The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan addresses the question "what should we eat for dinner?" (3). He says this simple question has evolved to be so much more as American's diets have rapidly changed over the years. We rely on our senses, memory, and culture in deciding what food is best for us to consume. We have so many choices that it actually becomes a bigger ordeal for consumers. We are sustained by three food chains: the industrial, the organiic, and the hunter-gatherer (6). Between all three is the tension between the logic of nature and the logic of the human industry. Though this is nothing new, it represents our ties to the natural world (8).
Chapter Two discussed the Naylor farm in 1919. Farmers like him were the most productive humans to ever work, making enough food to feed 129 Americans (10). However, despite this, the farm is now barely making enough to sustain the family. Throughout the years, the dynamics of the area changed. The land became fenced in, and the addition of cheap corn made it profitable to feed cattle with feedlots instead of grass and to raise chicken in factories rather than farms. Corn became the new and only crop to plant to cover all expenses (12). Corn eventually pushed the animals and people off the land, as less labor was necessary. However, it was the discovery of synthetic nitrogen that changed everything in the food system and the way life itself is conducted (14). It has been speculated the the Haber- Boesh process for fixing nitrogen is the most important invention of the twentieth-century. He even says two of every five humans on Earth would not be alive without it (14). With this invention and the addition of fossil fuels, corn is being produced economically (16).
Influenced by Earl Butz, the American government began subsidizing how many bushels of corn a farmer could grow (19). However, in order to grow cheap corn, the land is degraded, the water is polluted, and the federal treasury is depleting to subsidize the corn. Though the checks go to the farmers, the treasury is really subsidizing the farmers (20). Humans are in between going broke from producing such corn and consuming it as quickly as possible (21).
Chapter Two discussed the Naylor farm in 1919. Farmers like him were the most productive humans to ever work, making enough food to feed 129 Americans (10). However, despite this, the farm is now barely making enough to sustain the family. Throughout the years, the dynamics of the area changed. The land became fenced in, and the addition of cheap corn made it profitable to feed cattle with feedlots instead of grass and to raise chicken in factories rather than farms. Corn became the new and only crop to plant to cover all expenses (12). Corn eventually pushed the animals and people off the land, as less labor was necessary. However, it was the discovery of synthetic nitrogen that changed everything in the food system and the way life itself is conducted (14). It has been speculated the the Haber- Boesh process for fixing nitrogen is the most important invention of the twentieth-century. He even says two of every five humans on Earth would not be alive without it (14). With this invention and the addition of fossil fuels, corn is being produced economically (16).
Influenced by Earl Butz, the American government began subsidizing how many bushels of corn a farmer could grow (19). However, in order to grow cheap corn, the land is degraded, the water is polluted, and the federal treasury is depleting to subsidize the corn. Though the checks go to the farmers, the treasury is really subsidizing the farmers (20). Humans are in between going broke from producing such corn and consuming it as quickly as possible (21).
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