Pg. 1- What Should We Have For Dinner?

How did we ever get to a point where we need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from and nutritionists to determine the dinner menu? Ever since the human population have increased massively, the demand for food also increased, which caused many supermarket to buy food that is grown in other locations besides that town due to better deals and possibly cheaper prices. Since most of the food sold in normal supermarkets are not organically grown, there are times when its origin is unknown to the consumers. I think we got to this point because people are consuming more than what their body need, and they are influenced by the media and people around them. Pg. 5- Certainly the extraordinary abundance of food in America complicates the whole problem of choice Americans have never had a single, strong, stable culinary tradition to guide us America is a very diverse nation; therefore there are many types of food in America, which gives people more opinions of foods to consume. Due to the many available choices, humans sometimes have difficulties deciding on which food they should eat. I think that because of the wide variety of food, people have more opinions on those foods, whether they are healthy or not. Pg. 10- By replacing solar energy with fossil fuel, by raising millions of food animals in close confinement, by feeding ourselves those animals foods they never evolved to eat, and by feeding ourselves foods far more novel than we even realize, we are taking risks with our health and the health of the natural world that are unprecedented. When we changed a way food is supposed to be grown, it is beneficial to us humans because the speed of its growth will be able to increase which allow there to be more products to be sold and more profit to be gained. Unfortunately, there are also negative effects along with those positive effects, which not so many people think of because they are too blinded by the benefits of changing the way plants grow. Pg. 10- Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species - plants, animals, and fungiwith which we have co-evolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined. There are times when other species evolved in a manner that would benefit humans and them. I find it fascinating to know that those species can do that for our benefits, so that they will also receive some benefits. By co-evolving like that, the world can be a better place. Industrial Corn- One: The Plant- Corns Conquest Pg.17- Except for the salt and a handful of synthetic food additives, every edible item in the supermarket is a line in a food chain that beings with a particular plant growing in a specific patch of soil (or, more seldom, stretch of sea) somewhere on earth. All the food involves a plants that was grown on Earth. That also includes meat because those animals consume vegetable, which came from the earth. There are times when the food that was used to feed the cattle originated from a different location, but then transferred to that farm to feed those cattle.

Pg. 18-19- There are some forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket and more than a quarter of them now contain corn. Make a collage- showing the items that are made of corn in the average American supermarket. The corn industry have increased massively and corn is commonly used in many other food products. Im not very surprise about this fact because I usually buy a lot of products with corn in it, and I usually read the ingredients just for fun. A few examples of products with corn in it would be cake mixes, coffee creamers, diapers, toothpaste, trash bags, and even waffles. Pg. 19- Why are Mexicans (descendants of the Mayans) referred to as the corn people? Their diet usually involve corn as one of its ingredients, and they have been living off of corn for almost nine thousand years. Pg. 21- What is the C-4 trick by plants? C4 plants are able to quickly absorb carbon dioxide in the air in short periods of time. They do that to reduce water loss in high temperature environments. Pg. 22- What does the higher ratio of Carbon 13 (isotope) to Carbon 12 in a persons body tell us? It is able to tell how much corn is in that diet. When there are more, that means that there were more corn in that persons diet. Pg. 22- How much wheat flour do we eat compared to corn flour? (Americans) Americans generally eat 11 pounds of corn flour, while we eat up to 114 pounds of wheat flour, which is around 10 times more than the amount of corn flour. The Rise of Zea Mays Pg. 23- Explain why some people regard agriculture as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals? Agriculture is regarded as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals to some people because they are the ones that are doing what they want. They caused all the changes in genes of species for those species to spread more easily, or more adaptable in certain locations. Pg. 24- What was the biotic army that the while man brought to the new world? The biotic army included apples, cattle, accustomed weeds, microbes, pigs, and wheat. Pg. 25- Explain how corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility. Due to versatility, it is able to do various things, which includes acting as a storage grain, a source of fiber, beer, and food for animals. It is also highly adaptable to many harsh conditions and can be easily transported.

Married to Man Pg.26- Why is corn considered to be married to man? It is considered to be married to man because humans and corn have a symbiosis relationship, where without one, the other would die. Without the presence of humans, then there would not be this much amount of corn all over the world, but without corn, a lot of food will not be the same. Corn Sex Pg. 30- For to prosper in the industrial food chain to the extent it has, corn has to acquire several improbable new tricks- What did corn have to do? Due to the new technologies, corn have to be able to adapt to it and grow upright. It also had to be able to grow in tight areas with a bunch other corn, and be able to live off of fossil fuels in the form of petrochemical fertilizer. Even with all that adaptations, it also had to have a tolerance for various synthetic chemicals also.