 1 & 2

Corn has been around for a very long time. It's been around so long and it was such a successful plant that it is now in almost everything you see and eat today. The reason corn spread is because it adapted to our needs and was regrown by humans. Since it was so useful it spread out across America first by going to indians in the north east. It pushed a lot of other crops that europeans had brought out of the picture. "A single planted corn seed could yield 150 to 300 fat kernels." (Pg. 16) I thought that this was an interesting example of corn having the ability to take over. One seed for that many healthy kernels a lot and would push other crops that farmers grow out of the picture. Corn also had multiple purposes such as food for people and animals, fuel, food that could be stored for the winter, and can be made into drinks like beer or whisky. What I am wondering is how corn first got into America. How did it get from down in Mexico and central America all the way to Canada?

So if corn is in all food and all of everything, then where does something that appears more then frequently in our lives come from? Well of course from a farm but not really the types of farms that you would think. Michael Pollan goes to a farm owned by George Naylor whose family has owned his 470 acres of land since the 1880's. In his 470 acres he only grows two types of crops, corn and soybeans. When I read this I thought to myself, how can a farm survive on only two things? Also with all that land, wouldn't you think that there would be a lot of different things. Back in the early 20th century farming was a lot different then it is today. There would be many different things on a farm as many would think. But now mostly corn is grown on many farms because it is so popular. Big businesses have found ways to cross breed corn so that it may be more durable, sweeter, bigger, ect. But you would have to buy the seeds from these companies you couldn't replant them like the old fashion way. These hybrid corns has caused corn to increase even more on farms to around 180 bushels per acre. That many bushels add up to more then 5 tons of corn. In one day 1.8 million pounds of corn can be planted. Reading this made me think, wow its no wonder corn is everywhere. I believe that this has caused corn to evolve and increase more and more but the farming culture has definitely died out due to this increase.

Chapter 3 10/5/10

These big businesses, called agri-businesses need really cheap corn in order to be successful. Not only do they provide the farmers with seeds to grow the corn. They also sell the farms the tools and fertilizer necessary to grow the corn. In order for corn to stay cheap the agri-businesses needed help from the government. After World War 2 the government had a lot of extra ammonium nitrate from extra explosives. This makes me wonder what else could be in my food if something that is used to kill people is in corn. These fertilizers used the nitrogen from the explosives in order to grow more corn. Because of this extra nitrogen the growth or corn did increase by a lot. The Naylors didn't have to depend on natural nitrogen anymore, this also means that they wouldn't need the animals that made the natural fertilizer. When I heard this I thought to myself, wow this won't turn out good. I'm sure many people thought that back then to but why didn't anything happen? The farms soon had no need for any working animals or even other crops on their farm. Farms have become exactly like factories. Like many factories, farms need a lot of fossil fuels in order to run smoothly or at this point run at all. For one acre of corn it takes 75 gallons to keep the corn alive and healthy. For the Naylors 470 acres, that's a lot of oil. When I heard this I didn't even believe it. That must be horrible for the environment. With all the corn that the Naylors sell, since corn is so cheap they don't make enough money to support their own family. The government has to give them money and even with that money George Naylors wife needs to have a job on the side. The people who get the money are the big agri-businesses who sell to the farmers. When the prices of corn fall farmers need to find ways to grow more corn and the agri-businesses find a way and make more money selling to the farmers.

Chapter 4 10/6/10

Since corn is used in everything do the people who take care of our corn treat it all the same? Well no not really. There is the corn that you eat, which is treated so that it is healthy. But then there is the corn that is for everything else. This corn is not made for eating, by people at least. This corn is call number 2 field corn. This number 2 field corn is not taken care of well at all. There is so much that it doesn't fit in the mill and ends up just laying outside of the mill whatever the conditions may be. This corn may be used for animal feed (which is what most of it is used for), processed foods, high-fructose corn syrup, fuel, ect. This made me think that this corn may not be so bad if its being used for fuel. What does it need to be in good condition for?

Chapter 5 10/7/10

Since 47% of number 2 field corn goes to animal feed I was wondering where most of this corn goes. It turns out that some of it goes to feed lots for cows. Now to me this doesn't really make much sense considering I've grown up knowing cows to eat grass. Well these cows at the feed lots are forced to eat the corn. That is going against nature. Cows are not meant to eat grain like corn. It is not healthy for them and gets them sick. The only good thing about about feeding them corn is that it gets them very fat very fast. But this animal feed is not just corn. It is many numerous things one being the beef that could have been at the same feedlot. They send the extra parts of beef from the slaughterhouse back to the feed lots to put in the animal feed for extra protein. This caused an epidemic in Europe called mad cow disease which happened because a cow infected by this disease, its brains got into the cow feed infecting cows that led to infecting and causing the death of many people. I remember hearing about this as a little kid and it scared me so much that I didn't eat beef or a hamburger until I was in middle school. Now a bacon cheeseburger may be my favorite food. To me it sounds like we are turning the defenseless animals that eat grass all day into cannibalistic diseased creatures. These cannibalistic diseased creatures which are served on many of our plates very often. Some interesting things that are also in the animal feed may be chicken manure, cattle manure, cardboard, cement dust, hooves, feathers, and much more but I listed the ones I found particularly disturbing. How does that stuff get in there? Somebody has to put it in, I'm sure cardboard doesn't just fly into the mills and turn into feed. This also brings up the point, how do we know whats in our food. There could very well be cement dust in our meals everyday. These cows are constantly getting sick, so another thing added to the animal feed is antibiotics. I don't like the over use of antibiotics because it very well can make an bacteria that can not be cured and very dangerous. Especially if its in food as common as beef. Without it though the cows would get sick and die but maybe if the cows weren't forced to eat something that isn't natural for them then maybe there wouldn't be a problem in the first place.