"You Are What You Eat" is Corny

This week's reading in The Omnivore's Dilemma focused on the fundamental aspects of the American diet. More specifically, Michael Pollan emphasized the importance of corn in our daily lives. He brought us to the local supermarket, and broke every item down to its finest ingredient. Consistently, this process brought us to the American Corn Belt, and from there he discussed the history of this magnificent vegetable. Beginning with the colonization of North America, Polan demonstrates how corn's unique characteristics enabled it to not only make way into the diet of the colonists, but become the preeminent food in this diet. Pollan explains, "Corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility, prized especially in new settlements far from civilization" (25). Once the colonists discovered the dual identity of corn, as food and a commodity, they no longer needed the Native Americans and used corn as a major tool in their development. Corn's ability to be grown in much greater quantity, last longer, and serve many purposes for the Englishmen, from a heating fuel to its use in the production of beer, led to its ever expanding use. In these first three chapters, Pollan conveys that corn's frequent appearance in the modern American diet is no accident. Centuries ago its usefulness was carefully noted and it has continued to be used as an integral part of the American economy.

After reading the beginning of Pollan's analysis into the importance of corn in our economy and diet, I came away with more of an understanding as to how corn has become so integral. I felt it was very important that he illustrated how corn could help make a peasant community transition from a subsistence to a market economy. It's ability to be stored, widely grown as it is very adaptive, and be used as a commodity in trade help explain its usefulness. The main point I came away with is that corn is an extremely large part of the current American diet and its elevation to this status began centuries ago when the colonists needed a versatile food source.

Without corn, would the United States of America even exist?
Has corn been one of, if not the most important factor in making the U.S. the world superpower that it is today?