HW 7b

Chapter 6
Precis: Corn has made America into a "Fat Republic". America was the "Alcoholic Republic" around the 1820s; this name comes from corn whiskey; which was drank by the average American of the time. The alcoholic republic and the fat republic are nearly parallel in their patterns. Corn becomes cheap; making it's demand go up as well as production, which leaves us with excess corn. What do we do with the corn? We make it into something. During the 1800s, it was distilled into corn whiskey; it was cheap to make and cheap to buy; currently, corn is processed into many different forms; the major form being high fructose corn syrup; an ingredient found in the majority of processed foods.

Gems:
Response: I feel like the main idea of this chapter was money. The entire time I was reading I had the song from Cabaret stuck in my head, "Money makes the world go round, world go round, world go round".


Chapter 7
Precis: The industrial food chain ends with fast food. Fast food places have "healthy" items on their menus like salads to invite the on the go "health-conscious" mother into their humble abode with their child craving chicken nuggets. There are 38 ingredients in chicken Mcnuggets, which lead to a lawsuit against McDonald's by some obese teenagers in NY. This led to McDonald's making their nutrition facts available in a pamphlet. out of the 38 ingredients, 13 can come from corn. Fast food is not meant to be savory; it is meant to fill you up; fast.

Gems:
Response: I stopped eating fast-food around 6th grade; at one point I thought I'd be rebellious and not even go into places like McDonald's and Wendy's. I have since then discovered that one friend buying a ton of french fries and a drink provides a warm, smelly place to stay in the winter when one doesn't want to go home. I actually can't stand the smell of fast food. I've kind of gotten over it, but sometimes I'll pass a McDonalds and I gag. I can't explain it.



Chapter 8
Precis: Naylor Farm Vs. Polyface Farm; Joel Salatin runs Polyface Farm in the Shenandoah Valley, which is also a pastoral farm. He has created a food chain; everything gets used. By the end of the season he will have "25,000 pounds of beeg, 50,000 pounds of pork, 12,000 broilers, 800 turkeys, 500 rabbits, and 30,000 dozen eggs"(Pollan 126). Grass is the most important part of his farm. The Naylor Farm is a near opposite. One difference is the industrial farm caters to the global market whereas a pastoral farm generally sells at a local market. Salatin has a big problem with "organic" food, "I would much rather use my money to keep my neighborhood productive and healthy than export my dollars five hundred miles away to get 'pure product' that's really coated in diesel fuel" (Pollan, 132). In order for "organic" foods to make it into America's food markets, there had to be some exceptions and changes to the idea of "organic". 
Gems:
Response: I've always been unsure about organic products, I've heard little bits and pieces here and there. I've heard that as long as a product contains something like 90% organic products it can be labeled as organic. I've also heard that organic isn't necessarily healthier, so I've decided that I'm going to look that up.

Chapter 9
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Chapter 10
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