The introduction to the book "the omnivores dilemma, the secret behind what you eat" by Michael Pollan talks about how the author like other people did not really think about food before he ate it. It talks about how he started to want to talk about food the way he does. He says that it all started when he was writing about genetically modified food and went to a farm and really got interested about where the food we eat is being made. He actually says that he "eats to get full" just like I do, which in my opinion brings up a good point about why people really eat? A question that I have is why are the foods that he talks about in the introduction prepared with so many chemicals? How long has it been like this for?
Chapter 1 talks about corn being a huge part of the food market in america. Not only is it popular among buyers buy it is especially popular among farmers. Since corn is in almost anything it is really wanted buy almost everyone. Something that was interesting in the chapter was that I did not know that corn began as a wild grass. A question that I have is if corn is so popular then why isn't there more media marketing talking about it? If they do start to put it in the media more do you think it will become more popular?
Chapter 2 says all about a farmer who got his farm passed down to him by his father. He also plants corn on his farm and has realized how big corn is in this food market. In this situation corn is kind of a dominant discourse considering how popular it is. It is really interesting that i was able to connect this part of the book to past classwork assignments. One question I have is where to the farmers get the money to take care of there farms before the sell their product? Also what happens to a farmers money if all of their crops die?
Chapter 3 talks mainly about how corn is the dominant product pretty much. If corn was not available to people then we wouldn't be able to make a lot of other foods. I really found it interesting that they need to use chemical fertilizer to grow hybrid corn. I actually never even knew that there was such a thing as hybrid corn. A question that I have is do you think that corn is a sacred thing for people in the united states? do you in your own opinion think that corn should be seen as something sacred? I also wonder why the book is focusing so much on corn as a topic.
Chapter 4 talks about one day he went to visit George Naylors grain elevator which is where he hauls his corn every october. Grain elevators are basically just a big storage room where farmers keep their corn when its cold out. I really liked how the author describes what the farming is like for corn farmers depending on what season of the year it was. A question that I have is how do they keep the corn preserved so well that it doesn't go bad? Also are the winters really bad times for corn farmers?
Chapter 5 tells you about how the way that farmers treat their cattle has changed over the years. Cattle used to be able to roam around and eat grass but now the cattle are only fed corn and have to stay inside their pens. He talked about the smell that came from the pens since the cattle were basically living in their own feces. Something that I found interesting was that farmers have changed their ways of farming so their way of farming makes people think that farming is completely different then it used to be. One question that I have is that is what the modern day farmers are doing really even farming? do you think that what they are doing should even be called farming? In my opinion is more like an industry rather then farming.
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