KQED Food Blog: Bay Area Bites: Michael Pollan on The Cornification of America
Bay Area Bites: culinary rants & raves from bay area foodies and professionals
Previous Posts
Conspicuous Consumption
Russian Revelry
Spaghetti Carbonara: Stick with the Classics
Love, Anniversaries, and Babies: Stalking the Blog...
Cheese, Cheese Me
The Chronicle Top 100
Feed Your Ears
Michael Pollan, Predators, and Me
Check, Please! Bay Area: Episode 13
Sake to me
 
 
BAB Guidelines

'Bay Area Bites' is part of KQED's Blog Authors Collaborative. Blog contributors and commentators are solely responsible for their content. If you're interested in writing or contributing to a blog on kqed.org, email us with your idea.
 
Friday, April 14, 2006
Michael Pollan on The Cornification of America
On Wednesday, April 5, Michael Pollan gave what was to be the last talk in an eight-week lecture series called "Food Politics" at UC Berkeley. Marion Nestle organized the incredible series, which hosted varied voices from a broad spectrum of those actively speaking, writing, and teaching within this new hot topic. A visiting professor in the Schools of Public Policy, Public Health, and Journalism, Ms. Nestle herself is a loud and learned voice in a movement heard mostly with grassroots-style activism. She is concerned with the not so easy questions about how we eat, how to make educated intentional choices, and how to best "Vote With Our Forks."

I have seen and heard Michael Pollan speak before. He is dynamic, funny, and astute. A prolific writer of books and articles, he's the investigative reporter we want all our newspapers to be full of. Muckrakers or truth seekers, that's for us to decide.

Wednesday's lecture had one purpose and subject. To inform us all about what he aptly calls "The Cornification of America." What our nation is doing and has historically decided to do with our gratuitous over-production of corn.

First Mr. Pollan tells us that he writes about food from a perspective we all share: consumer. To prove this point further, he begins putting out a small sampling of foodstuffs from a nearby Safeway for a little show & tell. "After a great deal of detective work," he says easily, "you end up in a cornfield in Iowa over and over."

Giving us a little background, Mr. Pollan shares the "history of the Americas through the eyes of the corn plant." Ironically, he points out, "The food plant of the conquered peoples conquers the conquerers." Currently, in the United States, corn is grown on acreage of almost equivalent size to that of New York State. A plant adaptive to many a climate and geography, Mr. Pollan points out that corn is "a perfect capitalist plant." With all that corn hungrily and greedily consumes -- from the dirt it grows in to the pesticides and fertilizer it needs to grow (more than any other crop!) -- he adds, "corn is the SUV of plants." "Corn, as a plant, is completely dependent on humans for germination," making it the best candidate for chemical agriculture.

Chemical agriculture. A practice made all the better after World War II when the war was over and our government had a surplus of well developed chemical warfare agents and explosives to turn into the most deadly pesticides and fungicides -- all but a few still used today. It's illegal to use DDT in North America, but we sell it to South America and then import their produce.

Whereas initially forcing crops with low grade poisons was said to be for the purpose of "feeding the world," overproduction now only leads to larger meal portions, epidemic severe health concerns, and gluts in the market, which financially devastate the few farmers we have left. Farms that were once diverse ecosystems with room for animals, fruits, and vegetables to spread out over many acres in many states are now mammoth mono-crops in just a few vast areas.

Barely remembering my government classes from college, I won't attempt to re-explain Mr. Pollan's summary of our government's originally well-intentioned but ultimately problematic farm subsidy programs. Originally set up to help farmers, the subsidies, Mr. Pollan stressed, now account for the gross surplus of a grain we need very little of.

The question is, what do we as a nation do with all that excess corn?

At one time it was corn liquor. Currently the answer, a sweetener on everyone's lips, literally: high fructose corn syrup. Another: corn fed to animals whose intestinal tracts do not metabolize corn; large mammal populations, who then need to be actually fed hormones just to stay well enough to go to slaughter. We rely on these animals for sustenance, and they create toxic manure, once a free fertilizer for the small and varied farm, adding to the myriad of environmental (for both people and nature) problems we were initially trying to treat.

Depressing, eh?

During the question and answer period, I thanked Mr. Pollan for doing the kind of investigative journalism I was brought up to think was the only kind of reporting a legman should do. But I asked him, after a lecture filled with so many upsetting facts, did he have anything to leave us with which might be hopeful?

Loathe to participate in what Mr. Pollan called our overwhelming desire to "look for the single answer," a number of uplifting examples were given on how we are indeed "voting with our fork." Farmer's markets are growing by leaps and bounds, Whole Foods Market is the most successful supermarket chain, and more and more people are making well-informed choices about what they're eating and buying. Addressing Wal-Mart's interest in entering the Organic marketplace, Mr. Pollan reminded us, "as we scale up, Organic is getting cheaper" and more readily available for Americans located in areas with a paucity of local farms or upscale supermarket chains.

