Pollan has a few positions regarding the nature that the potato satisfies and its connection to politics, production, and his own personal life. His view regarding the desire that the potato satisfies is compared with the idea of the sublime. Pollan states that the sublime is “mostly a kind of vacation in both a literal and moral sense” (184) and that nature itself is a counter to that. Agriculture can be described as a method of control of nature (in this case, particularly with genetics). Thus the potato (and its representative, the NewLeaf) are introduced as the manifestation of our desire to control. Pollan states that his personal reasons for growing the potato are not so much because he wants something out of them as much as it is an experiment to decide whether or not the NewLeaf potato is actually worth growing. In industry, Pollan states, there is a “long, complex and…largely invisible food chain that links us to the land.” Genetic crops are an integral part of this chain according to Pollan, as a large amount of the fields that grow crops are genetically modified.
Pollan...
In “What’s Eating America”, Michael Pollan starts off his article by providing his audience with a background on the history of corn and its production. Additionally, he goes through both the sinister and positive sides in the history of corn, all while building a connection with his audience through his utilization of ‘we’ pronouns and by having direct conversations with his readers inside parentheticals. He continues to develop this connection throughout the text in order to slowly inch the reader towards his argument, which he presents in the final paragraph of the piece as a climax to the slow buildup of facts that previously followed the main argument. In addition, he surprises his readers by drawing grisly connections between corn and Zyklon B, amongst other images, creating a visual in the minds of his readers of corn as a malicious entity. He does this in order to to bolster his argument against the industrialization of food production, placing it in a gory, gruesome frame,
...ood that he grows. Pollan describes his day at the Polyface farm through out most of his essay and construes about how “local is not organic” and the importance of “choosing the person who grows your food” (Pollan 1 & 4). However, Pollan does neglect to bring up the time, cost, and environmental effects between buying at a local farm compared to a local supermarket. I conjecture a further investigation and inquiry on the environmental impact on the Earth and the study of gas consumption and cost differences between buying from a local farm and shopping at a local supermarket.
Michael Pollan uses the potato to address the idea of control, in particular, whether we have control over nature or it has control over us. Potatoes were first found in South America growing in the Andes. The ancestors of the Incas lived in that area and were the first known humans to cultivate these potatoes for human consumption (Pollan 131). When settlers came to the New World they marveled at these new crops that grew from spuds and shipped them back to Europe. Potatoes became the crop of choice for peasant farmers, particularly in Ireland, because they contained most of the necessary nutrition required for healthy living and they grew well in nutrient-poor soils. The farmers growing these
Pollan conveys several messages and lessons to the reader throughout the course of his book. His initial message is, “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.” In his introduction Pollan tells the reader that it’s not always how much you eat but what you are eating. He uses a personal example of his relatives from grandmother, to mother, and then himself with the virtues of eating. As the years changed, what he ate changed. Pollan believes that all people have the ability to eat well, but their habits are passed down through generations.
In the New York Times article “When a Crop Becomes a King”, author Michael Pollan argues there is an overproduction of corn that does more harm than it does good. He writes this in response to a farm bill signed by then President Bush to increase the budget for corn production which caused much controversy. Pollan uses an infuriated and frustrated tone in order to convince American consumers that corn has taken over their environment and economy. Michael Pollan uses rhetorical strategies to challenge conventional views of corn and to argue against additional corn production.
Michael Pollan’s purpose of writing Omnivore’s Dilemma came about when he realizes that society is unbelievably unhealthy due to the abundance of food. The two conflicting logics that Pollan introduces are the logic of nature and the logic of industry; these two logics are reflected through various ways of raising livestock animals. The logic of nature consists of raising livestock animals in a pastoral environment where animals interact with one another and avoid the use of artificial chemicals; whereas, the logic of industry settles on raising livestock animals unnaturally. Growing cattle through the use of corn has allowed meat to be produced in large quantities and in a short time as described in the chapter “Feedlot: Making Meat”
It is entitled “Escape from the Western Diet”. In this piece of Pollan’s writing, he talks about the western diet in a broad sense. He highlights the do’s and don’t for this particular type of diet. He stated that it is “high in saturated fats, red meats, ‘empty’ carbohydrates(junk food) and low in fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, seafood and poultry”. (Escape from the Western Diet). This article still ties in greatly with Pollan’s original train of thought regarding the proper way to diet. He highly recommends to stick with vegetables and fruits and of course whole grain foods which are highest in fiber. To review, when Pollan said “Eat Food”, this simply means to separate the real food from the food-like products. “Not too much” switches to how we eat, our manners habits and the culture of how we eat our food. When Michael Pollan said “Mostly Plants”, this includes more than just fruits and vegetables. (Escape from the Western
Pollan’s point of view regarding the New Leaf potato is clear; he fears that the New Leaf will become popular among farmers and this will be the only crop they will harvest. This increases our chance of becoming a monoculture and seeing the results in history and talking to current farmers regarding this issue, raises Pollan’s concern. With uncontrollable biological movement such as genetic instability, the probability that the NewLeaf potato will be the only type planted in a couple of years is steadily increasing. Throughout this chapter, Pollan gives us reasons to believe that genetic engineering is wrong and uses examples in history and opinions to reinforce his point of view.
