Omnivore's Dilemma Part 1
Introduction: Our National Eating Disorder
Pg. 1- What Should We Have For Dinner? “How did we ever get to a point where we need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from and nutritionists to determine the dinner menu?”
Sometimes when we do eat, we don't think twice about where our food comes from. We usually just read or hear about the food that's healthy to eat instead of the ingredients it contains
Pg. 5- “Certainly the extraordinary abundance of food in America complicates the whole problem of choice”
“Americans have never had a single, strong, stable culinary tradition to guide us”
America is a result of blending many cultures, this provides more foods and more beliefs about what is healthy and what is not. It makes us wonder if the foods eaten by other cultures are healthier than those eaten by our own
Pg. 10- “By replacing solar energy with fossil fuel, by raising millions of food animals in close confinement, by feeding ourselves those animals foods they never evolved to eat, and by feeding ourselves foods far more novel than we even realize, we are taking risks with our health and the health of the natural world that are unprecedented.”
We are lost in the fact of what to put in our bodies as fuel due to many different factors
Pg. 10- “Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species- plants, animals and fungi- with which we have co-evolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined.”
Species of plants and animals are evolving to gratify human desires so that both humans and plants and animals can prosper together.
Industrial Corn- One: The Plant- Corn’s Conquest
Pg. 17- “Except for the salt and a handful of synthetic food additives, every edible item in the supermarket is a link in a food chain that beings with a particular plant growing in a specific patch of soil (or, more seldom, stretch of sea) somewhere on earth.”
All foods natural or artificial was derived from a plant somewhere on earth. A plant is derived from where it was grown. It travels from one place to another that it loses it's nutritional value
Pg. 18-19- “There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn.” Make a collage- showing the items that are made of corn in the average American supermarket.
More than 25% of food in our supermarkets have corn as an ingredient in them.
Pg. 1- What Should We Have For Dinner? “How did we ever get to a point where we need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from and nutritionists to determine the dinner menu?”
Sometimes when we do eat, we don't think twice about where our food comes from. We usually just read or hear about the food that's healthy to eat instead of the ingredients it contains
Pg. 5- “Certainly the extraordinary abundance of food in America complicates the whole problem of choice”
“Americans have never had a single, strong, stable culinary tradition to guide us”
America is a result of blending many cultures, this provides more foods and more beliefs about what is healthy and what is not. It makes us wonder if the foods eaten by other cultures are healthier than those eaten by our own
Pg. 10- “By replacing solar energy with fossil fuel, by raising millions of food animals in close confinement, by feeding ourselves those animals foods they never evolved to eat, and by feeding ourselves foods far more novel than we even realize, we are taking risks with our health and the health of the natural world that are unprecedented.”
We are lost in the fact of what to put in our bodies as fuel due to many different factors
Pg. 10- “Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species- plants, animals and fungi- with which we have co-evolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined.”
Species of plants and animals are evolving to gratify human desires so that both humans and plants and animals can prosper together.
Industrial Corn- One: The Plant- Corn’s Conquest
Pg. 17- “Except for the salt and a handful of synthetic food additives, every edible item in the supermarket is a link in a food chain that beings with a particular plant growing in a specific patch of soil (or, more seldom, stretch of sea) somewhere on earth.”
All foods natural or artificial was derived from a plant somewhere on earth. A plant is derived from where it was grown. It travels from one place to another that it loses it's nutritional value
Pg. 18-19- “There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn.” Make a collage- showing the items that are made of corn in the average American supermarket.
More than 25% of food in our supermarkets have corn as an ingredient in them.
Pg. 19- Why are Mexicans (descendants of the Mayans) referred to as “the corn people”?
They were dependent on corn for almost nine thousand years, and are referred to as the corn people as their diets and the diets of their ancestors consisted primarily of corn.
Pg. 21- What is the C-4 trick by plants?
This occurs in hot areas, the plant only opens at night to take in the carbon dioxide and in the day time has its stroma closed
Pg. 22- What does the higher ratio of Carbon 13 (isotope) to Carbon 12 in a person’s body tell us?
The higher ratio of Carbon 13 to Carbon 12 in a person's body tells us the amount of corn that has been in the diet.
Pg. 22- How much wheat flour do we eat compared to corn flour? (Americans)
We eat 114 pounds of wheat flour compared to 11 pounds of corn flour.
The Rise of Zea Mays
Pg. 23- Explain why some people regard agriculture as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals?
Because that take part in the grand coevolutionary bargain with humans
Pg. 24- What was the “biotic army” that the white man brought to the new world?
An army that displaced native plants and animals that allied with Indians
Pg. 25- Explain how corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility.
Corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility corn had many uses and adaptability
Married to Man
Pg. 26- Why is corn considered to be “married to man”?
Because its close link with humanity. Humans depend on corn and corn depends on humans also, without us corn would be extinct.
Corn Sex
Pg. 30- For to prosper in the industrial food chain to the extent it has, corn has to acquire several improbable new tricks- What did corn have to do?
Corn had to adapt to no just humans, but also their machines by growing upright, and had to develop an appetite for fossil fuel in the form of petrochemical fertilizer and a tolerance for various synthetic chemicals.
They were dependent on corn for almost nine thousand years, and are referred to as the corn people as their diets and the diets of their ancestors consisted primarily of corn.
Pg. 21- What is the C-4 trick by plants?
This occurs in hot areas, the plant only opens at night to take in the carbon dioxide and in the day time has its stroma closed
Pg. 22- What does the higher ratio of Carbon 13 (isotope) to Carbon 12 in a person’s body tell us?
The higher ratio of Carbon 13 to Carbon 12 in a person's body tells us the amount of corn that has been in the diet.
Pg. 22- How much wheat flour do we eat compared to corn flour? (Americans)
We eat 114 pounds of wheat flour compared to 11 pounds of corn flour.
The Rise of Zea Mays
Pg. 23- Explain why some people regard agriculture as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals?
Because that take part in the grand coevolutionary bargain with humans
Pg. 24- What was the “biotic army” that the white man brought to the new world?
An army that displaced native plants and animals that allied with Indians
Pg. 25- Explain how corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility.
Corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility corn had many uses and adaptability
Married to Man
Pg. 26- Why is corn considered to be “married to man”?
Because its close link with humanity. Humans depend on corn and corn depends on humans also, without us corn would be extinct.
Corn Sex
Pg. 30- For to prosper in the industrial food chain to the extent it has, corn has to acquire several improbable new tricks- What did corn have to do?
Corn had to adapt to no just humans, but also their machines by growing upright, and had to develop an appetite for fossil fuel in the form of petrochemical fertilizer and a tolerance for various synthetic chemicals.