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Michael Pollan's Letter To Farmer In Chief

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In Michael Pollan’s letter to the future president, “Farmer in Chief”, he addresses the rising issue of food in the United States. A large fraction of our health consists of the food we eat, therefore it is important to ensure that food is abundant and derives from healthy sources. During the previous years, presidents have made an effort to ensure that the environment and economy is functioning properly. However, many presidents fail to acknowledge that the main issue to a poorly functioning society is food. Therefore, the main argument of Pollan’s letter addresses the impact that food as on society as a whole. To begin with, he claims that fossil fuels constitute a majority of our food system, thus damaging both the economy and people’s health. …show more content…

Following, Pollan addresses the issue of monocultures in the food system. Because farmers strive to increase productivity, the creation of monoculture has increased. Therefore, many farm products are artificial, cheap, and detrimental to the human body. Additionally, monoculture results in the mass slaughtering of animals, thus harming the environment and animals. Michael Pollan looks forward to “reregionalizing the food system” by changing the public perception of food through proper education. Michael Pollan’s letter definitely allowed me to reconsider my food choices and consider how my actions affect the economy and environment. After reconsidering my food choices, I concluded that most of my choices support solar agriculture. My family and I are frugal with spending, therefore, we prefer to grow our plants and vegetables naturally. Our family garden has an abundance of resources like tomatoes, onions, lemons, chives, and more. A majority of the food we eat comes from the garden. Occasionally, when I am looking for a fast and convenient lunch, I would resort to fast food. However, lately, I have decided to make healthier changes to my diet by eating more fruits and

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Sometimes, it is as if we’ve truly forgotten the true purpose of why it is that we eat. With this section, Pollan continues to add onto the doubt and uncertainty of the way that food is in modern times, based upon how it used to be. Slowly, he is beginning to warm up to his main

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Michael Pollan’s alternative to Factory farming has given a huge insight into a better ethics on food. In “The Animals: Practicing Complexity” Michael Pollan writes about a polyface farm and how it works. The goal of a polyface farm is to emotionally, economically, and environmentally enhance agriculture. Everything on a polyface farm has the potential to be helpful to something else on the farm. Pollan states “The chicken feed not only feeds the broilers but, transformed into chicken crap, feeds the grass that feeds the cows that, as I was about to see, feeds the pigs and the laying hens” (Pollan 345).

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Pollan’s powerful essay ends with a paragraph that reads almost as a plea to farmers to consider changing their habits and reducing their dependence on these types of fertilizers which are so

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Explain why Pollan has a problem with the way the American government subsidizes farms, particularly those that grow corn. Pollan does not agree with how the government is just paying off the farmers and not helping the situation of subsidies and falling prices. Pollan does not like how the farmers are treated different from any other food processors or exporters in the food business. The farmers are the ones that are taking the beating with the bad economy and instead of fixing it; the government just pays them off. 4.

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With his Farewell Address in 1961, President Eisenhower warns the citizens of the United States about the dangers of the military-industrial complex’s growth in power. The military-industrial complex is the relationship between the nation’s military and defense industries, which was boosted greatly during World War II and previous wars. In our modern food industry, we deal with the “food industrial complex”. Michael Pollan, in his novel, The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 1: “Industrial Corn”, speaks out about the problems in our food industry today. Eisenhower’s concerns of misplaced power, short term thinking, and imbalances in solving problems regarding the military-industrial complex are reflected in Pollan’s Part 1.

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World hunger has always been a problem that has plagued humanity, and through the years, it has remained an almost impossible problem to solve. However, industrialized agriculture has become a possible solution to world hunger with its ability to produce more food on less land than traditional methods. Industrialized agriculture is the solution Robert Paarlberg offers in his article, “Attention Whole Food Shoppers” which first appeared in April 2010 edition of Foreign Policy. Paarlberg attempts to use specific criteria to demonstrate the benefits of industrialized agriculture, such as its impacts on world hunger, the income gap, and global politics. Paarlberg was to an extent successful at proving his points and persuading his intended audience.

