The story of industrial farming

Michael Pollan’s “Omnivore’s Dilemma” is the first book I have read about the food industry and its move from farms to factories, and I can say that it has definitely made me think of either becoming a vegetarian or an avid supporter of organic produce and free range chicken/animals. What in the book made me think that way? To answer that, let us explore the first section of the book called “The Industrial Corn.”

Michael Pollan started his journey to explore where our food comes from and what it is made out of. His question was can he go all the way back to a farm where our food came from? Is it possible to see the farmer who raised the chicken we eat? As we read through the first section we realize it’s not really possible. Food today goes through so many complex stages, specially processed food, that it is impossible to know where it came from and what it is made of. However, Michael Pollan claims that most of our food today is corn based and as I read that sentence I was quite skeptical, no way is our food made of corn. The most corn you and I eat is if we eat corn tortillas and believe me, I eat that only once in 6 months. But as I read through the first section, I realized he was right. Most of our products today include corn byproducts, from different corn based chemicals used for preservation to the biggest corn product, High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). He describes the journey of corn into our food by going all the way back to a corn farm and how it is produced. As I read through this journey, I realized that I never thought of how many chemicals go into growing corn and how dangerous a lot of these chemicals are. A lot of fertilizers are used to enhance the growth of corn, and to increase the productivity of the land. But what we miss is that most of these chemical, even though approved by the Government, aren’t exactly the healthiest for humans, e.g. fertilizers made from fossil fuels to increase the nitrogen content of the soil. According to Pollan, since we cannot drink fossil fuel directly, humans have found a way to make it a part of our produce. And an even worst part is that these fertilizers end up destroying nature, taking away the good soil, and the leftovers of the chemicals ending up in our rivers and oceans leaving the water undrinkable and killing marine life.

Now even though we have a lot of corn byproducts, it doesn’t mean corn is a main part of our everyday meals. I mean, for someone like me who cooks at home and loves eating chicken, I cannot be consuming so much corn. Or so I had thought. As we follow Pollan’s journey, we end up from corn farms to animal farms or animal factories, as I like to call them. Why you may ask. Let me explain. When I think of an animal farm, I think of open meadows, cows grazing, and chicken walking around, animals being happy, eating what they like and being healthy. However, the truth, as I learned from the book is quite different. The true image is cows standing in their own filth, crowded into small spaces where they can’t move and thousands of chicken closed into small spaces with not even enough space to spread their wings. This image is so well hidden by the food manufacturers today that consumers like you and I have no idea of how the animals we are eating are being treated and what impacts it can create on the quality of food. Pollan reveals it all in this section of the book, including animal diets.

Some images of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO)

And guess what the animals are being fed, Corn! Why did I not think of corn? I know why, because chicken and cows don’t eat corn. The animals are biologically not made to eat corn. However because corn is cheap, gets animals fat faster and ready for slaughter, all the animal factories feed these poor animals with corn. And since this doesn’t work with animal bodies and they get sick, most of this feed includes chemicals and antibiotics so the animals can somehow digest the food. What we don’t realize is that this whole process not only increases the chances of diseases in these animals but also chances of transmission to human beings. Pollan claims that there are more food related problems today because of the way we are making our food, such as modified feed for the animals that is full of chemicals, corn and sometimes even proteins from other animals, none of which are suitable for these animals.

The next few stops of Pollan's journey take us away from the farm and to the processed food industry. What he realizes is that a lot of food that we are eating today is enhanced quite a bit, providing us with high calories even in small portions, and hence the American obesity problem. Pollan realizes that in a lot of other countries, people eat similar food, foods that we claim unhealthy, yet they stay healthy and fit. He says that the reason behind them staying healthy is that their food is not as much modified as ours and not so rich in calories. These modified/processed products lead to far more diseases and health issues than we think of. We blame our diets, we move form meat to no meat, bread to no bread and so on in our meals. But what we don’t realize is that it is not the meat or the bread that is unhealthy; it is the way it’s processed that makes it unhealthy. And no matter what we switch to, as long as what we eat is processed or modified, it will never be healthy.

Now all this combined made me realize that perhaps I should move to organic food. It is healthier not only for me but also for the environment. All the fertilizers and chemicals not only cause diseases but also increase global warming by polluting our lands, air and water. This chemically created food is also fed to the animals that we eat today, harming their lives and the eco system. I understand that the next section of the book goes through organic farms and how they work and I cannot wait to understand the organic farm system and I certainly hope it is better than the industrial farm system.