3. Enormous quantities of nitrogen is applied to crops. What problems arise from this? Example of a problem?

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1 Study Guide For The Omnivore s Dilemma To prepare for the exam on the Omnivore s Dilemna, these questions are here as a guide for your response and discussion points for class. Some will be directly on the exam and others will be mixed in various ways. Ch How do farms now compare with farms of the early 20 th Century? Explain how farmers viewed their farms historically and how they are viewed today by the farmers and society. Points you might consider include yields/acre, species diversity, population density. 2. What is nitrogen fixation? What is the Haber-Bosch process? What is its purpose? How does it replace the need for growing legumes and rotating crops? 3. Enormous quantities of nitrogen is applied to crops. What problems arise from this? Example of a problem? 4. Prior to the 1970's, how did U.S. farm policy deal with excess corn on the market, and how/why did this tactic keep corn prices reasonably high? 5. What is so different about paying farmers for their corn versus loaning them money until prices recover enough to sell corn for a profit? What are some results of this policy shift? 6. Where does most corn grown in the U.S. end up? Name some economic reasons why this happens? 7. What is the menu for of today s steers? What are the sources for those where those components came from? What are some negative effects of that diet, for both steers and humans?

2 Chapter 5: Processing plant 1. What parallels do you see between our digestion process and the wet milling of corn? 2. What s the advantage of processed food to the manufacturer and to a consumer? Where is the added value of processing? Chapter 6: Consumer a republic of fat 1. What are some of the reasons it s easy to eat more food than we need and consequently have a republic of fat? What products in your home contain HFCS? What is it about our biology that encourages overeating? 2. What are food growers and manufacturers of processed food doing to encourage overeating? What would you eat if processed food ceased to exist? Chapter 7: Meal 1. How do you relate to the Pollans excursion to get lunch at McDonalds s and eat in the car? 2. Does corn serve humans? Do humans perform a service for corn?

3 Ch. 8 and 9 1. How would you explain the title All Flesh is Grass? Show why it is true. 2. Joel Salatin is working at being sustainable. Compare what he is doing to the large industrial organic farms. Are they sustainable? Support your answer with examples. 3. What does organic mean to you? What does organic mean to USDA? Have you compared the wording on organic food labels with conventional food labels? Is industrial organic a contradiction in terms? (Pollan page 161) 4. Are NPK all that plants need to be healthy? 5. How different is a USDA certified organically raised chicken from a conventionally raised chicken?

4 Ch To help guide class discussion of the readings, please bring a hardcopy response (preferably typed) to class. You may use some of the questions here as a guide for your response and/or present your own points that you would like to discuss. 1. Draw the growth curve for grasses, and describe how that influences Joel Salatin's scheduling for the cows grazing. 2. Discuss how well-managed grazing contributes to the production of more biomass, more decaying organic matter, increased aeration of the soil, increased nutrient flow, and even increased habitat for worms. 3. In what sense, and why, is it profitable to feed cattle with corn rather than with grass? The biological "cost" (by virtually any metric) of feeding corn to cattle is much higher than the cost of feeding grass; in what way is that cost offset, at least in the short-term? 4. Discuss some of the functions that chicken have on Polyface farm. If chickens weren t there what would Joel have to import for the farm? 5. Discuss some ways that Polyface farm keeps animals, soil, and pasture grass healthy. 6. Discuss some ways that the forest surrounding Polyface farm's pastures contributes to the health of the entire farm.

5 Chapter What are some issues Joel has with the USDA, regulations, and big processing companies? 2. In Ch. 13, Pollan writes about Wal Mart and Whole Foods as equals. Why? Do you agree with that? 3. Pollan quotes the words of Wendell Berry: Eating is an agricultural act a political act as well (p. 259). Why is this message so important to Pollan s writing? 4. Many people make their decisions about food buying based on price. How do you make food choices? Why does Pollan question the premise that beef is beef and salmon is salmon? 5. Pollan writes that the pleasures of eating are deepened by knowing. Do you agree, or are there some things you d rather not know about your food? What would you like to know about food before purchasing it? 6. If Michael Pollan were coming to your place for dinner, what would you serve him and why?

6 Notes from the Book: One cow = 35 gallons of oil Each person accounts for one ton of corn This corn is either consumed by cows, chicken, or pigs converted into sugars (HFCS), alcohols, lecithin, starches, etc. Whole food commodities (40 cents per dollar for eggs goes to the farmer) versus processes or value-added commodities (4 cents per dollar to the corn farmer). 4 cents of corn to make a $4 box of cereal. Most of the rest goes to research/development and marketing. Food profits. Humans can only consume 1500 pounds of food per year. Thus, no matter how they transform it, there is a maximum amount of consumption related to the growth rate of the population. Thus, to make profits they have only two strategies; raise food prices or increase consumption. Value-added foods means to take a commodity and do something to it that increases its efficiency (find more uses for it and use more of it) and increases its value by improving texture, taste, and/or appearance. Cows eat recycled cow fat from slaughterhouses and (used to eat protein too until mad cow disease). But, they still feed recycled cow parts to chickens and pigs. Real costs of cattle: Food, pollution from manure into streams and fecal dust, cost of health of workers and antibiotic resistant bacteria entering population, Gulf of Mexico dead zone, fertilizers in farm fields, pesticides, tax payers offering farm subsidies, cost of petroleum from Gulf States defended by U.S. Military. Moral obligations: Do we have a moral responsibility to the animals? Does the lifestyle and health of the animal we will eat matter? Does it matter if we feed them something they are not evolutionarily adapted to eating and would eventually die from (if we didn t kill them first), stuff them with chemicals and antibiotics to keep them alive, force them into prison camps? Do we have a moral responsibility to the farmer as for many of them, they have become virtual slaves to the corporations who buy their crops? Traditional farms: Farmers grew gardens with a variety of crops, as well as, cash crops on a rotating basis. They would take farm waste; weeds, stems, leaves, roots, etc of their crops and feed them to their animals. They would take the animal manual to fertilize their land.