Pollan selection

    Read first 5 chapter and answer those question. Why would a naturalist be astounded by a supermarket? (16) Pollan’s working definition of industrial foods: “Any food whose provenance is so complex or obscure that it re- quires expert help to ascertain.” How would you explain this in your own words? (17) What connection does a piece of salmon or beef have with a cornfield? How about a Twinkie? Or a trash bag? (18–19) Pollan claims that for him as an American to “not think of himself as a corn person suggests either a failure of imagination or a triumph of capitalism. Or perhaps a little bit of both.” (20) What does he mean? Do you agree with him? How can scientists figure out how much corn you eat? Why does Pollan say that the story of the Naylor farm “closely tracks the twentieth- century story of American agriculture, its achievements as well as its disasters”? (34) What does Pollan mean when he says that “the true socialist utopia turns out to be a field of F-1 hybrid plants”? (37) What are some potential benefits of growing a diversity of crops (and keeping a variety of animals) on a farm? (38) Why do some farmers in Iowa refer to corn as a “welfare queen”? (41)Pollan quotes the Indian farmer activist Vandana Shiva as saying that “We’re still eating the leftovers of World War II.” (41) Explain what she means by this. How does synthetic fertilizer open the way to monoculture? (45) What’s the connection between our use of synthetic fertilizers and the “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico? (47) What does Pollan mean when he claims the corn is the recipient of both biological and economic subsidies? (48)