Think Organic and sustainable food is only for the privileged and the rich? Mr. Pollan asserts, "People are willing to make sacrifices for quality-- look at how we buy cars." Statistically, although I alone could disprove this figure, 9% of our income is spent on food. In a country where we pay less for food than almost any other country's citizens, our cheap food "comes at a cost."

Ending the lecture he leaves us with "Food is worth spending more on." And all of us in that classroom leave understanding more fully the implications and feeling the reverberations of this seemingly simple statement. We, carnivores and vegetarians alike, are affected by the hidden costs of a food system groaning under the weight of its own ideals, double-speak, and dumped or rotting excesses. If knowledge is power, our forks just became heavier and louder.

Want to ask some questions yourself? Hear these important voices here:

Food: Michael Pollan unravels "The Omnivore's Dilemma"
April 17, 7 p.m., Andersen Auditorium, Haas School of Business
website

Marion Nestle
What to Eat: Sensible Food Choices in this Era of Corporate and Scientific Environment
Monday, April 24, 2006 7:00PM
Sibley Auditorium, Bechtel Hall
website

Marion Nestle, Ph.D., M.P.H.
What to Eat: Public Health Advice in an Era of Food Confusion
Tuesday, April 25, 2006 4:00PM
22 Warren Hall
website
 
 

9 Comments:

Blogger leedav said...

Shuna,
Thanks for this report. I love Michael Pollan. I fully agree that food is worth spending more money on. I go without many things so that I can afford the best food available to me.

4/14/2006 7:25 AM

 
Blogger Marc said...

Great post. A slight expansion: you wrote that cattle are fed "hormones" to allow them to process the corn and grain that they are fed at feedlots. I'm sure that the food has plenty of hormones, but it is actually much worse, as feedlot cattle are provided a regular ration of antibiotics. Cows aren't evolved to eat corn, so it causes serious digestive problems that antibiotics can partially relieve. Here is what Pollan wrote in his outstanding 2002 piece Power Steer:

"What keeps a feedlot animal healthy -- or healthy enough -- are antibiotics. Rumensin inhibits gas production in the rumen, helping to prevent bloat; tylosin reduces the incidence of liver infection. Most of the antibiotics sold in America end up in animal feed -- a practice that, it is now generally acknowledged, leads directly to the evolution of new antibiotic-resistant ''superbugs.'' In the debate over the use of antibiotics in agriculture, a distinction is usually made between clinical and nonclinical uses. Public-health advocates don't object to treating sick animals with antibiotics; they just don't want to see the drugs lose their efficacy because factory farms are feeding them to healthy animals to promote growth. But the use of antibiotics in feedlot cattle confounds this distinction. Here the drugs are plainly being used to treat sick animals, yet the animals probably wouldn't be sick if not for what we feed them."

4/14/2006 7:49 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you Shuna for taking notes for those of us who couldn't make it to Michael Pollan's talk. Great write up. For readers who are interested in hearing Mr. Pollan interviewed on this topic and others from his new book, listen online to Tuesday's episode of Fresh Air here.

4/14/2006 9:11 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

shuna ~

Very informative and well written, I feel very blessed and honor the responsibility of living in the Bay Area- having access to this type of information and of course the privilage to make good food choices. I only wish the rest of my life choices were this black and white :)

4/14/2006 1:36 PM

 
Blogger cookiecrumb said...

Very depressing. I spoke with the wife of a local Bay Area liberal radio personality, she's a lawyer for food, and I told her I was alarmed about corn.
"Oh, GMO?" she asked. Nonchalant. Dismissive.
No! I said. (Idiot!) HFCS! NAFTA issues!

4/14/2006 2:39 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good report, clearly written, on a fascinating subject. Pollan is a fine writer-reporter who sees the whole issue of food in its widest context, from the personal experiences of the individual consumer to the commercial pressures of mega agribusiness. Thanks, Shuna, for spreading his insights to a wide audience.

4/14/2006 4:32 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

MP is also giving a talk and book signing at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market on May 7th at 11 a.m.

4/14/2006 6:14 PM

 
Blogger shuna fish lydon said...

For an extensive list of where to hear this man speak, follow our very own Jennifer maiser's link:

http://www.lifebeginsat30.com/jen/2006/04/michael_pollan_.html

Marc-- thanks for the correction. Of course I meant anti-biotics. Although in order to bring cows and pigs to their "slaughter weights" fast they are also fed growth hormones. Really it is just a big mess, all the medicine to just cure how we have intentionally hurt them in the first place.

Michael Lydon-- you are my inspiration as a thorough reporter!

