Hw 7 Reading Response Monday

Chapter 1: How Corn Took Over America.
   Precis: This chapter mainly talked about how basic necessitates and food supplies are all derived or are partly made from CORN. Most of our common foods and items can be linked back to the most simple crop of corn. Even our meat is in a way created from corn because our animals that we eat are fed corn to become ready for the slaughter.

    Gems: On page 11 "Hidden Corn Ever look at the ingredient list on a food label and wonder about those strange names? All of these common ingredients and hundreds more are made from corn: Modified starch, unmodified starch, glucose syrup, maltodextrin, ascorbic acid, crystalline fructose, lactic acid, MSG, caramel color, xanthan gum."

    Thoughts: I really had no clue on how much of an impact corn had on our society. I only thought corn was an extra crop that only american eat primarily but i didn't know it had this much significance to the market. Now I understand that Corn is something that currently we must rely on in our society and  I always thought it wasn't really even that important of a crop but I guess I was wrong.

Chapter 2: The Farm.
    Precis: This chapter mainly talked about how farmers depend on their own crops to make a living because if their crops fail then they don't get that precious income for that season. To be specific it was about a farmer named George Naylor who's family depends on their crops survive. As well ever since the 1920"s the farming business has changed and now a days the market is completely different then what it use to be. Today there are new types of hybrids for some crops specifically corn that help farmers like George Naylor prosper and produce more of his crops so he won't make less money gambling on losing more of his crops when using normal corn seeds.

    Gems: On page 26 the diagram: "These lists show the number of crops and livestock produced for sale on iowa farms in 1920 and 2002. 1920 - Horse, Cattle, Chicken, Corn, Hogs, Apples, Oats, Potatoes, Cherries, Wheat, Plums, Grapes, Ducks, Geese, Strawberries, Pears, Mules, Sheep, Peaches, Bees, Barley, Raspberries, Turkeys, Watermelon, Gooseberries, Sweet Corn, Apricots, Tomatoes, Cabbage, Popcorn. 2002 - Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Horses, Hogs, Oats, Sheep."

    Thoughts: I find it amazing that the amount of crops from 1920 to 2002 has declined by that much. I believe that only modernization is to blame for this because as we get more advanced and find better uses to manage our crops with machine rather then using animals. As well since everyone wanted to make money by growing crops in the earlier days the cost of the crops slowly went down and caused most small time farmers to go out of business and I believe thats why this decline was so enormous.

Chapter 3: From Farm to Factory.

    Precis: This chapter was primarily about how the government started to take serious interest into helping corn grow to the utmost prosperity. In 1947 the government had a large amount of munitions that were left over form World War 2 and they had decided to use all of this excess munitions as fertilizer for Americas crops. Specifically what was left over was a large amount of ammonium nitrate which can be used as fertilizer because it contains a significant amount of nitrogen which is a main ingredient in fertilizer.

    Gem: On page 30: "But the scientists in the Department of Agriculture had a better idea: Spread the ammonium nitrate on farmland as fertilizer. And so the government helped launch the chemical fertilizer industry. (It also helped start the pesticide industry, since insect killers are based on poison gases developed for war.)"

    Thoughts: I really find it ridiculous that the government decided to back this plan to use all of this left over bomb material as fertilizer. It just seems evil to me that anyone would even think of using something that is meant to be used as a weapon to kill as nourishment to grow the food that we eat everyday. To ever consider doing what the government did to me seems insane and inhuman, who even knows what other chemicals are inside of all of these materials that they used on our crops in the late 1940's.

Chapter 4: The Grain Elevator.

    Precis: This chapter mainly talks about George Naylors grain elevator where he keeps all of his corn crops when they need to be stored away to be later shipped to factory farms and processing plants. As well since George farms so much corn he has too much for his own grain elevators to handle so he must keep piles of corn out in the open on the dirt next to his grain elevators. But there is no need to fret about wether or not it is clean because it will eventually be shipped away to plants where it will be cleaned and processed for multiple amounts of different resources that are derived from corn crops.

    Gem: On page 45 diagram : "Where the National Corn Crop Goes... The more than 13 billion bushels of corn produced in the U.S. in 2007 were divided up in this way: 47% Animal Feed, 24% Fuel, 19% Exported, 6% Other Processed Food, 4% High Fructose Corn Syrup."

    Thoughts: It surprised me that our corn crops were used in this way I never knew that, but over all I'm a little sick of just reading about corn I mean honestly when will this book start to talk about something other that corn. I want to hear about the meat industry of farming I hope when I read further in the book it starts to discuss that aspect of American farming because honestly I'm bored just reading about corn continuously.

Chapter 5: The Feedlot-Turning Corn into Meat.

    Precis: This chapter discusses how farmers in Finney County Kansas prairie's have changed from a dull tan color to black over time. In this chapter it talks about how cattle use to just only eat grass and roam free but then the cattle were put into pens and farmed and fattened for the American meat market and no longer ate grass, they were fed corn. So the nice green prairie's of Finnery County Kansas were now covered in black manure filled feedlots.

    Gems: On page 51: " When a cow eats grass, it doesn't kill the plant. Grasses have evolved so that they can survive being eaten very well. (As long as the cows give them a chance to recover.) In return for being chewed on , the plants get help from the cows. The cow protects the grass habitat by eating young trees and shrubs that might compete with grasses. The animal also spreads grass seed, plants it with his hooves, then fertilizes it with his manure."

    Thoughts: I never knew about this before that this system between cows and grass even existed. I'm just really surprised how this works so majestically with the process of eating, digesting, defecating, then planting and fertilizing. Its just so amazing how nature works together sometimes and you don't even know it when its happening around the world every second of the day.