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The procedure of how food is made does not come into concern, only the results do. That is how large industrial farms are accepted, because they provide proficiently. The outcome of industrial farms outweighs the negative impacts, at least to industrial farmers. Pollan responds to Berry’s statement by agreeing with him on the issue of the current industrial model being acceptable to some consumers, only due to the fact that

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In Michael Pollan’s essay “Escape from the Western Diet,” he directly to Americans about the western diet and why he believes they need to escape from it. The reason Americans should escape the western diet is to avoid the harmful effects associated with it such as “western diseases” (Pollan, 420). To support his view on the issue, Pollan describes factors of the western diet that dictate what Americans believe they should eat. These factors include scientists with their theories of nutritionist, the food industry supporting the theories by making products, and the health industry making medication to support those same theories. Overall, Pollan feels that in order to escape this diet, people need to get the idea of it out of their heads.

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As Patel himself states, we need to get inside the hourglass and make the food system work for all of us, as farmers, producers, distributers, and consumers as a whole. Regardless of the confusion a first time reader may run across, this book does one thing undoubtedly right: it makes you think long and hard about everything you thought you knew about food. It goes far past GMOs and RoundUp, way beyond HFCS and the overproduction of soybeans, over and above those who are stuffed and those who are starved. Throughout the span of the novel, Patel not only helps you realize that there are many issues in our food economy, but also makes you feel how vital it is to take back what we did not even realize had long been

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Rachele Liba Professor Whitehead POSC 100 22 July 2016 Placing a Price on a Green Nation Having lived a nomadic lifestyle across the United States, I have had the opportunity to witness the wonders of our flourishing society and the everyday turmoils that we face. Rigorous innovation has helped Americans fulfill countless dreams, however with every gift there is a usually a price-tag or opportunity cost. Now in the midst of the general presidential election, platforms that represent our beliefs can undergo much needed reform to address the opportunity costs that were surpassed in the process of success. Among the various problems found in our society, a key movement that has raised necessary controversy has to do with environmental policy.

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The statistics of his article are intriguing. He appears to understand the political, economic and environmental workings of the world, so why not present a bigger picture of the issue? The advantages that he presents are remarkable and it would be interesting to see the other side of the debate through his eyes.

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Gardening is an activity many Americans already partake in. However, Pollan digs deeper and illustrates the positive outcomes of this simple task. To support his argument he proposes if we grow a small portion of our own food we will rely on the shopping centers less. We won’t be driving to the stores as often, so that is less fuel emission in the air. If we are out in the yard gardening we won’t be using the electricity inside the house, which saves energy.

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Instead of growing natural foods, food companies have found an easier, more profitable way of selling food to us: they take these plants and process them into something that tastes better and seems more appealing. And they’re also filled with artificial flavoring, preservatives, and all sorts of synthesized chemicals that make our food sweet but are harmful to us. With these processed foods, we can’t rely on tastes preferences to tell us what to eat, because if we want something sweet, we can eat it any time, which is the exact opposite of why we’ve evolved into liking something sweet. Pollan observes that we’re told to rely on science instead, but this ‘science’ keeps on changing. It seems like the only effect of this ‘science’ is that it helps the food companies make more money.

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He has discovered that we cannot separate our health from the health of the soil to the health of the plants and animals we eat (Pollan 425). He believes we should go back to a more traditional diet in some aspects-mainly investing more time, energy, and resources into our meals. Most Americans spend very little on food; less than 10% of their income, spend less than 30 minutes a day preparing their food, and only an hour eating (Pollan 425). He believes the preparation and enjoyment of food has been sidelined in our busy lives, but we need to go back to a time when it was closer to the center of a good life (Pollan 426). By doing so, we will begin to eat less fast/processed food and will be on the path to begin escaping the Western

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In Food Inc. documentary the filmmaker Robert Kenner unveiled and exposed our nation’s food industry highly mechanized unsafe food production that have been hidden from the American consumer with the support and consent of our government’s regulatory agencies. I belonged to school of thought that believed that food is life, and life is food. Food production and safety supposed to be a serious business, which l believed everybody needed to be conscious of how it was be produced and processed. After I viewed the documentary “Food Inc.” I was highly disappointed and disgusted about how food farmer treated the livestock, poultry, and vegetables that we eat in a sickening manner. Modern mass food production supposed to be based on meeting the consumer needs and safety but nowadays, they are mainly focused on profit making.

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