The Omnivore's Dilemma

I'm finally diving into The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. I've been hearing him on various NPR programs all summer and his research on the role of corn and petroleum in our industrial food system is what made me take a closer look at what my family is eating.

My first reason for seeking out local sources for our food was to cut down on our reliance on fossil fuels. Even organic food can be heavily dependent on oil. People want food that's out of season, and that means shipping it from another part of the country, or the world. With all the bloodshed, destroyed farmlands and polluted air caused by our overuse of oil, we decided we had to start doing our part to reduce our consumption.

Last year we bought a 1999 Ford F250 diesel, replacing our newer gasoline F150, so we could run biodiesel. (Do we need a truck that big? That's debatable. But I like it for hauling when I'm working in the garden and my husband usually takes the train to work, so it doesn't get used every day. Even when he does drive to work his commute is all of 10 miles roundtrip.) We're interested in converting to straight vegetable oil, but it's an expensive conversion ($2k - 5K). We also didn't think we could find the time to scour the city for used oil, but there are biodiesel co-ops popping up all over now, which is making the idea all the more attractive.

But do you know what is the real problem with our industrialized food supply? Corn.

Seriously. Corn.

(You can hear a piece about corn's role in our food supply at this link to a broadcast of NPR's Day to Day, from November 27, 2003. From the website: "Mike Pesca goes beyond the dinner table to report on corn -- the cheap, ubiquitous grain that has a big impact on diet, public health, and politics.")

Corn is in practically all foods: breads, meat (the cows eat it), soda, juices, yogurt, on and on. Pretty much, if it's not a fresh vegetable it's got corn in it, or it ate corn. And why is this a problem? Beyond all the fossil fuels it takes to fertilize corn, harvest corn and transport corn and corn products, high fructose corn syrup plays an insidious role in the sharp increase in the number of cases of diabetes and heart disease in this country.

Another problem: the majority of cattle are fed corn, which isn't what they're designed to eat. That would be grass. Since these cows are fed a product that isn't ideal for them they're more prone to disease and thus, are given antibiotics. The decrease in the effectiveness of antibiotics doesn't just stem from over prescription of these medications to people, but also from their pervasiveness in our food supply.

Our food system may be fueled by oil, but the food itself is made from corn. Talk about overdependence.

At our house we try to limit our packaged goods consumption, and therefore, our corn consumption. But with kids, it's hard to avoid. In fact, one of Clara's favorite snacks right now is corn flakes. A quick scan of my pantry shelf revealed that half of the canned soups, beans and sauces I buy contain some kind of corn product.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed! Michael Pollan said in an interview that the title of his book refers to a concept that anthropologists study: when one is designed to eat many foods, which should one eat? As a mom, shopping the aisles of my grocery store, thinking about how much power I have over the state of the world by carefully considering my food choices, I sometimes find myself wondering "What CAN we eat?!"

Here are some resources to get more educated about local eating and the behind-the-scenes story of our national industrialized food system:

• The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.


• Powell's Books has a whole section on Sustainable Cooking.


• You can see a short interview of Michael Pollan on Amazon.com's Fishbowl with Bill Mahr. (Scroll to the middle of the page.)


• Hear interviews of Michael Pollan on two NPR shows:
  
  Fresh Air, April 11, 2006.
  From the NPR website: "Journalist Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, follows industrial food, organic food, and food that consumers procure or hunt for themselves, from the source to the dinner plate. It also examines the importance of corn in all of our food products."
  
  Talk of the Nation, April 14, 2006.
  From the NPR website: "In his new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, journalist and writer Michael Pollan argues that many Americans suffer from a national eating disorder based on super-sized, corn-fed diets."