A Critical Analysis of Michael Pollan's Argument about Industrial Corn

Imagine a country having the ability to produce so much of a crop that it must be turned into something different just to sell. According to Michael Pollan in his essay “The Consumer—A Republic of Fat”, this is exactly what is happening in the corn market. Taken from his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollan’s essay compares the vast amount of corn whiskey consumed in the nineteenth century to the many ways of eating corn today. He uses historian W. J. Rorabaugh’s book title “The Alcoholic Republic” to name this whiskey era, and dubs the present as the “Republic of Fat”. In addition to comparing and contrasting, Pollan also argues that corn has become a major staple in our diet, and is causing unhealthy eating habits. His subject is on

It was in 1826 when French physician and dietitian Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote, Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que to es, “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”(Brillat-Savarin 1825) If this idea that we are what we eat is true when what we are as Americans living in the United States is corn. Corn is the largest commodity crop grown in the U.S., it is turned into the cheapest and most consumed sweetener, high fructose corn syrup, it finds its way into 75% of the products in the average grocery store, and unlike its ancestor from southern Mexico the corn we grow today has close to zero nutritional value. It is estimated by the National Corn Growers Association that the average American consumes 25 pounds of corn each year. When one thinks about corn consumption, they tend to think about products such as sweet corn, corn flakes, popcorn, or corn oil. (National Corn Growers Association) However corn is found in many more products such as, soda, candy, breakfast cereals, yogurt, sauces, beef, chips and pretty much anything else you can find that is both sweet and cheap. The hidden corn in our diet leaves the uniformed consumer at risk of serious health issues. The large scale of corn production in the United States directly correlates with the unhealthy eating habits and the alarming percentage of obesity in America. Corn is in nearly everything we eat and we don't even know about it.

The history of corn can be dated back to the beginning of time, but the use and value of corn had been unnoticed until it was introduce by the Native Americans. Where corn had seemed to be a big part of their everyday life from, being in myths, legends, and for a huge portion of their diet corn was an essential component. "when the Europeans had touched base to the New World during the late fifteenth century, the Native Americans had introduced corn what they had called maize to the Europeans .This crop was then later on grown and adapted from Canada to southern South America very quickly, which then began to form the new basis of the New World civilization" (Leventin & McManhon, 2012). The way corn has been changing and revolutionizing throughout time has been both fascinating and drastic. Rather than conventional corn being grown, it is genetically modified corn that have been dominating today 's crop industry and farming but the question remains as to how the various types of GMO corn has influenced the way it is grown and used and what its ramification are.

The food culture that we have are practices, beliefs, and ways we use to make food and consume it. Furthermore it is how we understand it as a whole and how it can shape us. Certain foods all around us can change people individually or as a group, the ability to express ourselves with food is endless.Some people may love the food for flavor , some may love to take pictures of the food and some people may just eat it because of their religion. People in the food culture can express whatever they want with food in many other ways, for example financial status, power,creativity, etc. It is amazing what people can do when it come to this,but what people do not know are its dangers. Sometimes people only see the good part behind the food and are oblivious to what it really is. The audience can maybe overlook how the food was made and in many ways overlook what is good for them and what is not. Many of the foods nowadays are made in labs and in so many different ways we can not think of. A certified dietitian named Katherine Zeratsky says “High-fructose corn syrup — can contribute unwanted calories that are linked to health problems, such as weight gain, type 2 diabetes, etc”. All of these health problems dealing with the chemical high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). This product is in sodas, Fruit drinks, Syrups, and even more. We consume this everyday and it is cheaper to make it that real sugar and it apparently taste better.

Mexico should stop buying corn from those corporations that demand to turn over their corn crops to them. Therefore, it would be best for Mexico because Monsanto’s control on the corn imported into Mexico has caused a food and health catastrophe. A fact, “In post-NAFTA Mexico, 42 percent of the food consumed comes in aboard. Before NAFTA the country spent $1.8 million dollars on food imports. It now spends a whopping $24 billion” (http://fpif.org/nafta_is_starving_mexico/). This is an issue for Mexico because all the genetically modified corn imported from the U.S. is causing for small farmers to go out of business. A reason why it caused them to go out of business is because, “Seventeen years after NAFTA, some two million farmers have been

for calorie value and buy more for cheaper, often being highly processed high fat and high sugary foods (Anderson and Butcher, 2006). The global food distribution of vegetable oil and is cheap and there is a significantly large importation of vegetable oil to developing countries making it a lot cheaper to fry food contributing to a high fat intake thus obesity (Popkin, 2006). In 2002 High Fructose Corn Syrup was a significant topic in the news media (Borra and Bouchox, 2009). Due to the importing restrictions of sugar and the subsidy of High Fructose Corn Syrup influenced many companies to use this in their products (Cawley, 2010). This masked ingredient’s identity of being sugar, giving the illusion those products had lesser sugar when

