Corn

After reading An Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollen, I was astonished by the amount of corn that one person consumes. It’s amazing to see just how corn affects our lives. This one vegetable that no one really pays attention to actually has a big impact on our diets. From soda to meat, corn plays a process in it. There was a part in the book in which Pollen talks about how corn was being fed to cows; however a cow’s stomach is not acidic enough to break down the corn which causes health problems for the cows, even lung cancer. However because of the cheap prices of corn it makes it more affordable to feed the cows. A way to help this situation is to inject these drugs into the cows, but what is that doing to the quality of meat? Is that really healthy for the consumers, such as us? After reading about this I wanted to stay away from red meat. It would be nice if our foods could be safer, however it would be more expensive, and people always want more for their money. They would always go for the less expensive, less quality items that can help save them money. Not only that but for a nation has big as ours there has to be industrialized food companies, so that people can get fed. Although things are changing a little bit with farmers markets, those markets only last for the summer; so there has to be food coming in from somewhere else to feed the nation. The topic of where our food is coming from and how it’s being made is a really sensitive subject and it’s also amazing to know that corn plays such a big role in it.