Food Inc. Part 2

Reading the second part of Food Inc really opened my eyes to things I didn’t know. The first thing that I was unaware of was the chapter on ethanol. I knew that ethanol was being used as an energy source, but not the many details that went into it. This chapter, once again, had a lot of facts that helped me realize that maybe using ethanol as an “alternative” resource wasn’t the right way. A quote that was shocking to me was, “Even if all the corn grown in America were turned into ethanol, it would supply less than six percent of America’s total oil needs.” This quote was very interesting to me because in the past couple of years people have been talking about ethanol production so much that you would think it would have a greater impact than it does. Also, it was interesting to see that ethanol results in some bad side effects. After reading that chapter I was left convinced not to use ethanol as an alternative source.

A more effective way of changing environmental issues is within farming. Our food is something that is very overlooked in producing negative side effects for the environment. I truly didn’t know the consequences until I started my research on methane gas emissions and the role that factory farming plays in it. The entire issue as a whole is very alarming; people need to see what is actually going on so there will be a change. The part that really opened my eyes was the massive amount of chemicals being used on farms. On page 104, it says that 400 chemicals are used to kill weeds. This means that these chemicals are all present by food. It blows my mind that there are no regulations on this because it effects what people eat. It also made me more interested in organic farms because organic farms don’t use these harmful chemicals. This will cause the food to be safer to everyone.

Finally, Michael Pollan’s chapter in the book really put things in perspective for me. I am one of those people that want these things to be changed, but am really doing nothing about it. I think that I am just one person and I can’t change the world. Pollan makes a great argument in saying that one person can start the change. I think that is a great point, everything that has happened in this world has happened because of someone. After reading that it really made me want to get involved, and showed me that even though I am one person I can make a difference.