1. Compare the “natural system” on Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm to the “industrial system” employed by much of the rest of corporate agriculture. Why does Pollan find one system more “efficient” than the other.
Pollan witnesses “For the medical community too scientific theories about diet nourish as usual. New theories beget new drugs to treat diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol” (422). Essentially, Pollan is informing the readers that the health industry is capitalizing off the theories publicized by producing medicine to make up for the cut down nutrients. Furthermore, Pollan states that the food industry releases a new wave of products to a new line of products to rival with the new theories specialized for the western diet. He remind the reader to do their best to escape the western diet despite how hard because these industries are only out for
Ending with the conclusion that corn, formerly known as Zea mays, is the root of almost all that we eat (Pollan). He even explains how chicken nuggets are piled with corn as the line of the nugget is glued together with corn starch, corn flower that makes the batter coating the nugget, and completing the nugget with the corn oil that it is fried in to give it that juicy flavor (Pollan). It’s almost mind boggling to me that when eating a chicken nugget, one might believe that they are simply consuming chicken with a little breading around it. When in fact, a large portion of it is made of corn. Pollan then continues to explain the history of corn, dating all the way back to 1492 when the New World was discovered. Furthermore, he explained the genetics of corn and how it evolved to what it is today as it is believed to have begun as a something else, a weed in fact (Pollan). I truly enjoyed this section of Pollan’s book as it challenged me to think of how the food that I eat may not be all that I think it is. It also makes me question on how healthy the food I chose to eat really is if it all relates in some way to
Genetically modified food’s, or GMOs, goal is to feed the world's malnourished and undernourished population. Exploring the positive side to GMOs paints a wondrous picture for our planet’s future, although careful steps must be taken to ensure that destruction of our ecosystems do not occur. When GMOs were first introduced into the consumer market they claimed that they would help eliminate the world’s food crisis by providing plants that produced more and were resistant to elemental impacts like droughts and bacterial contaminants, however, production isn’t the only cause for the world’s food crisis. Which is a cause for concern because the population on the earth is growing and our land and ways of agriculture will not be enough to feed everyone sufficiently. No simple solutions can be found or applied when there are so many lives involved. Those who are hungry and those who are over fed, alike, have to consider the consequences of Genetically Modified Organisms. Food should not be treated like a commodity it is a human necessity on the most basic of levels. When egos, hidden agendas, and personal gains are folded into people's food sources no one wins. As in many things of life, there is no true right way or wrong way to handle either of the arguments and so many factors are involved that a ‘simple’ solution is simply not an option.
The Great Potato Famine was a huge disaster that would change Ireland forever. The people in Ireland were extremely dependent on potatoes and when the blight came the economy went down. When the fungus attacked the potato crops slowly crop by crop throughout Ireland, people began to lose their main source of food. With the people in Ireland’s huge dependency on the potato, people began to starve or get sick from the potatoes. No one had any food to eat. The potatoes were black inside with molds through out it that came from the fungus from something in nature. The weather that brought the blight also was one of the causes because they could not control how the weather was bringing the fungus. Ireland was under the British government and did not help Ireland when they needed Britain. The aftermath of the Great Famine was not only a huge drop in population, but emigration, and much more.
The most wonderful activity a human being can experience is new flavors and foods. For example, the first time a person tastes a delicious juicy piece of prime rib or a delightful hamburger with cheese and ham, his world is never the same. However, since the beginning of the twentieth century, the production of food has been supplemented by science. This has triggered an angry dispute between the people who support the advances of biotechnology and people who love nature. In order to understand the controversy, we have to know the meaning of genetically modified foods. With new technological advances, scientists can modify seeds from a conventional seed to a high tech seed with shorter maturation times and resistance to dryness, cold and heat. This is possible with the implementation of new genes into the DNA of the conventional seed. Once these "transgenes" are transferred, they can create plants with better characteristics (Harris 164-165). The farmers love it not only because it guarantees a good production, but the cost is also reduced. On the other hand, organizations such as Greenpeace and Friends of Earth have campaigned against GMO (“Riesgos”) because they think that they are negatively affecting the earth (Gerdes 26). Both the advocates and the opponents of genetically modified foods have excellent arguments.
He believes we need to find a common ground between the way our ancestors ate, hunting and gathering, and the way we currently eat, primarily processed foods. Pollan’s solution to this problem is to “simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that it is more the product of industry than of nature” because of the damage the food is doing to our body (Pollan, 424). Since we consume the Western Diet we are “more prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets” (Pollan, 421). When eating organic foods, you can almost eliminate GMO’s, pesticides, and herbicides from your body while also reducing your risk of contracting cancer as well as having neurological and reproductive problems (Sustainable Table). Also, organic foods contain essential vitamins and antioxidants that help your immune system fight off diseases (Sustainable Table). Buying organic food also means you are buying higher quality products that have ingredients that are better for your