Claim: The industrial eater is victim of the industrial food chain’s use of corn to “obscure the histories of the foods it produces by processing them to such an extent that they appear as pure products of culture rather than nature…” (p.115), thereby replacing a “real meal”.
Ground: Pollan’s personal experience – p.111 “I loved everything about fast food: the individual portions all wrapped up like presents (not having to share with my three sisters was a big part of the appeal; fast food was private property at its best); the familiar meaty perfume of the French fries filling the car; and the pleasingly sequenced bite into a burger – the soft, sweet roll, the crunchy pickle, the savory moistness of the meat.”
p.110 Convenience of eating in a car : “The car has cup holders, front seat and rear, and, except for the salad, all the food … can be readily eaten with one hand.”
p. 112 Distance from knowing real food: “When I asked Isaac if the new nuggets tasted more like chicken than the old ones, he seemed baffled by the question. ‘No, they taste like what they are, which is nuggets, ‘ and then dropped on his dad a withering two-syllable ‘duh’.”
Warrant: Corn is a cheap and convenient substitute/addititive for food; it is part of every food item on a fast food menu.
Backing: p.112 “Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn…”
p. 117 “In order of diminishing corniness, this is how the laboratory measured our meal: soda (100 percent), milk shake (78 percent), salad dressing (65 percent), chicken nuggets ( 56 percent), cheeseburger ( 52 percent), and French fries (23 percent).
Qualifier: For those of us who have ever eaten a fast food meal, …
Rebuttal: p. 117 “So what? Why should it matter that we have become a race of corn eaters such as the world has never seen? Is this necessarily a bad thing? The answer all depends on where you stand.”
Agribusiness – great accomplishment; efficient use of corn
Lower rung of economic ladder - “cheap calories in a variety of attractive forms”
Corn farmer – eventual destruction of economy and soil
Corn plant – success
