Answer these questions over the break. I encourage you to post them on Facebook or email me the answers. If you must, print them out and write out your answers, but try sending me a digital product. These are due on Tuesday! Read Section I and be ready for a quiz on Wed.

1. a. List 20 items made from corn:

    

    

    

    

   b. Of the 20 items listed above, how many could be found in your house?

    

    

    

    

2. What % of grocery store items are made from corn?

    

    

    

    

3. a. Pollan writes, "So that’s us: processed corn, walking." Explain how modern Americans can be considered a walking corn chip.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

   2. Do you think the description applies to you? Do you eat many of the items described in the chapter?

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

4. Explain how modern corn is dependent upon humans for the continuation of its life cycle.

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

5. a. What percentage of its food does Iowa import? (Isn’t this an outrage?! This a ridiculous addition to our nation’s carbon footprint!)

    

    

    

   b. Think about the meals/snack/etc you have eaten over the past two days. What % of this food do you KNOW was grown in South Dakota?

    

    

    

    

    

6. What is one major advancement displayed by modern corn varieties that allows for the dramatic increase crop yield witnessed in recent decades?

    

    

    

    

    

7. a. Why can 1947 be considered to be an important year for modern corn?

    

    

   2. Is your household aware of the pesticides found on food items? Ask mom or dad and record an honest answer.

    

    

    

    

    

8. a. What is the Haber-Bosch process?

    

    

    

    

   b. What is the importance of the Haber-Bosch process? How would life be different today if the process were never invented?

    

    

    

9. What are 3 results of industrial fertilizers if they aren’t used by the field crops at the time of application? Where might the fertilizers end up over time?

    

    

10. Explain the ‘closed ecological loop’ described on pages 67-8.

     

     

11. Some Americans choose to eat beef for dinner rather than chicken. While I respect their decision (OK, that’s a lie), explain some of the added costs of industrial beef (pages 82-3).

     

     

     

12. Explain three ways the production of high-fructose corn syrup is subsidized.

     

13. Look at the meals/food/snacks/concessions food you have eaten over the past two days. List the items below and note if they are processed or whole, unprocessed food items (whole foods are not mixed and cooked and packaged in an industrial kitchen or factory…like chicken or carrots or green beans).

     

     

14. Explain how the soda Michael Pollan drinks at McDonalds is made completely from corn?

          How can the main ingredient (56%) of a chicken mcnugget be corn?

15. How can it be said that America’s corn economy is bad for nations and people at the low end of the world’s economy?