Food INC. Part 2 p91-122 and 169-177

After reading the section about the ethanol section about how much of our nation's, and worlds corn is used to make ethanol. I have stood at the gas pump and have read the stickers saying this such and such a gas contains 10% ethanol grown and produced in America. Until now it was one of those that sounds like a good idea kind of things, especially with the positive pitch the stickers give. But, now after reading and seeing how inefficient the process is and how harmful it is. These harmful aspects being everything from higher food prices to increased air pollution to increased water pollution. Also, the fact that really stood out to me was how inefficient the whole process is. As Lester Brown is quoted in the book "The grain required to fill a 25 gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol would feel one person for a full year." (Pg.93) This really struck me two ways: one is of how inefficient the process is, it takes a lot of corn to feed one person for a whole year, and the second being with almost a billion people lacking sufficient food stores why would we support filling fuel tanks and not starving children's stomachs? Then, the big reality set in: it's all about the money, which is sad. Also, it doesn't make sense of increasing the amount of ethanol (corn usage) when our surplus is at its lowest since 1997.

Another thing that stuck out to me in the reading was from the short chapter about pesticides. What stuck out to me here was the fact that according to the EPA "children receive fifty percent of their lifetime cancer risks in their first two years of life." (p 103) Then, right after that the results form blood tests of children under the age of 6 pesticide levers were up to six times higher in children who eat conventionally grown foods, compared to children who eat organic foods. It was one of those facts that I knew there was a difference, but I was unaware that there was a 6 fold difference, that fact wanted me to throw out all of my nieces baby food jars and go home to our cellar and get some of our home canned fruit and vegetables for her. Also, I liked how Wendell Berry's name came up again on page 172 talking about the environment crisis. Then, Pollan went on to talk about how he was impatient with people who supported big fossil fuel companies and he criticizes how modern societies desire to delegate "specialists" has grown and. Then, the main thing that stuck out to me was how Pollan, and Berry was brought up again, saying the reason we rely on specialization is to make things cheap. Again it all boils down to the fact of people with power wanting to make a cheap and easy dollar, which is sad given the side effects given to the rest of the population and the environment.