The Planet: Corn's Conquest - Essay Example

Chapter Review The book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, makes us think what we are doing to our health and whether or not anyone cares whatever we eat in the name of healthy food. In today’s world, our least concern is our health because lives have become so busy that we rarely get a chance to ponder upon whether what we are consuming has any nutritional value or not. Here is a review of chapter 1, The Plant: Corn’s Conquest. This chapter tells us that we are addicted to the industrial food just like many of us are addicted to tobacco.

Industrial food, processed food, fast food, or junk food, is increasingly becoming an all-American choice. It is natural for the consumers to find such food tasty that is high in fat, calories, sugar and sodium. The tragedy is that all these calories are empty calories, which means that they lack nutrition needed to maintain a healthy body. Industrial food merely focuses on fats which results in consumers becoming obese. Obesity itself attracts many diseases like heart diseases, blood pressure, and laziness.

Fast food not only contains more fat but worse fats than usual. Hence, how can we even think of feeding ourselves or more so, our kids on such unhealthy diet which has to offer nothing more than empty calories? This is illogical that we do not care about this issue when we care so much about the hazards of tobacco and limiting the drinking age to 18 or 21. However, it is understandable that the pop culture and the bombardment of tempting advertisements and marketing leave no room for any excuse that we will not go for the processed food.

Our kids feed on these advertisements which lead to their consumption of such unhealthy food. Michael Pollan, in the first chapter, has given a definition of industrial food. He says that industrial food is “any food whose provenance is so complex or obscure that it requires expert help to ascertain.” Pollan states that the most industrialized food that Americans consume at large scale is corn. We all know that corn is processed into innumerable forms and it shows itself everywhere. We see corn in corn syrup used in sodas.

We see it fruit-coated with corn-based waxes. We also see it in our gas tanks where it is present in the form of corn-derived ethanol. Hence, we see that corn is so cheaper than any other form of food that it is used in myriad forms. This point tells us that industrial food is cheaper than traditional food which is a reason for its large consumption. The industries are benefitting, of course. Even when the consumers are provided with a wide range of options, every processed food item finally links to the monoculture of corn.

In the end of the chapter, Pollan talks about the biology of corn which has lead to its industrialization. Industrialists made it their intellectual property by selling processed seeds that produced fewer crops every year. This led to increased demand of corn seeds. Hence, corn became an intellectual property. To conclude, this chapter focuses on how we are making natural foods our intellectual property and how we are processing them into junk food. We do not care a bit that our children eat empty calories.

We have become so materialistic that we focus on our businesses rather than on ethics. Works CitedPollan, M. The Omnivores Dilemma. USA: Penguin Press, 2006.