My Own Dilemma

            Reading the first section of Omnivore’s Dilemma has made me utterly miserable.  All of my food tastes like corn, and my mind is spinning with questions about my personal food morals.  I annoyed my roommate by continuously beginning worried conversations about whether or not capitalism was good or evil all weekend.  I still haven’t figured out a satisfactory answer, but it means that the author is doing his job.

            At first, I thought Michael Pollan was crazy.  Who goes hunting in a forest for their food, and writes 120 pages about corn?  However, as I went on reading I have come to respect his ability as a writer and a researcher.  It would be easy just to present facts about the corn industry and let them sink in, trying to convince the reader just how sad the truth really is.  However, Pollan combines these figures into a story that makes them both more believable and entertaining.  I love that he has this sarcastic sense of humor that is very much in tune with my own.  The way in which he unashamedly calls America the “Republic of Fat” is absolutely wonderful.  It is about time that someone was completely honest with us about the weight problems that face our country, because apparently the statistics are not enough.

            One of the things that most troubled me was that, although I knew America was fat, I hadn’t considered that three in five people are overweight and one in five is obese.  Yet, we are one of the most weight-concerned countries in the world.  Our bookstores are filled with diet plans and self-help books on losing weight.  Is there really that much lack of self-control? 

Before I became a hypocrite, I decided to measure my own BMI and discovered that I would need to gain another 40 lbs. in order to be considered overweight. My family has always followed the “everything in moderation” mantra and all of us are within healthy weights.  We eat cake, cookies, and ice cream, but not entire pails or plates.  I guess the point is that it is possible to survive on the corn diet if you supplement it with a mixture of “real” food as well. 

The second thing that troubled me was the recurring theme of capitalism promoting the unhealthy corn market.  Corn defies the basic laws of macro and microeconomics, which is disconcerting to me as a business major. Wouldn’t it be better for us to allow the free market to find its way back equilibrium?  Is there any way that we can escape from our enslavement to corn?  If we allow the same values to guide us I don’t know if we ever will.  However, it seems like we are trying to drive on a flat tire and eventually the whole mechanism is going to crash.

I’m not sure whether I will soon be able to reconcile my feelings about capitalism and food policy, but I’m glad that this book has made me think.  Of course, everything now tastes a little less flavorful and real, good thing I really like corn.