after reading the Omnivores Dilemma and watching Food Inc. fully informed of everything unsaid, i was horrified. when i began reading the book i was shocked but not at all surprised at corn industry and how nearly everything Americans eat is corn. and it's all because a bunch of greedy corporate fat cats wanted to make more money that they already had. of course growing up with a very open and liberal mind in America i already knew that is how things work here and i also already had a good idea of the iron curtain covering the food industry, but i really had no idea what was behind it. i guess i knew a lot more than most people to begin with, i knew about CAFO's and hormones and antibiotics and the life of those animals, to an extent, but learning and seeing what i did in the book and movie repulsed me to the point of no return. when i was a kid at summer camp there was this cow, Daisy i named her (i know what a cliché cow name but give me a brake i was 10.) we had rescued her from a nearby farm, she was caked in feces from head to toe, and riddled with pneumonia. since cows have always been my favorite and back then i always wanted to be a Vet i would go see her every day. we couldn't clean her for a while or shed die of the cold before she even dried so we waited for her to get better. ell i waited, no one els really had hope for her but still every day id go and walk her around the grass for a bit, let her feast, and even animals need company. eventually she got better and she lived at the camp for the next 5 years i went there. Daisy is what made me stop eating meat back then, and now i cant help but wonder of maybe Daisy came from one of those CAFOs, tossed out because they had tainted her meat with sickness... but its the thought of hundreds of thousands of other Daisy's, and pigs and chicken and maybe other animals, who weren't lucky enough to get sick, that have made me once again stop eating meat.
i have no problem with eating meat, its part of nature and its quite delicious, but i do have a huge problem with the way we eat meat in america. the industrial food system that is just brutally and wrongly disgusting. Im becoming a vegetarian for me, not because i think it will help cause, but because i don't want to be a part of the gruesome food chain that is industrial agriculture, and while i know that is marginally impossible, i don't want to take part in eating the beings that suffer the most due to it.
my mother, who always tried to buy us organic food even with its costs and had tried to avoid feeding me and my sister junk food (aka corn) until it was really no longer possible, was with me on my feelings about the food industry. i asked her what she thought those cage free chickens actually did with their days. she said what most people would, and what the businesses want you to believe, all grass and sunshine. but no. i told her what they really do with their dark and crudely numbered days.
but just not eating meat and trying to avoid processed and genetically modified corn as much as possible simply isn't good enough. sure maybe your helping yourself, the the problem is still getting worse and worse. i think you teaching about this stuff, the whole normal is weird basis you your course, is one of the best steps I've seen toward change. if every teacher in america was teaching this, and every student in america really learned it, maybe it would be able to undo some of the brainwashing thats been so successfully corrupting my generation. if it was commonly taught in schools, what out government really does for us, maybe the youth wouldn't just brush you off ac crazy when you spoke of how much we needed change. maybe they would care more about getting things done and fixing out crumbling country, instead of worrying about video games and celebrities. Im hoping to be more than just radical ideas. Im hoping to make a difference, and inspire people to do the same. Im hoping to spur the rebirth of revolutionaries.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
OMNIVORES DILEMMA VS. FOOD INC.
both the book and the movie begin with the idea of a national eating disorder. Omnivores dilemma proceeds to evoke more deep and personal emotions, and tells you your about to learn a hell of a lot about food production in america and you might not like it. as the book and the movie continue they both talk a lot about one commodity in particular that dominates food production in america; corn.
here the book also succeeds in evoking something deeper than the movie, by not only going back but begging us to look forward with thesis that are simply undeniable. the movie touches on these things but i think the sheer greater amount of information about the food industry that made the book so much better in this area. this wasn't true for everything such as slaughter houses and animal treatment where images got across a very strong point. but i do think the book was stronger in enforcing its ideas.
i had watched the movie last year, before reading the book, and it didn't really resinate with me as much. after i had gained all the information the book had offered me, i could not only not stop telling everyone that everything was corn, i could properly understand all the arguments that i had heard in the movie when i was more naive about them. the arguments that had plagued me, but i hadn't even known the half of it.
