Pollan, M. 2006. Section I – Industrial Corn (pg. 15-119) in The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Penguin Group, Toronto.
Information overload! I just learned so much about corn – from Pollen’s ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma’ – in the past eight and a half hours that I’m feeling overwhelmed. Wow...just wow!
First off, before reading Pollen’s chapter on corn, I had no idea how abundant corn was in our food. It’s just amazing...in a disturbing way. For interest sake, I decided to look at the ingredients of the original rice cakes that I’ve been eating recently (since I’ve realized that I’m sensitive to gluten/wheat), and I was pleasantly relieved to see that the only ingredient was whole grain brown rice (with warnings that it may contain: peanuts or milk, soy, and sesame (depending on the brand)). Of course if they do contain milk, then there is likely “corn” in there as the cows that the milk came from were probably fed some corn. However, when I looked at the “Savory Tomato and Basil” flavoured rice cakes, I found a lot of evidence of corn: corn, corn flower, dextrose, milk, citric acid, lecithin, and (possibly) colour. Yikes! That’s a bit alarming.
Corn really has succeeded in “world domination” (p. 23), at least in the aspect of “domesticating its domesticator” (p. 119), us. It has also caused such a multitude of problems: farmer’s not being able to break even, a “dysfunctional farm economy” (p. 47), poisoning of rivers and oceans (and thus the organisms that live there) (p. 47), obesity, health problems, etc. There is so much to do in order to fix the problems we’ve essentially created through high production of corn; but this problem is now so complex that I, personally, have no idea where to start to fix it.
Obviously we should be thinking sustainably; trying to re-introduce biological cycles, decrease waste, etc., while making everyone happy (farmers, corporations, and consumers alike). An important change to make is that the beneficiaries of high corn production (e.g. Cargill and ADM) should not have such a huge impact on the laws affecting corn and its farmers, which are thus leading farmers further into debt and forcing them to work separate jobs to keep their farms. Since by ignoring ecological solutions (“closed ecological loop[s]” (p.68)) we’ve caused more problems, it would make sense to go back to the more biological way of growing food and raising animals. Personally, I really like the “old” idea of diverse farms which focused on natural cycles – containing: plowing horses, hogs, chickens, cattle, and multiple crops (veggies, fruits, and grains), as well as being sustained by light energy and sustaining each other, thus wasting nothing – compared to what they have become today: monocultures. However, due to the world’s huge population and our consumerism viewpoint, this is easier said than done (in fact it may be impossible to ecologically grow enough food for all the people on earth).
Thankfully society is starting to become concerned with sustainability, but is it almost too late to save ourselves and our planet? Have we grown so self-centered and greedy as to doom ourselves along with the rest of earth? Or are we going to get serious about sustainability and shut down everything we can that doesn’t conform to sustainable practices? But how logical would it be to do this...then again, it was the “logic of industry” (p. 45) that led us to this problem in the first place.
