I Eat Michael Pollan Analysis

1. Michael Pollan when he started thinking about the question “What should I eat?” had to first address two other important question in our today’s food system which were: “What am I eating? And where in the world did it come from?” (Pollan 17). He is asking himself these questions because today we are living and taking part in a food chain that we don’t understand anymore. The first part of this question which is what am I eating is important since the food industry is hiding the most part of the processing of the food we eat and we lost the connection we had in the past with the aliments we get in our plates. He is also asking where it is coming from since now you almost need to be an expert in the food industry in order to be informed on

Research have shown that the isotope Carbon 13 is well embedded in our DNA since the chemical composition of our hair is really similar to the one of Mexicans. This similitude might seem intriguing at first, but people living in Mexico were and still are considered corn people due to their diet heavily based on corn. The influence of Europeans on North Americans diet is strong and wheat was considered the most refined grain. This has changed since now Americans ingest as much corn as people in Mexico do. This change is due to the fact that Mexicans still until recently fed animals with grass so their protein intake is not based on corn like Americans’ intake is. Their protein intake is more based on legumes and their sugar consumption in based on real cane sugar not industrial sweetener. Todd Dawson would compare Americans to “corn chips with legs” since Americans consume corn in almost everything they eat and most of it is processed by the industrial food system. People will find corn in so many different form in toothpaste, salmon, eggs and so many other forms that many people

In the 1930s, farmers were encouraged to “produce more food for a hungry nation” (Pollan 49). Pollan says that since people were making reserve in case of a drought or any events that would interact with the way crops grow. The food industry was a diverse complex of plants and animals that would mostly eat grain and they had more than one type of plants growing. At the same time, the farmer’s bureau was created to have a balance for farmers so they can have some support when prices were low. This was called a New Deal program. The government was at the same time trying to avoid overproduction so that it respects the soil for a more sustainable way of farming. This system was cheap for the government which would store the surplus and get a fee from the farmer. All of that changed in the 1970s with Richard Nixon as president. Farmers were told to produce as much corn as possible. The diversity in terms of crops was greatly reduced since most people decided to plant only corn and soybean. The government would provide subsidies depending on the amount of corn you get which means that big farmers were in a better position than small farmers that would lose too much money and would sell a bushel of corn one dollar cheaper than its production price. This change means that farmers had to produce as much corn as possible and the smallest space while keeping the production price really low. The amount of corn produced eventually increased so they can pay their bills, but