seeing the movie with out all of that knowledge left me confused and angry and a little bit wiser about the food industry, yes. but not very different. reading the Omnivores dilemma has changed my life. i now know if not fully, a whole lot more about the food industry than before. and i am inspired to change, if only to help my self. and i an inspired to get other people to want to change as well. the movie did none of that for me. it introduced things that got me wondering, but the book just told me flat out about every last detail. thats why i prefer the book. i feel like watching the movie is the lazy persons cop out, and their not getting all that knowledge that that might really appreciate more and might be able to help them more.
here the book also succeeds in evoking something deeper than the movie, by not only going back but begging us to look forward with thesis that are simply undeniable. the movie touches on these things but i think the sheer greater amount of information about the food industry that made the book so much better in this area. this wasn't true for everything such as slaughter houses and animal treatment where images got across a very strong point. but i do think the book was stronger in enforcing its ideas.
i had watched the movie last year, before reading the book, and it didn't really resinate with me as much. after i had gained all the information the book had offered me, i could not only not stop telling everyone that everything was corn, i could properly understand all the arguments that i had heard in the movie when i was more naive about them. the arguments that had plagued me, but i hadn't even known the half of it.
seeing the movie with out all of that knowledge left me confused and angry and a little bit wiser about the food industry, yes. but not very different. reading the Omnivores dilemma has changed my life. i now know if not fully, a whole lot more about the food industry than before. and i am inspired to change, if only to help my self. and i an inspired to get other people to want to change as well. the movie did none of that for me. it introduced things that got me wondering, but the book just told me flat out about every last detail. thats why i prefer the book. i feel like watching the movie is the lazy persons cop out, and their not getting all that knowledge that that might really appreciate more and might be able to help them more.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
CHAPTER 18
hunting is a deeply spiritual experience. there are many ways to analyze it but when i was in the forrest i felt in tune with the woods, with nature. when it first came time for me to kill a pig, which i had given myself many justifications about, i wasn't ready. my chamber had no bullet. could i have been unready on a deeper psychological level? probably, but i didn't want to get into it. i had the chance to redeem my self and this time i was ready. i took the pig down. that would be a lot of meat. but the
CHAPTER 19
now comes the gathering part of my journey. i set out into the forrest knowing very well that i did not know my way around the mushroom, which is what i was foraging for. even if i was a mushroom expert, i still could never be completely sure this was a mushroom that was safe to eat, or if that mushroom would send me on a wild trip? after much effort i found such a mushroom expert who was willing to take me with him, though very reluctant and cautious to protect his mushroom spots. but finally when i had gathered my mushrooms it was a very satisfying experience.
hunting is a deeply spiritual experience. there are many ways to analyze it but when i was in the forrest i felt in tune with the woods, with nature. when it first came time for me to kill a pig, which i had given myself many justifications about, i wasn't ready. my chamber had no bullet. could i have been unready on a deeper psychological level? probably, but i didn't want to get into it. i had the chance to redeem my self and this time i was ready. i took the pig down. that would be a lot of meat. but the
CHAPTER 19
now comes the gathering part of my journey. i set out into the forrest knowing very well that i did not know my way around the mushroom, which is what i was foraging for. even if i was a mushroom expert, i still could never be completely sure this was a mushroom that was safe to eat, or if that mushroom would send me on a wild trip? after much effort i found such a mushroom expert who was willing to take me with him, though very reluctant and cautious to protect his mushroom spots. but finally when i had gathered my mushrooms it was a very satisfying experience.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Growing Sprout, or not... :(
CHAPTER 17
