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?”
Nowadays food comes from all over the world. If the food is not naturally grown from your own garden do you really know where it comes from? Even naturally grown foods have some type of chemical on them. People rely on scientist to tell them what they say is right about the food they eat but don't actually think about it themselves. One example from the book is having to loose bread from their dinner meal.
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 has many different types of food and cultures. Many people have their own view of what they think is good to eat and what is not. You have so many choices of food that you really don't who to believe when taking suggestions on things that are healthy and good for you. The variety of culture and belief expands the choice of food because of what they think is right to eat and what isn't. An example from the book is not knowing what to eat and you get anxiety.
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.”
We risk our own health to eat what we want or when we want to change up our diet and try something new. What we are doing to our food is going to have an effect on our health. Just like salmon being re-engineered to tolerate corn in the book. Changing the eating habits of the animals we eat is a bad thing to do.
Pg. 10: “Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species-plants, animals and fungi-with which we have co-evolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined.”
Us humans have selected our foods, animals, and fungi to satisfy our needs. We depend on them like they depend on us to keep them alive. An example in the book is corn.
Pg. 17: “Except for the salt and a handful of synthetic food additives, every edible item in the supermarket is a link 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.”
No matter what the item is (edible) it has all came from a plant. I actually had no idea about that fact at all. An example of this is corn because it has came from a plant.
Pg. 18: “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.
Yogurt, soup, waffles, candy, toothpaste and many more!!!
Pg. 19: Why are Mexicans (descendants of the Mayans) referred to as “the corn people”?
Because they depended on corn for nine years.
Pg. 21: What is the C-4 trick by plants?
C-4 provides an importance advantage where water is scarce and temperature is high
Pg. 22: What does the higher ratio of Carbon 13 (isotope) to Carbon 12 in a person’s body tell us?
The higher ratio of Carbon 13 to Carbon 12 in a person's body tells us the amount of corn that has been in the diet.
Pg. 22: How much wheat flour do we eat compared to corn flour? (Americans)
We eat 114 pounds of wheat flour compared to 11 pounds of corn flour.
Pg. 23: Explain why some people regard agriculture as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals?
Some people regarding agriculture are brilliant as evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals because we breed our plants and they are able to pass their genes on and spread.
Pg. 24: What was the “biotic army” that the white man brought to the new world?
The biotic army the white man brought to the new world was an army that displaced native plants and animals that allied with Indians.
Pg. 25: Explain how corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility.
Corn won over the wheat people because it was able to do many things that wheat couldn't. Corn could adapt to many different environments and it has now became more demanding because it is in almost everything now. It has a good source of everything.
Pg. 26: Why is corn considered to be “married to man”?
Corn is considered to be married to man because we grow corn and without corn we would have all the things we have now because the ingredient wouldn't be in it but without us, corn wouldn't be here either. We have a close link to corn.
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?
Corn had to adapt to many different environments, humans and machines by growing upright. It had to learn how to spread itself by growing next to other corn. It had to develop an appetite for fossil fuel but in the form of fertilizer. Also had to tolerate synthetic chemicals.
Nowadays food comes from all over the world. If the food is not naturally grown from your own garden do you really know where it comes from? Even naturally grown foods have some type of chemical on them. People rely on scientist to tell them what they say is right about the food they eat but don't actually think about it themselves. One example from the book is having to loose bread from their dinner meal.
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 has many different types of food and cultures. Many people have their own view of what they think is good to eat and what is not. You have so many choices of food that you really don't who to believe when taking suggestions on things that are healthy and good for you. The variety of culture and belief expands the choice of food because of what they think is right to eat and what isn't. An example from the book is not knowing what to eat and you get anxiety.
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.”
We risk our own health to eat what we want or when we want to change up our diet and try something new. What we are doing to our food is going to have an effect on our health. Just like salmon being re-engineered to tolerate corn in the book. Changing the eating habits of the animals we eat is a bad thing to do.
Pg. 10: “Our eating also constitutes a relationship with dozens of other species-plants, animals and fungi-with which we have co-evolved to the point where our fates are deeply entwined.”
Us humans have selected our foods, animals, and fungi to satisfy our needs. We depend on them like they depend on us to keep them alive. An example in the book is corn.
Pg. 17: “Except for the salt and a handful of synthetic food additives, every edible item in the supermarket is a link 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.”
No matter what the item is (edible) it has all came from a plant. I actually had no idea about that fact at all. An example of this is corn because it has came from a plant.
Pg. 18: “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.
Yogurt, soup, waffles, candy, toothpaste and many more!!!
Pg. 19: Why are Mexicans (descendants of the Mayans) referred to as “the corn people”?
Because they depended on corn for nine years.
Pg. 21: What is the C-4 trick by plants?
C-4 provides an importance advantage where water is scarce and temperature is high
Pg. 22: What does the higher ratio of Carbon 13 (isotope) to Carbon 12 in a person’s body tell us?
The higher ratio of Carbon 13 to Carbon 12 in a person's body tells us the amount of corn that has been in the diet.
Pg. 22: How much wheat flour do we eat compared to corn flour? (Americans)
We eat 114 pounds of wheat flour compared to 11 pounds of corn flour.
Pg. 23: Explain why some people regard agriculture as a brilliant evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals?
Some people regarding agriculture are brilliant as evolutionary strategy on the part of plants and animals because we breed our plants and they are able to pass their genes on and spread.
Pg. 24: What was the “biotic army” that the white man brought to the new world?
The biotic army the white man brought to the new world was an army that displaced native plants and animals that allied with Indians.
Pg. 25: Explain how corn won over the wheat people because of its versatility.
Corn won over the wheat people because it was able to do many things that wheat couldn't. Corn could adapt to many different environments and it has now became more demanding because it is in almost everything now. It has a good source of everything.
Pg. 26: Why is corn considered to be “married to man”?
Corn is considered to be married to man because we grow corn and without corn we would have all the things we have now because the ingredient wouldn't be in it but without us, corn wouldn't be here either. We have a close link to corn.
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?
Corn had to adapt to many different environments, humans and machines by growing upright. It had to learn how to spread itself by growing next to other corn. It had to develop an appetite for fossil fuel but in the form of fertilizer. Also had to tolerate synthetic chemicals.