My hope is that we all find ways to say no to commercial agriculture and factory farming-- even if it is just in small brave ways. It's important to remember that our own small enclave of SF/East bay is not at all representative of most of the state, let alone our vast country.

4/14/2006 10:34 PM

 
Blogger Amy Sherman said...

Michael Pollan was on NPR this week and had some very disturbing stories to tell about his experience visiting an organic "cage-free chicken ranch". Apparently cage-free is not as idylic as one might imagine.

4/15/2006 11:09 AM

 

Post a Comment

<< Home

Locate CP Restaurants:
Check, Please! Google Map
 
KQED Food Sites
Check, Please! Bay Area
Jacques Pépin Celebrates!
Jacques Pépin:
Fast Food My Way
Jacques Pépin:
The Apprentice
Jacques Pépin:
The Complete Pépin
KQED Wine Club
KQED.org Cooking
Weir Cooking in the City
 
Tasty Food Sites
CHOW
Chowhound SF
Crushpad
CUESA
CulinaryCorps
Eat Local Challenge
Edible San Francisco
Epicurious
eGullet.org
Food Network
Food Talk
Group Recipes
Hungry Magazine
KTEH Food
Leite's Culinaria
Locavores
Mighty Foods
NPR: Food
Om Organics
Serious Eats
SFGate: Food
SFGate: Wine
SF Station: Restaurants
Slow Food SF
Top Chef
Wikimedia Commons: Food & Drink
Yahoo! Food
Yelp: Reviews
 
Tangy Food Blogs
101 Cookbooks
A Full Belly
Accidental Hedonist
agoodfoodblog
An Obsession with Food
Anna's Cool Finds
Becks & Posh
Between Meals
Blogsoop
Bunny Foot
Butter Pig
Cellar Rat
Chez Pim
Chocolate & Zucchini
Confessions of a
Restaurant Whore
Cooking For Engineers
Cooking with Amy
Cucina Testa Rossa
Culinary Muse
Denise's Kitchen
Digesty-SF
Eater SF
Eggbeater
Extramsg.com
Feed & Supply
Food Blog S'cool
Food Musings
Food Porn Watch
Gastronomie
Hedonia
I'm Mad and I Eat
In Praise of Sardines
Jatbar
Knife's Edge
Life Begins at 30
Love and Cooking
MeatHenge
Mental Masala
Moveable Feast
Nosheteria
Organic Day
Passionate Eater
San Francisco Gourmet
SF City Eats
Simply Recipes
Spicetart
The Amateur Gourmet
Tablehopper
The Ethicurean
The Food Section
The Grub Report
The Petite Pig
The Wine Makers Wife
Vin Divine
Vinography
VirgoBlue
Wandering Spoon
Well Fed Network
Word Eater
World on a Plate
Yummy Chow
 
 
   
Search BAB

Eye Candy: Food Photos
BAB on flickr.com
Join Flickr for free and share your photos with the Bay Area Bites and Beyond group pool.
 
Food Books
 
The Moosewood Cookbook
by Mollie Katzen
 
Baking: From My Home to Yours
by Dorie Greenspan
 
Grand Livre de Cuisine: Alain Ducasse's Desserts and Pastries
by Alain Ducasse, Frederic Robertmison
 
The Big Book of Outdoor Cooking and Entertaining
by Cheryl Alters Jamison, Bill Jamison
 
Tasty: Get Great Food on the Table Every Day
by Roy Finamore
 
Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way
by Lorna Sass
 
The Soul of a New Cuisine: A Discovery of the Foods and Flavors of Africa
by Marcus Samuelsson
 
Michael Mina: The Cookbook
by Michael Mina, Photographer: Karl Petzktle
 
What to Eat
by Marion Nestle
 
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
by Michael Pollan
 
Essence of Chocolate: Recipes for Baking and Cooking with Fine Chocolate
by John Scharffenberger, Robert Steinberg
 
Romancing the Vine: Life, Love, and Transformation in the Vineyards of Barolo
by Alan Tardi
 
What to Drink with What You Eat: The Definitive Guide to Pairing Food with Wine, Beer, Spirits, Coffee, Tea -- Even Water -- Based on Expert Advice from America's Best Sommeliers
by Andrew Dornenburg, Karen Page, Michael Sofronski
 
The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook: Stories and Recipes for Southerners and Would-be Southerners
by Matt Lee, Ted Lee
 
Bread Matters: The State of Modern Bread and a Definitive Guide to Baking Your Own
by Andrew Whitley
 
Coloring the Seasons: A Cook's Guide
by Allegra McEvedy
 
All-new Complete Cooking Light Cookbook
by Anne C. Cain
 
Modern Garde Manger
by Robert B. Garlough
 
The Spice and Herb Bible
by Ian Hemphill, Kate Hemphill
 
The Improvisational Cook
by Sally Schneider
 
Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
by Ann Cooper, Lisa M. Holmes
 