There is an ongoing debate over whether or not producing genetically modified foods particularly corn, produce any harm to humans, their livestock, as well as the environment. GM corn does have the capability of causing harm human and our livestock’s health. The presence of preservatives and fertilizers used on plants as they grow, give farmers of corn and other produce free reign in the use of pesticides. The potential for GM corn to cause harm in individuals, and the livestock is great, however it may not be through the over usage of pesticides, fertilizers and preservatives but the overconsumption of this product. GM corn is a prime ingredient in so many products of consumption. Not only is it feed to chickens, cows, pigs and any previously

If there is a corn farm there are less animals, people & a variety of other crops due to innovations, gov’t nudging lowered corn prices, & more factory farmed animals.

Corn is the one vegetable we are not able to fully digest yet it’s a vegetable that we eat pretty often and we’ve found many things to do with corn. Corn has made its way all around the globe. Corn has only been around for approximately 5,000 years, it had purpose and was able to be made into other things, and its popularity brought it all over the world. An Indian name for corn was MA-HIZ which the early settlers in the Americas began to call maize.

According in Michael Pollan in his article the one who are benefit are the drink and food industry are the one who are benefits from this it very cheap to buy and they use it from add it to drinks or candies and they also add it in the food which the cow eat. The one who are benefit it are the big companies which are Coca Cola, Mcdonald, both of those companies are buying corn to add into their drinks and foods, Coca Cola use it corn on their drinks and mostly the whole drink has lots of corn, but the diet drink are the same it still has the same corn level in, Coca Cola sell they drink daily to everyone how much people are drinking it daily and in Mcdonald they using the same movement add meat that has corn inside, bunch of people come and

High-fructose corn syrup leads to major weight gain in animals and humans increases the fat for long term.The lack of naturally omega-3s that are found in healthy animals mostly fish can lead to a poor omega-3 when feeding corn products. Eating corn while your body already has majority of corn inside can change how your body function to other products which is called “allergic reaction”. This can altered the function of the human body liver and kidney. More than 71.1 percent of people in United States are obese. Eating the right food that provide humans ability for their brain to function perfectly would not be mostly corn.

The information regarding corn provided by Pollan was enlightening to me as well. Initially, I had no idea about the saturation of corn and corn related products in our modern diet. I agree with you that corn in its present manifestation depends on enormous amounts of fossil fuels which pollute the environment. Petroleum is used as a base for fertilizer and fuel for tractors during tilling and harvesting. Corn as grown by the Native Americans was vastly different then the current form and much more

Corn is the most productive product in the world. Corn is the best kind of crop that grows. The corn that has a dent in it is used to make toothpaste, chips, and ice cream. To keep enough corn farmers grew 93.6 acres of corn. Corn has 3 key components the germ, endosperm, and pericarp. We turn corn into glucose with is a main building block in our body. Corn is not a vegetable, it is a grass.

In Part One of Michael Pollen's book The Omnivore's Dilemma, the author looks at the plethora of products available in today's supermarkets and the ubiquitousness of one plant, corn. Corn is a grass native to Central America and unknown in other parts of the world before 1492 (Pollan, 2006, p. 23). After the Native Americans taught colonists to plant corn, they quickly learned to appreciate its value and versatility. Corn was ready to eat, could be dried and stored, and could be ground into flour. The grain fed people and animals. Dried stalks became heating fuel. Mashed, fermented corn could be made into whisky and beer. It was a commodity that sustained people in many ways. For nearly 450 years, corn remained an important staple that nourished humans and animals. It provided some by-products that were also considered quite useful. By the middle of the 20th century, however, corn became a political commodity and completely changed the way we eat.

With an always expanding worldwide populace, huge third world craving, and with an estimation that a youngster bites the dust for at regular intervals worldwide from starvation; this does not even consider the quantity of individuals who are mal and undernourished, there is an incredible guarantee in the utilization of this innovation to advantage the ranchers, as well as social orders around the world. Corn is the most imperative and broadly developed grain in the United States. In any case, corn can't duplicate without human guide. Corn is likewise helpless against numerous irritations and illnesses, and corn requires a considerable measure of supplements. Greater respects make more proficient utilization of area, less employments of herbicides