Michael Pollan - Obesity and Income

http://livingwholesome.com: Clip from Food Inc (http://amzn.to/food-inc-view-movie) showing Michael Pollan discussing why and how the US obesity epidemic is directly proportional to income level.

The world's food chain is built mainly on heavily subsidized and, therefore, cheap corn. For many years, corn farmers have lobbied lawmakers for protection and subsidies, and this has created an overwhelming abundance of cheap corn.

Because there is so much corn, food scientists have worked out many ways to use the abundant staple, to prevent wasting it, and to maximize profits. One of these, high fructose corn syrup, is now in a majority of the items we consume.

But scientists also decided to start feeding corn to cattle; grazing animals that are supposed to eat grass. And now we face an unfortunate by-product of this new practice; e-coli bacteria. When the cattle eat corn feed, they have a higher chance of creating the bacteria.

Why do we raise the majority of the cattle in this country in such a fashion? Because US consumers want "cheap beef". We want our "Dollar" and "Value" menu meals.

Stay tuned for an upcoming blog post from Living Wholesome exploring the issue in more detail!

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Education

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