Schlosser

Eric Schlosser’s interview is interesting in that it answered a lot of questions I had been formulating in my head after reading Omnivore’s Dilemma. For instance, I was always curious as to how Michael Pollan started getting so involved with the food industry. I think I remember him saying in his book that he wanted to know where his food came from, but I feel like there’s more to the story than that. So when Schlosser explained exactly how his attention turned to fast food, I wasn’t all that surprised to read that he had become involved through writing on article on illegal immigrants and their relationship with big companies. I actually had a similar reaction to Schlosser’s when I heard people ranting about illegal immigrants and how they’re crossing the borders to take advantage of our free health care. Like Schlosser, this has always seemed suspiciously reductive to me. I have read a few articles about the hardships of migrant workers but I wasn’t really aware of the abuse of immigrant workers going on in the meat industry, though it certainly does not surprise me. That is one thing I really liked about Food Inc., its focus on the workers. It’s actually a very smart move because I don’t think the general public really cares to hear about immigrant worker abuse. But the way the movie presents it as an issue that affects the audience as well as the worker makes people think about it differently and compels them to be more concerned than they would if it was just the workers who were suffering. As bad as that sounds, it’s true, I think.

One other thing I wanted to comment on was Schlosser’s recommendations for a solution to the food crisis. He claims at the end of his list of things that should be changed that the reformation of the food industry is not a complex problem. But just a paragraph earlier, he says, “There’s no one thing, no simple cure, that is going to transform the American diet or our industrial food system” (17). Needless to say, Schlosser is oversimplifying rather badly with his statement about the complexity of the food industry reformation. Some of the solutions he offers are also somewhat oversimplified. For example, he says we should allow farm workers and restaurant workers to form unions. Now I think the farm workers thing would probably be a good idea but I think it would put a lot of restaurants out of business if restaurant workers were allowed to unionize. Plus, I think restaurants would probably have to reduce their staff and finding jobs would become difficult in the business. Not to mention, waiting tables is a huge employment for single moms. It’s one of the few ways that people can actually make ends meet in an “unskilled” job or whatever you call it. I think Schlosser needs to consider a little more carefully how these changes will affect everyone. I’m not saying his ideas are bad, most are good. But like Salatin says in TOD, you can’t do just one thing.

Foor Inc.

So this is a cheerful film. I left the room feeling like the last thing I wanted to do was eat meat, or anything for that matter. It didn’t last long though; I came home and had chicken breast (from the frozen meat section at Kroger’s) and instant mashed potatoes (filled with all sorts of lovely artificial ingredients engineered from corn). And it was good, too. I’m wondering how many other people in class did something similar. My guess would be at least half, but probably more. This begs the question, does this film achieve its desired effect on the audience if they go straight home and eat the same way as they did before? Maybe not, but I would say it does. Like we said in class, the film is not necessarily trying to get people to stop shopping at grocery stores or asking the entire audience to go vegetarian. But rather its foremost objective is to make people stop and think for a minute. Although I did not for a second consider not eating my chicken dinner, I did think for a moment about where this bird came from and the fact that its legs were probably too underdeveloped for it to walk from one end of its coop to the other (not that it could with the number of birds in it anyways). That, to me, is a testament to the success of the documentary particularly because we haven’t even seen the whole thing. I am actually really excited to see Polyface Farms and exactly what this Joel Salatin guy looks like. It’s very interesting to me how closely the film mirrors Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I wonder if that was the intention of the documentary or if they mean to put a different spin on the subject.

Omnivore's Dilemma 2

Somehow Pollan has made a book about industrial food into a page-turner. I don’t know what he does, but I can’t stop reading this book. I want to know every detail of the week he stayed at Polyface, from the rotational grazing to the slaughter of the chickens. I even want to know how Salatin manages to make compost out of chicken guts (which is fascinating, by the way). One thing that really stands out to me is the fact that Polyface can survive during the winter months. I would think that this kind of a system would call for a constant grazing rotation every day of the year to be profitable, let alone functional. But somehow winter works right in there too and the cows’ stalls don’t even have to mucked out at all. Maybe it’s because farming like this seems like a reincarnation of the past or the realization of what I imagined farming to be like as a child. The near perfection of this farming system is another thing that totally throws me off. It seems too good to be true. The idea that a way of life exists where people do not destroy or damage their surroundings but actually foster life is something I did not think possible unless we reverted back to log cabins or tents or what have you. I realize that this method is not a remedy to the giant problem of the industrial food industry but the fact that it exists at all is remarkable to me. Obviously there are some major difficulties involved with the system, such as its delicacy (if you mess one thing up, you mess everything up); but, despite that, it gives me a little hope that maybe someday the food system won’t be quite so messed up.

Omnivore's Dilemma

Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma offers a detailed insight into our society’s eating habits. So far, the section on corn has been thought-provoking and easy to read and understand. The accessibility of Pollan’s writing is one aspect of the book that, I think, has enabled it to be so successful. This is clearly not the only reason that it has done so well. It is certainly a significant achievement in and of itself; but the fact that Pollan has chosen to write in such a way that a general audience can understand is very important because it calls for the American society as a whole to change the way it functions.

As I am writing this blog post, I happened to look down at the Tootsie roll I am eating and notice the second ingredient in my delicious little candy roll is, believe it or not, corn syrup! Yes, Mr. Pollan, you have made your point. I am a walking cob of corn. The thing is, I am not really bothered by this so far. From the foreboding of the introduction, I’m assuming I haven’t gotten far enough in the chapter yet to find this to be really appalling. I certainly agree that we as a society need to be more aware of what we are eating and how our selection of food has a significant impact on the world around us. Again, I probably haven’t read far enough yet, but it does not really bother me that my Tootsie roll is made out of corn or that the chicken I had for dinner was fed on corn products. To a certain extent, I am a little skeptical of this argument because it seems to be moving towards a petition for organic/natural food, which is probably the most successful marketing ploy of the decade. I guess what I’m saying is at this point in the chapter I’m waiting for Pollan to show how this cultural dependence on corn is a really terrible thing. From reading some of his other works, I’m sure Pollan won’t disappoint.