Cradle of Flavor: Home Cooking from the Spice Islands of Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia
by James Oseland
 
My Life in France
by Julia Child, Alex Prud'Homme
 
A Passion for Ice Cream: 95 Recipes for Fabulous Desserts
by Emily Luchett, Sheri Giblin (photographer)
 
Au Pied De Cochon -- The Album
by Martin Picard
 
Memories of Philippine Kitchens
by Amy Besa, Romy Dorotan
 
Simple Chinese Cooking
by Kylie Kwong
 
 
An Invitation to Indian Cooking
by Madhur Jaffrey
 
Hungry Planet
by Peter Menzel, Faith D'Aluisio
 
Sunday Suppers at Lucques : Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table
by Suzanne Goin, Teri Gelber
 
Simple Soirees: Seasonal Menus for Sensational Dinner Parties
by Peggy Knickerbocker, Christopher Hirsheimer (Photographer)
 
The Cook's Book
by Jill Norman
 
Molto Italiano : 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home
by Mario Batali
 
Nobu Now
by Nobuyuki Matsuhisa
 
Cheese : A Connoisseur's Guide to the World's Best
by Max Mccalman, David Gibbons
 
Bones : Recipes, History, and Lore
by Jennifer McLagan
 
Whiskey : The Definitive World Guide
by Michael Jackson
 
The New American Cooking
by Joan Nathan
 
ChocolateChocolate
by Lisa Yockelson
 
Easy Entertaining: Everything You Need to Know About Having Parties at Home
by Darina Allen
 
Cooking at De Gustibus: Celebrating 25 Years of Culinary Innovation
by Arlene Feltman Sailhac
 
Dough: Simple Contemporary Breads
by Richard Bertinet
 
Chocolate Obsession: Confections and Treats to Create and Savor
by Michael Recchiuti, Fran Gage, Maren Caruso
 
The Food Substitutions Bible: More Than 5,000 Substitutions for Ingredients, Equipment And Techniques
by David Joachim
 
Recipes: A Collection for the Modern Cook
by Susan Spungen
 
Spices of Life: Simple and Delicious Recipes for Great Health
by Nina Simonds
 
Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent
by Jeffrey Alford, Naomi Duguid
 
Chocolate: A Bittersweet Saga of Dark and Light
by Mort Rosenblum
 
Vegetable Love: A Book for Cooks
by Barbara Kafka, Christopher Styler
 
A History of Wine in America: From Prohibition to the Present
by Thomas Pinney
 
Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years Of Food And Art
by Tom Gilliland, Miguel Ravago, Virginia B. Wood
 
Matzoh Ball Gumbo: Culinary Tales of the Jewish South
by Marcie Cohen Ferris
 
Washoku: Recipes From The Japanese Home Kitchen
by Elizabeth Andoh, Leigh Beisch
 
 
Weir Cooking in the City: More than 125 Recipes and Inspiring Ideas for Relaxed Entertaining
by Joanne Weir
 
Rick Stein's Complete Seafood
by Rick Stein
 
The Great Scandinavian Baking Book
by Beatrice A. Ojakangas
 
Serena, Food & Stories: Feeding Friends Every Hour of the Day
by Serena Bass
 
John Ash: Cooking One on One: Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food from a Master Teacher
by John Ash
 
The New Mayo Clinic Cookbook: Eating Well for Better Health
by Donald Hensrud, M.D., Jennifer Nelson, R.D. & Mayo Clinic Staff
 
Foods of the Americas: Native Recipes and Traditions
by Fernando and Marlene Divina
 
The Provence Cookbook
by Patricia Wells
 
Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World
by Gil Marks
 
Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World
by Gina Mallet
 
Bouchon
by Thomas Keller
 
A Blessing of Bread: The Many Rich Traditions of Jewish Bread Baking Around the World
by Maggie Glezer
 
All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking
by Molly Stevens
 
On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen
by Harold McGee
 
Entertaining: Inspired Menus For Cooking with Family and Friends
by George Dolese
 
The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Chinese Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore
by Grace Young, Alan Richardson
 
Cooking New American: How to Cook the Food You Love to Eat
by Fine Cooking Magazine
 
The Japanese Kitchen: A Book of Essential Ingredients with 200 Authentic Recipes
by Kimiko Barber
 
Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food: An Opinionated History and More Than 100 Legendary Recipes
by Arthur Schwartz
 
Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher
by Joan Reardon
 
Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes
by Jeffrey Hamelman
 
Everyday Dining with Wine
by Andrea Immer
 
 
Copyright © 2005-2008 KQED. All rights reserved.