“Farmer in Chief” Reading Discussion

After reading “Farmer in Cheif” by Michael Pollan, I began to see a new perspective of the food industry as well as possible solutions to make it better, as outlined in the article. There were many interesting, startling and thought provoking facts throughout the article. Throughout the article, I found many startling facts. The first being that it, “…Currently takes 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food…” This was very shocking for me; I had never really even considered the fact that fossil fuels are used in growing the food used to make most of the things that we find in the store. Another shocking fact that I found in the article was that, “…Ammonium nitrate being used as the main ingredient of both bombs and chemical fertilizer…” This fact is very scary, just knowing that foods are grown in such chemicals is repulsive and I am glad that I am making better food choices. The third fact that is shocking to me is that the, “…U.S.D.A. estimates that Americans throw out 14% of the food they buy, and more is wasted by retailers, wholesalers, and institutions.” It is scary knowing that a lot of food is wasted all of the time; it makes me want to be more conscious of how much food I am wasting. The last startling is that, “…For nations to lose the ability to substantially feed themselves will find themselves compromised in international dealing as nations that depend on foreign resources.” The author goes on to say that there is no alternative to food. This is probably the scariest thought, I have to agree with it though and it makes me want to do something to solve the problem of food in our country.

On a happier note, it is said in the article that, “…Markets for alternative kinds of food-organic, local, pasture-based, humane- are thriving as never before…” This means that more people in America are realizing that it is good to eat healthy and organic foods. I personally feel that this type of farming is the way to go since before technology sun light worked pretty well. The author of this article brings up a good point when he talks about balancing the farms with plants and animals. I really think that is they way to go with farming. I found it interesting that the organic way of farming would create many new green jobs for people around America. I most definitely think that it is a good idea, though I can also see how that would be difficult to convert all of the huge farms to organic. Overall, these were the more startling, interesting and thought provoking ideas and facts that I found in the article.

During the class discussion of the article, I felt that it was good overall since we discussed main topics that came up in the text. I felt that together our class had similar comprehensions of the text and agreed on many of the ideas brought up throughout our discussion. Some of the points that were brought up through this talk are the following: the health of America, national security related to food, as well as food justice. For America’s health, we discussed how eating all of the unhealthy foods produced through the use of fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers, as well as how this food is putting many citizens at risk for many health problems that could be avoided by eating healthy. We also discussed the possibilities of converting the farms of America into ones that could sustain the entire population. The last main topic was food justice and should food be defined with a specific definition. There was a debate for the whether or not a definition should be created, one person mentioned how there would always be a new bad food if we keep defining what real food is. I felt that discussing these topics with the class was very enlightening and helped open my eyes to the many obstacles and opinions that people could have to the plans outlined in the article. Overall, I felt this was an amazing learning opportunity in which I got to comprehend the complexities of solving a national issue, which will eventually become a global problem.

Pollan, Michael. "Farmer in Chief." Letter to Mr. President-Elect. 9 Oct. 2008. New York Times. 9 Oct. 2008. Web. 11 Jan. 2010. .