so if you take everything into account, is it really ok to eat animals? i believed so,and it took the words do many animal rights activists to sway me, their arguments, especially Singer in Animal Liberation, are compelling. they say that if all humans, who are in reality not all equal deserve equal rights, why don't animals? because there not humans, one might argue. discriminating against them simply for nor being human is speciesist, once white people would say that same things about black people. thats where they got me. but im willing to admit im a speciesist and i continue eating meat. for a time, but the argument gets to me. finally i am convinced and rather reluctantly, convert to vegetarianism. now i have to deal with the vegetarians dilemma; in most social settings either the vegetarian guest or the non vegetarian host, is put out. someone's going to feel bad. but it's just so appalling! in todays food production industry in America, all the animals suffer greatly. life in a CAFO is no life at al. exploiting animals like this. some people say predation s a savage way of being and that history will condemn it just as slavery or the inferior treatment of women. is it possible that human have evolved past the need to kill and eat animals to survive? But is it really perdition or is it the way we do it in America, thats appalling? predation is necessary for most ecosystems and is better for the groups as a whole. for example the bison who was shaped through evolution by the native americans hunting them which also in turn was good for the planes grasses. there are ways, like pollyface farm, where you can raise and kill an animal whit out disrupting the natural or karmic cycle. in-fact animals typically found on farms entered into their relationships with humans because we can provide for them what they need and they can provide for us. we also give them the benefit of a swift and painless death, instead of the gruesome one that would await them in the wild. in a vegan Utopia of Pollyface farms all of, the idea of eating meat is perfectly acceptable, even to Singer, and part of nature. but we live in an industrial society, run by greed, in which we exploit the very animals we rely on, and frankly its disgusting.
so if you take everything into account, is it really ok to eat animals? i believed so,and it took the words do many animal rights activists to sway me, their arguments, especially Singer in Animal Liberation, are compelling. they say that if all humans, who are in reality not all equal deserve equal rights, why don't animals? because there not humans, one might argue. discriminating against them simply for nor being human is speciesist, once white people would say that same things about black people. thats where they got me. but im willing to admit im a speciesist and i continue eating meat. for a time, but the argument gets to me. finally i am convinced and rather reluctantly, convert to vegetarianism. now i have to deal with the vegetarians dilemma; in most social settings either the vegetarian guest or the non vegetarian host, is put out. someone's going to feel bad. but it's just so appalling! in todays food production industry in America, all the animals suffer greatly. life in a CAFO is no life at al. exploiting animals like this. some people say predation s a savage way of being and that history will condemn it just as slavery or the inferior treatment of women. is it possible that human have evolved past the need to kill and eat animals to survive? But is it really perdition or is it the way we do it in America, thats appalling? predation is necessary for most ecosystems and is better for the groups as a whole. for example the bison who was shaped through evolution by the native americans hunting them which also in turn was good for the planes grasses. there are ways, like pollyface farm, where you can raise and kill an animal whit out disrupting the natural or karmic cycle. in-fact animals typically found on farms entered into their relationships with humans because we can provide for them what they need and they can provide for us. we also give them the benefit of a swift and painless death, instead of the gruesome one that would await them in the wild. in a vegan Utopia of Pollyface farms all of, the idea of eating meat is perfectly acceptable, even to Singer, and part of nature. but we live in an industrial society, run by greed, in which we exploit the very animals we rely on, and frankly its disgusting.
CHAPTER 11
the cows are grazed on fields of grass, and rotated through these fields which in turn keeps the grass healthy. after the cows graze the chickens go over the field spreading the cow manure and cleaning it so it can fertilize the grass also helping with the grasses health. in other words the animals do the work. all of them rely on one another to keep everything running smoothly. even the grass and the forest is part of it all.
CHAPTER 12
most slaughter houses wont even let people onto the kill floor, Joel's slaughter house doesn't even have walls. the people who buy his food have the option to stop by and see their meat being killed. they have this option because it is don't humanly and while most people wont take up this offer the mear fact that it is an option shows Joel and his farm's integrity. the animals are killed quickly with little to no pain and they do not suffer as animals in conventional "farms" (really factories) do.
CHAPTER 13
Food from a farm such as this is likely to cost more than the conventional stuff and some people just aren't willing to pay that. but why is the question? in a nation that spends spends spends why is food the only thing we are not willing to splurge on? when you take into account all the unnecessary things americans pay for, like t.v., cell phones, cars, etc. how come they are not willing to pay a bit more for food which is quite necessary and truthfully will cost the much less in the long run?
