Book Review: Omnivore's Dilemma Part 1

The Children of the Corn

The first meal the author considers is a fast food meal which is derived almost exclusively from corn. I found this section of the book fairly repetitive with other books I have read about the meat, dairy, and agri-business industries in America. Thus I will likely say little beyond that if you don't know much about your food chain especially if you are a meat eater, then you should really read this. The author takes an interesting tact in that he follows the corn from seed in Iowa to a calf born and consequently slaughtered. Through all of this he weaves through the section the ideas and research into the foods we eat. What is surprising is that at the end of the section I felt like he wasn't condemning the meat industry and advocating a life of strict veganism. While I think the experience would have done this to me I can appreciate that their exist other people in the world who are not like that. Thus I strongly recommend this section of the book for those who would like a slightly more meat friendly approach to the 'this is what you actually eat' discussion over say 'fast food nation'. In the later book the descriptions are more likely to make you throw up than to ever eat anything again. Which while more true to the slaughtering of the animals, is untimately unhelpful to most readers.

The history of corn in this book is a little sparse honestly. I much preferred the discussion in 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' by Jard Diamond. In that book he talks about the spread of agriculture on different continents and has a long discussion of the origins of corn. Additionally the GMO movie I posted a while ago had a good discussion of current corn practices in Mexico (where corn is originally from). What is interesting additionally is the discussion of how corn and corn products are every where (likely in every food that is even a little processed). Most of this is because we (as Americans) heavily subsidize the production of corn. There is a discussion of the farmers in the book and about how they never make any money. Additionally they talk about how the corn is homogenized while the reality is that corn grown in different places is actually very different nutritionally. As for the meat part there is a slight discussion (which has fuller bloom later in the book) about the actual diet of cows in modern America.

While this section was not really anything I personally didn't already know this section is written in a way as to not be abrasive to omnivores which is likely helpful to those who still eat meat and believe that eating meat in modern society is nutritionally acceptable. The author will later tackle more down to eat ideas later. He did discuss the farmers trap and why most farmers are poor and end up bankrupt. For those that dislike the farm bills this will just add fuel to the fire.

Coming up next, Big-Business Organic.