Omnivore's Dilemma Chapters Reading and Responses Chapter 2 and 7

Chapter 2:

I am surprised to read that the farmers now have to feed around "129 Americans" (34), which have increased the people per farmer that the farmers are feeding than before. But even though one farmer is feeding some 129 Americans, George Naylor, the farmer Pollan is staying with is "going broke" but "he's doing better than many of his neighbors"(34). This gets me thinking why are the farmers are going broke when they are feeding this many people. In the chapter, Pollan later explained because of the tools and seeds that the farmers needed to buy from the companies as well as the companies are taking much of the profit from the farmers that the farmers are getting less and less money. If the farmers are getting less and less money, what will happen when majority of the farmers becomes bankrupt or so and cannot afford to do any farming, what will the companies do? Raise the price of the profit for the famers? If there are less farmers, how are the people going to survive who is buying the products? If the companies hire people to become farmers, are they going to do as good of a job as the pro farmers who went broke?

Another interesting fact that I read was how the corn keeps producing more and more each year because of the low prices but the farmers are in bad shape with their finances. As I was through the part about that, I kept wondering if there was a solution for it, that can make the farmers and their families to survive. Since they have to pay for the tools they bought, the profits that are left would be too little to support them for long but the companies are getting more and more profits. If technology is the problem, should someone create a more easier machine that does not cost a lot?  I think it affects the society as to how corn is spread everywhere, in mostly everything, which is a lot of things, and all of us consumes those things but the farmers are getting less than they work for. The land that the farmers own is eventually going to turn bad because all the nutrients and chemicals that were in the soil is disappearing. Even by adding much more fertilizers and other chemicals like the nitrogen, in the future, I think they will cause the land some troubles. 

Vincent: 

As to the first question, I think its hard to explain how George is avoiding debts because there are so many problems in the first place when George has taken over the land. The land's nutrients has already dried up much if you take a look about it since it was way back in the grandfather's time. Hm, I also don't think the farmers "want" to put in more debt than they should because in the chapter, it says the farmers need to grow more corn to sell more because of the market price keep dropping. I think it is more like a force that the farmers have to be in debt if they are going to be farmers. The costs of being a farmer and the tools and seeds that the farmers needed to buy are already given them a hard life. Don't you think? It is the same with anybody if they want to start their own businesses but it is not like they are able to do anything about it unless they actually get a huge group of farmers (which I don't think there is many percentage of farmers) to fight for with the government or other companies about it.

Chapter 7:

This chapter was really interesting and when Pollan was calculating how much corn he is eating from that meal that was bought in McDonald, I started to wonder how much corn I was eating too. Fast food restaurants have become a popular place for many people to eat but unlike Pollan's wife, Judith, who thinks that "having a fast-food lunch meant giving up a 'real mean,'" (109) shows that Americans are eating it to become full but not exactly "satisfying" what you are eating and tasting. When Pollan asked his son, Issac how the chicken nuggets taste more like chicken or like the old ones but Issac only responded that they "taste like what they are, which is nuggets" (112), which proves another point (even though he is young) that some Americans are not distinguishing what they are eating, but simply looking at it, they say what the name of it is. Also, Pollan said we are all "corn eaters" but I don't think many of us knows that because we are not aware of it since corn is invisible in the food, except for actually eating a real corn. Corn is convenient because it is cheap and it is use to feed the animals in the farm and then using corn as an ingredients to make the food. This is the same as the fast food restaurants creating a convenient way of eating and how the car makers are making the car to have food holders. By eating with one hand and driving with the other plus can switch off between foods with ease because there are holders, which seems to me that we have also become cheap, in a way. Because in the past, everybody have to work with their hands and the tools that they have, unlike the technologies that is occupying now. They have to work day and night which shows the obesity rate also decreases too because they are using so much energy in growing the crops (corn). Now that they have big machines, it is must easier to grow the corn (and producing cheap corn) and the farmers just need to sit around in the tractors, pushing this button and the machine would likely do half of the work or more. Since America is a urban place, there are so many cars but so little bicycles and walking (maybe). The people are all trying to make things more convenient so they can multi-task better but because of that, the food that they eat while multi-tasking gets less attention since they might not even be thinking about the food, just eating it to fulfill their basic needs. I think it is also why obesity rates rise since we are not paying as much attention as to what we eat (except for Pollan's wife and others who pays attention) and all the convenient things that we make thrives from our sense of wanting to be lazy or to be able to do more things in one go. 

I wonder where does the corn seeds come from because the companies are selling 1st generation seeds and since the farmers are growing more and more corn, how does this all go?

Where did the flavor of the chicken go in the chicken nuggets rather than the salty flavor and the corn that is in it?

Kiana's blog (somehow can't find the comment button on hers so the comment would only be on here): 

I agree with the "real meal", and I think we think of food very simply, just the looks and the taste of it, if it is good, then it is good (and sometimes wondering what's in it and sometimes not). I also agree on the convenient that the fast food restaurants made to the consumers. By eating the food they have wrapped and created for convenience, they get huge profits too since the consumers can just buy more food but still have room to hold the food in places and not spilling anything. And yup, we really do take advantage where the food actually comes from and how corn is one of the main food that is used to make so many other food and things. People may love the convenience but if they don't look at the food that they are eating, I think the food loses some of its values and the ones that are making the food would have less expectations because the food makers are always trying new recipes but if the people do not notice the ingredients, it is hard for the food makers to accept the whole compliments.