CHAPTER 14
The government and the food industry would like us to believe that food is food. chicken is chicken and beef is beef. in other words the processed (and tortured) chickens you buy in the supermarket is just as good as the chickens raised on a farm like Pollyface. this is just not true. when chickens come from a place like that where they get all the nutrients they would get in nature and not only does this in turn give us the nutrients we need from them but it also tastes like it should. conventional food is grown on chemicals, hormones and corn and even fed bits of other dead animals. Polyface chicken is raised on grass sun and bugs.
CHAPTER 15
there is much more behind being a hunter than meets the eye . because society has moved away from nature there is no longer enough protein in the world to accommodate should the human population suddenly decode to return to its hunter gatherer roots. society has also installs taboos that keep us safe while in nature. like my fear of poisonous mushrooms thanks to my mothers immutable warnings as a child. to hunt or forge these days most people,such as myself, would need some sort of field guide to navigate the natural world. after searching for this kind of field guide i came across an Italian friend who was perfect or the job. now all i had to do was take the course and get my hunter ID and id be catching my own dinner in no time. providing i could shoot and kill it.
CHAPTER 16
the omnivores dilemma is an almost archaic problem that has come back at america with force. the problem of what to eat should become less of a problem if you have a hole human culture as a guide to what's good. with the development of society the omnivores dilemma should fade into the background. but today in America is is very much the foreground of every meal. being such a young nation that never had a strong culture around food, instead adopting things here and there from immigrant cultures that populate america. in France with their deep rooted food-ways people are much more aware of what they eat and what is good to eat and are much less plagues by the omnivores dilemma. since the omnivores dilemma is so prevalent in america and there was no set cultural food-ways, it was easy for people looking to make money to convince people that had the mericle answer to the omnivores dilemma. this lead to a new era of franticness about food. everyone has their own opinion about what you should eat. but none of it really looks that healthy when you get down to it. maybe e should learn from france?
the cows are grazed on fields of grass, and rotated through these fields which in turn keeps the grass healthy. after the cows graze the chickens go over the field spreading the cow manure and cleaning it so it can fertilize the grass also helping with the grasses health. in other words the animals do the work. all of them rely on one another to keep everything running smoothly. even the grass and the forest is part of it all.
CHAPTER 12
most slaughter houses wont even let people onto the kill floor, Joel's slaughter house doesn't even have walls. the people who buy his food have the option to stop by and see their meat being killed. they have this option because it is don't humanly and while most people wont take up this offer the mear fact that it is an option shows Joel and his farm's integrity. the animals are killed quickly with little to no pain and they do not suffer as animals in conventional "farms" (really factories) do.
CHAPTER 13
Food from a farm such as this is likely to cost more than the conventional stuff and some people just aren't willing to pay that. but why is the question? in a nation that spends spends spends why is food the only thing we are not willing to splurge on? when you take into account all the unnecessary things americans pay for, like t.v., cell phones, cars, etc. how come they are not willing to pay a bit more for food which is quite necessary and truthfully will cost the much less in the long run?
CHAPTER 14
The government and the food industry would like us to believe that food is food. chicken is chicken and beef is beef. in other words the processed (and tortured) chickens you buy in the supermarket is just as good as the chickens raised on a farm like Pollyface. this is just not true. when chickens come from a place like that where they get all the nutrients they would get in nature and not only does this in turn give us the nutrients we need from them but it also tastes like it should. conventional food is grown on chemicals, hormones and corn and even fed bits of other dead animals. Polyface chicken is raised on grass sun and bugs.
CHAPTER 15
there is much more behind being a hunter than meets the eye . because society has moved away from nature there is no longer enough protein in the world to accommodate should the human population suddenly decode to return to its hunter gatherer roots. society has also installs taboos that keep us safe while in nature. like my fear of poisonous mushrooms thanks to my mothers immutable warnings as a child. to hunt or forge these days most people,such as myself, would need some sort of field guide to navigate the natural world. after searching for this kind of field guide i came across an Italian friend who was perfect or the job. now all i had to do was take the course and get my hunter ID and id be catching my own dinner in no time. providing i could shoot and kill it.
