The Star Tribune ran an article this week entitled A KERNEL OF TRUTH? NATION'S OBESE ARE CORN-FED. My dad has begun to follow some the issues I've been bringing up since starting The Omnivore's Dilemma, and he brought the article to my attention. With the Farm Bill up before congress this fall for redesign, I think this is a great time to expose what, in my opinion, is a major major contributer to our country's remarkably poor health: the presence of what author Michael Pollan perfectly labels "a government-sponsored surplus of commodity corn." When I began reading his book I developed the distinct impression that corn, in its present state of genetically modified, calculated over-production really does have catastrophic potential for our national health. I don't think I'm overstating it: I'm talking about corn and I'm saying it looks more than suspect. Read the first section of Pollan's book and you will look at everything you buy with the intent to eat differently. Everything.
There is almost no packaged food item that does not contain corn by-products. I say "almost" because I can't imagine there is none, though I can't list a single example. It's in salad dressing, it's in the wax on your apple, it's in your drinks, it's in your beef, it's in your fish, it's in EVERYTHING. You may think you're eating a wide variety of food groups, but you're not. You're eating so many manifestations of a single raw product: corn, made abundant and ubiquitous courtesy of the US government.
A documentary is coming out called KING CORN. Go check it out. I'll post more links as I can.
Also see OXFAM to learn the basics on the Farm Bill.
Showing posts with label The Omnivore's Dilemma. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Omnivore's Dilemma. Show all posts
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
A FORMER VEGETARIAN'S THOUGHTS: CHICKEN & GRATITUDE
Last night, I found myself with a raw chicken again for the third time in my life. It is becoming a little less terrifying; I grasped the meat and bones with confidence, if not hunger. I skinned and pulled and as I worked, my thoughts went in a directions I didn't expect. I felt
Gratitude. I thought about the animal whose body I was turning into food, and about how I sit on top of the food chain heap and this animal did not. I thought about how this animal turns grass and grain and bugs into sustenence, something I could not do (grass and bugs, since it was an organic free-range chicken). And even though I have yet to really like the taste of its meat, I thought about lucky I am to have such a food: unlike the soy I've consumed much of my life and will no longer, chicken - having a long long history of being consumed, and healthful - is part of the natural (albeit domesticated) food chain we have evolved to eat and prosper from.
I was very nearly praying, cutting the meat from the bone. It feels so very far away from where I have known. And I suppose like moving to a new city, it will feel more like home when I can regard where I am (preparing meat) and see a history (of meals). Right now I am in a place where I have no memories.
My reading in Omnivore's Dilemma last night brought up a very interesting thought, which I'll attempt to condense: Salmon, widely regarded as a good source of omega-3s, is now being engineered to eat, as the author so frequently says, the government-sponsored "surplus of cheap commodity corn." Consequently, the abandonment of its natural diet (algae, phytoplankton) has led to a sharp reduction in farmed salmon's omega-3 content. Conversely, beef -when fed on its natural diet, grass- has a higher omega-3 content. The day will come when people seeking balanced sources of omega-3s will routinely choose pastured beef over farmed salmon. And think about how seasonal true wild salmon is. You're not eating that fresh all year. It's a real paradigm shift, right?
There is also preliminary research suggesting that the so-called "problems" with eating red meat are actually problems with what the meat ate. Modern cultures eating huge quantities of pastured red meat do not suffer the ailments we associate with our meat here, which is overwhelming from animals selectively bred for their ability to best tolerate a diet they would never select on their own. Turns out, maybe it's not about what you eat, so much as what your food ate.
Additionally, I'd never thought about meat being a seasonal food. Ever. But in looking through eatwild.com I discovered that several nearby farms only sell their beef after it's been pastured on grass all summer. Chicken is a warm-weather food. Who knew?
The answer is, everybody knew. Before we forgot.
Gratitude. I thought about the animal whose body I was turning into food, and about how I sit on top of the food chain heap and this animal did not. I thought about how this animal turns grass and grain and bugs into sustenence, something I could not do (grass and bugs, since it was an organic free-range chicken). And even though I have yet to really like the taste of its meat, I thought about lucky I am to have such a food: unlike the soy I've consumed much of my life and will no longer, chicken - having a long long history of being consumed, and healthful - is part of the natural (albeit domesticated) food chain we have evolved to eat and prosper from.
I was very nearly praying, cutting the meat from the bone. It feels so very far away from where I have known. And I suppose like moving to a new city, it will feel more like home when I can regard where I am (preparing meat) and see a history (of meals). Right now I am in a place where I have no memories.
My reading in Omnivore's Dilemma last night brought up a very interesting thought, which I'll attempt to condense: Salmon, widely regarded as a good source of omega-3s, is now being engineered to eat, as the author so frequently says, the government-sponsored "surplus of cheap commodity corn." Consequently, the abandonment of its natural diet (algae, phytoplankton) has led to a sharp reduction in farmed salmon's omega-3 content. Conversely, beef -when fed on its natural diet, grass- has a higher omega-3 content. The day will come when people seeking balanced sources of omega-3s will routinely choose pastured beef over farmed salmon. And think about how seasonal true wild salmon is. You're not eating that fresh all year. It's a real paradigm shift, right?
There is also preliminary research suggesting that the so-called "problems" with eating red meat are actually problems with what the meat ate. Modern cultures eating huge quantities of pastured red meat do not suffer the ailments we associate with our meat here, which is overwhelming from animals selectively bred for their ability to best tolerate a diet they would never select on their own. Turns out, maybe it's not about what you eat, so much as what your food ate.
Additionally, I'd never thought about meat being a seasonal food. Ever. But in looking through eatwild.com I discovered that several nearby farms only sell their beef after it's been pastured on grass all summer. Chicken is a warm-weather food. Who knew?
The answer is, everybody knew. Before we forgot.
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