Response to Omnivore's Dilemma Part 1

After reading Pollan's section on fast food, I will never again even consider eat chicken McNuggets, or possibly anything from McDonald's. The entire way through the chapter I couldn't help but feel like I might get sick. The fact that it takes 38 different ingredients to make a chicken McNugget, that potentially hazardous or toxic chemicals are used in the creation of the McNuggets, and the fact that most of it is made up of corn and other ingredients “that are not used in the household,” is simply appalling to me. How any sane, loving parent could continue to let their children or themselves ingest these despicable blasphemies of food will forever remain a mystery to me. Pollan's mention of the “nutritional facts” McDonald's so graciously provides its patrons was humorous to me, as I have read through something similar online before. The fact that six McNuggets has approximately the same amount of calories as an entire hamburger is something that should probably be illegal.

I thought Pollan's comparison of our current epidemic to the alcoholic epidemic of the early 19^th Century was very well done. I was previously unaware of this epidemic and even more ignorant as to what its cause was. The overproduction of corn, as the author says, was the primary reason the alcoholic epidemic took place in the early 1800s. With such a high supply of corn, the price of corn-based goods (alcohol) plummeted, and Americans were drinking large amounts of the liquid in the morning, afternoon, and night. This is an obvious parallel to what we are experiencing today with fast food, as the author ensures us that the majority of fast food is in large part produced from corn. This makes the incredibly low prices fast food restaurants are able to offer possible, which in turn incentivizes many Americans to eat as much of the diabetes causing substance as they can (leaving us in our current situation).

 If you are a proponent of capitalism (as I and most Americans are) then, according to the author, “processing cheap corn into forty-five different McDonald's items is an impressive accomplishment (implying that you ignore the ethical conflicts).” On a certain level I understand and agree with what the author is getting at here, but I also think he puts a little bit too much of the burden on the hands of the food industry. Capitalism works on a basis of supply and demand. As the demand for these incredibly unhealthy foods increase, the fast food companies are going to continue to produce and sell these products. If consumers refrain from eating what's currently offered and instead demand healthier options, the companies will be forced to reply to the change in demand and give the consumers what they want. This may seem like an oversimplified view, but I do think there is a lot of truth to it. Consumers should be ultimately responsible for what they choose to buy, and although fast food companies do exert a great amount of influence, I think it's important to understand the consumer in this empowered way rather than as a mere passive receptacle of the food industry's garbage.