CHAPTER 16
the omnivores dilemma is an almost archaic problem that has come back at america with force. the problem of what to eat should become less of a problem if you have a hole human culture as a guide to what's good. with the development of society the omnivores dilemma should fade into the background. but today in America is is very much the foreground of every meal. being such a young nation that never had a strong culture around food, instead adopting things here and there from immigrant cultures that populate america. in France with their deep rooted food-ways people are much more aware of what they eat and what is good to eat and are much less plagues by the omnivores dilemma. since the omnivores dilemma is so prevalent in america and there was no set cultural food-ways, it was easy for people looking to make money to convince people that had the mericle answer to the omnivores dilemma. this lead to a new era of franticness about food. everyone has their own opinion about what you should eat. but none of it really looks that healthy when you get down to it. maybe e should learn from france?
CHAPTER 6
once drinking was an epidemic in america. today its obesity. this is also due to the over production and use of corn. you can stuff things with more calories, and things that humans are programed by evolution to like, then you would ever find in nature. thus people take in more calories and in turn get fatter. we also consume a ton of HFCS on top of all the sugars we eat, also adding to the fat problem.and since theres so much corn all the corn based fattening stuff is the cheapest stuff you'll find. all causing most Americans to be over weight. many also have type 2 diabetes which comer from overloading your body with glucose.
CHAPTER 7
fast food with its very distinctive taste, is full of corn. everything on McDonalds menu, even the salads, have corn (and not corn your seeing as corn, some genetically modified form of corn.) and its what most americans eat .
CHAPTER 8
theres that "stuck in the past" idea of a farm, but it really works. much better than the industrial farms today. it is a symbiotic relationship that benefits everything on the farm from the people to animals down the the grass. and there is no waist. and certainly no chemical waist. and everyone is happy and healthy. so why is this idea considered so farfetched?
CHAPTER 9
when you think of organic food theres this image of happy farms with happy animals. Organic usually gives the consumer the idea that their avoiding the industral food industry. thanks to the united stated government this is no longer true. A hippie organization trying to make organic food redily availible to everyone eventually was bought out by the big corperations and now what is said to be organicly farmed food is in reality a cleverly descised, behind nearly uncomprehensible words, factory. and in these "organic" factorys essentially the only difference between them and the conventional farms is no antibiotics in their corn food and the option(2 weeks before slaughter) to go outside into the fresh air sunlight and grass, which is never taken advantage of.
CHAPTER 9
when you think of organic food theres this image of happy farms with happy animals. Organic usually gives the consumer the idea that their avoiding the industral food industry. thanks to the united stated government this is no longer true. A hippie organization trying to make organic food redily availible to everyone eventually was bought out by the big corperations and now what is said to be organicly farmed food is in reality a cleverly descised, behind nearly uncomprehensible words, factory. and in these "organic" factorys essentially the only difference between them and the conventional farms is no antibiotics in their corn food and the option(2 weeks before slaughter) to go outside into the fresh air sunlight and grass, which is never taken advantage of.
CHAPTER 10
in an industrial world that even now dominates organics there are few farms that operate with really organic standards of nature. one such farm is Pollyface farm run by farmer Joel Salatin where i spent a week getting to know the ways of truly organic farming. Joel would call himself a grass farmer because everything on his farm starts with the grass. its all by natures standards; grass and sunlight natural non chemical fertilizers and humane treatment of animals. the animals here are really happy because they get to live like they would in nature. the whole farm is an intricate ecosystem where everything relies on everything els and the balance is key. and because of the natural ways of this farm everything tastes like it should. the chicken tastes like chicken and the eggs are delicious. and naturally organic foods contain more of what their supposed to to keep is healthy.
