Michael Pollan Corn Vs Corn

The six degrees of separation is a theory that states: any two people can connect to each other in 6 steps or less. Although this theory remains unproven for people, the theory reigns true for anything and corn. In other words, anything can trace back to corn in 6 steps or less. The widespread use of corn in almost every industry in America is no longer beneficial because of the vast consequences with the use of corn.

In a section his book, Michael Pollan focuses on the corn industry. He finds of the “forty-five thousand items in the average American supermarket...more than a quarter of them now contain corn ” Although these cheap foods can conveniently be found at any supermarket, constantly eating this food is destructive to ourselves . America is currently the world leader in obesity and it is because we heavily rely on corn to fatten our animals or to become the main component of processed food. And because the “cheap corn [keeps] flowing, guaranteeing that the cheapest calories in the supermarket will continue to be the unhealthiest”, families in poverty will have no choice, but to eat the cheap yet affordable foods, leading to obesity.
In fact, in a study, Iowa State University found corn in over 700 non-food products; ranging from toothpaste to biofuel to even explosives. With roughly 40% of corn turned into biofuel, the industry is expected to value at about 185 billion dollars by the year 2021. Although this industry generates an immense amount of wealth, many criticize the multi-billion dollar industry on wasting land for biofuel crops instead of food. Anyone involved in this industry struggles with finding the correct balance between feeding the people and gaining large sums of money because of biofuel. Consequently, the impactful stakes of the industry create controversy with political policies because it involves economic, agricultural, and environmental