Position regarding The Omnivores Dilemma: A Natural History of four meals. Part 1 Industrial Corn - Term Paper Example

Position Paper One of the fundamental themes of the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of four meals by Michael Pollan is that the conventional wisdom about societal issues and challenges is often incorrect. I do not quite agree with this perception of Pollan. I believe that by making this prediction about the conventional wisdom, Pollan has tried to exaggerate the claims he has made in his book, like as if he has come up with an altogether unexplored knowledge area. Corn is a fundamental source of American diet, and this is known to every American with a basic sense of ingredients.

We consume corn in all forms. We eat them raw in the form of boiled grains in the chicken-corn soup. We crush the grains to make bread, loaves and biscuits and we extract its oil to make corn oil and corn syrup. In addition to these basic uses, the flour and oil derived from corn is used in a variety of combinations to make different kinds of foods. Corn is so omnipresent in the American cuisine because of its magical tendency to develop different flavors and textures in the foods when dealt with in different styles.

Everybody in America is aware of the fact that obesity is amongst the biggest challenges that the American society is currently facing. Not surprisingly, whenever the food list of junk items responsible for the spread of obesity among Americans is made, fast food and particularly burgers are the first ones to be mentioned. And when we say burger, we know what it means! It is not supposedly a vege-burger with lots of cucumber and tomatoes in it. It is supposed to contain a good large juicy piece of meat all covered with several coats of corn flour and deep fried in oil.

We know how many carbohydrates we consume when we consume a piece of bread and how little of them is consumed when we eat an apple. The research upon foods, their ingredients and their caloric count according to their sizes and proportions is too much, and an average American can tell healthy diet from unhealthy diet in seconds. Every year, millions of Americans are ruining their looks, raising their blood cholesterol level and are being terminated from jobs on the behalf of their laziness and obesity.

We know this is a big challenge for us as a society. In such circumstances, saying that the conventional wisdom about societal issues and challenges is incorrect is similar to overlooking the gravity of situation. It is not that we are not aware of the health problems resulting from corn consumption, the corn subsidies or environmental damage. The actual challenge for an average American is to achieve control over his/her taste buds and temptation for the junk food. The fact that junk food is cheap is too little a reason for us to consume it.

We eat burgers because we like them much more than we like apples or carrots or kidney beans. We know our issues and our conventional wisdom is obviously correct!