in an industrial world that even now dominates organics there are few farms that operate with really organic standards of nature. one such farm is Pollyface farm run by farmer Joel Salatin where i spent a week getting to know the ways of truly organic farming. Joel would call himself a grass farmer because everything on his farm starts with the grass. its all by natures standards; grass and sunlight natural non chemical fertilizers and humane treatment of animals. the animals here are really happy because they get to live like they would in nature. the whole farm is an intricate ecosystem where everything relies on everything els and the balance is key. and because of the natural ways of this farm everything tastes like it should. the chicken tastes like chicken and the eggs are delicious. and naturally organic foods contain more of what their supposed to to keep is healthy.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
CHAPTER 1
when you walk into the supermarket, everything around you cam from corn. from the produce and meat, to even cleansers and toothpaste. everything we eat was at some point processed corn. and if we are what we eat than america is processed corn. perhaps the corn rather ingeniously conquered and now dominates us? none the less, america is the only country where you need expert help to ascertain the origins of your food.
americans thrive off "corn" that, since it was originally discovered, has evolved into something entirely different, and is essentially the original capitalist. because it cant multiply alone do to a freakish genetic modification, it depends on humans to plant it and by making its self appealing to humans it was essentially able to take over. since it is so easy to hybrid and quick to modify corn has become something entirely different from the zea maze that was first found. since corn grew to american capitalist standards, like solders, able to withstand the massive amounts of chemicals poured upon it, fast and far, genetically modified or chemically enhanced corn makes up most of what america eats.
CHAPTER 2
americas farm country is no longer green pastures and grazing animals, but rather miles and miles of enhanced corn. corn that isn't even able to feed the families who live on the farms and grow the corn. they farm tons of corn, kept healthy by over fertilization with synthetic nitrogen to insure crops. and even so the farmers can barely live off the money they make. on top of that the synthetic nitrogen discovered by Fritz Haber in 1909, invariably chancing history, then runs off into the river which runs into a larger river which serves as the drinking water for the next town. Haber came up with these synthetic nitrogen not a moment too soon, for scientists had already come to realize that nitrogen limited and once they were gone the human race would come to a halt. before humans could manufacture it the amount of nitrogen in the soil limited the amount of corn that could be grown but science squashed that, and now corn runs ramped.
CHAPTER 3
due to government policies and big corporations, the farmers who grow and harvest the corn not only cant eat it but make hardly enough profit off it to sustain their families. the only way Naylor is able to have any money is by using his ancient machinery. and the corn their growing isn't really corn, in-fact it's not even called corn. its corn 2. a generic, cheep and highly over produced commodity that becomes virtually everything americans consume. and the big corporations like Cargill, who controls most of this corn train, wont let outsiders near the corn to "protect it."
or themselves?
CHAPTER 4
cows. hybrid to have all the qualities they need to make it on the feedlot. are for a few short months of their unnaturally short lives, fed on what they should be, grass. as for the rest of their lives which had diminished from 4-5 then 2-3 years old and now stands at a miniscule 14-16 months. to go from 80 lbs to 1,100 lbs, in just this short matter of months, seems impossible. but not when they are fed on a steady diet of excess corn, fat and protein supplements, and antibiotics. when naturally they have evolved to eat grass and only grass and grass has evolved to accommodate them as well. and while animals on a farm creates a closed ecological loop, you rarely find animals on farms anymore, creating two new problems one of which; feedlot pollution, is never remedied. so these cows born to be eaten spend their few months of life eating things they shouldn't be eating (including other dead cows and things no herbivore should be eating) and living in their own and their neighbors filth. pumped full of antibiotics to keep them all from drooping dead in these hellish conditions, most cows on feedlots are still sick in some way, anyway if their not sick, their certainly not happy. not only are cows not meant to eat corn, but humans really shouldn't be eating corn-fed beef either. some scientists say that its not americas red meat based diet that makes us so unhealthy rather our corn fed beef diet which doesn't have the healthy qualities that a healthily raised on grass cow's beef would have.
