Corn, Its What's For Dinner....Almost Every Dinner

After reading Pollan's great book In Defense of Food. I had to pick up another. His 2006 magnum opus titled The Omnivores Dilemma is so far (half way in) a great book.

Pollan begins the book with a startling expose on how the American food system relies on corn produced by petroleum to create much of the food system that supports us today. It is a precariously balanced system that has grown since that watershed of agricultural transition, the Second World War. It is a system that creates a world of strange economic contradictions and unsustainable production. After reading Pollan's engaging story, you will wonder how long we can carry on with a system of mono-cultural production that makes so little sense for farmers, consumers and the environment.

You may ask why we continue with a system that makes no sense at all for most of the people in the country. As I tell my history students: "if you want to know why many things happen in history, follow the money". In this case. there are large agricultural empires that have a vested interest in the continuation of the status qou. These companies take the raw material corn and rework it into a myriad of amazing new products (and services). An agricultural system that makes sense might not make them any money at all.