CHAPTER 5
not only things that can obviously come from corn, come from corn. scientists have found ways to go into the genetic makeup of the corn and turn it into something els entirely, thus humans have taken control of nature in another way. once you get to this point you can create nearly any food you can imagine. and you can replace all those real things in the supermarkets with corn synthesized to taste like the food you think your eating, thus saving corporations money because of the over abundance of corn in america.
when you walk into the supermarket, everything around you cam from corn. from the produce and meat, to even cleansers and toothpaste. everything we eat was at some point processed corn. and if we are what we eat than america is processed corn. perhaps the corn rather ingeniously conquered and now dominates us? none the less, america is the only country where you need expert help to ascertain the origins of your food.
americans thrive off "corn" that, since it was originally discovered, has evolved into something entirely different, and is essentially the original capitalist. because it cant multiply alone do to a freakish genetic modification, it depends on humans to plant it and by making its self appealing to humans it was essentially able to take over. since it is so easy to hybrid and quick to modify corn has become something entirely different from the zea maze that was first found. since corn grew to american capitalist standards, like solders, able to withstand the massive amounts of chemicals poured upon it, fast and far, genetically modified or chemically enhanced corn makes up most of what america eats.
CHAPTER 2
americas farm country is no longer green pastures and grazing animals, but rather miles and miles of enhanced corn. corn that isn't even able to feed the families who live on the farms and grow the corn. they farm tons of corn, kept healthy by over fertilization with synthetic nitrogen to insure crops. and even so the farmers can barely live off the money they make. on top of that the synthetic nitrogen discovered by Fritz Haber in 1909, invariably chancing history, then runs off into the river which runs into a larger river which serves as the drinking water for the next town. Haber came up with these synthetic nitrogen not a moment too soon, for scientists had already come to realize that nitrogen limited and once they were gone the human race would come to a halt. before humans could manufacture it the amount of nitrogen in the soil limited the amount of corn that could be grown but science squashed that, and now corn runs ramped.
CHAPTER 3
due to government policies and big corporations, the farmers who grow and harvest the corn not only cant eat it but make hardly enough profit off it to sustain their families. the only way Naylor is able to have any money is by using his ancient machinery. and the corn their growing isn't really corn, in-fact it's not even called corn. its corn 2. a generic, cheep and highly over produced commodity that becomes virtually everything americans consume. and the big corporations like Cargill, who controls most of this corn train, wont let outsiders near the corn to "protect it."
or themselves?
CHAPTER 4
cows. hybrid to have all the qualities they need to make it on the feedlot. are for a few short months of their unnaturally short lives, fed on what they should be, grass. as for the rest of their lives which had diminished from 4-5 then 2-3 years old and now stands at a miniscule 14-16 months. to go from 80 lbs to 1,100 lbs, in just this short matter of months, seems impossible. but not when they are fed on a steady diet of excess corn, fat and protein supplements, and antibiotics. when naturally they have evolved to eat grass and only grass and grass has evolved to accommodate them as well. and while animals on a farm creates a closed ecological loop, you rarely find animals on farms anymore, creating two new problems one of which; feedlot pollution, is never remedied. so these cows born to be eaten spend their few months of life eating things they shouldn't be eating (including other dead cows and things no herbivore should be eating) and living in their own and their neighbors filth. pumped full of antibiotics to keep them all from drooping dead in these hellish conditions, most cows on feedlots are still sick in some way, anyway if their not sick, their certainly not happy. not only are cows not meant to eat corn, but humans really shouldn't be eating corn-fed beef either. some scientists say that its not americas red meat based diet that makes us so unhealthy rather our corn fed beef diet which doesn't have the healthy qualities that a healthily raised on grass cow's beef would have.
CHAPTER 5
not only things that can obviously come from corn, come from corn. scientists have found ways to go into the genetic makeup of the corn and turn it into something els entirely, thus humans have taken control of nature in another way. once you get to this point you can create nearly any food you can imagine. and you can replace all those real things in the supermarkets with corn synthesized to taste like the food you think your eating, thus saving corporations money because of the over abundance of corn in america.
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