Rhetoric of Food
The purpose of this project was to create a piece of visual rhetoric that took a perspective on the human relationship with food. Our mission was to effectively express ourselves symbolically. This piece transmitted a message with the intention of impacting our audience and influencing their perspective.
Artist Statement-The Truly Dominant Species
Corn has become a worldwide commodity because of its usefulness to humans. It is a food, energy, and money source that has touched the life of nearly every living human. This kind of exposure has led to what Michael Pollan, a distinguished author and journalist, refers to as one of the best “evolutionary strategies” the world has ever seen. Corn has so successfully populated itself by allowing humans, who soon became reliant on the food source, to plant the crop all over the world, something that is otherwise not easily done by means of regular germination.
Corn has become the dominant species in the industrial food complex via sugar substitutes, diet replacements, and general processing. Corn, mainly through High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HCFS), has found its way into more than a quarter of products Americans have access to at a supermarket, ranging from breakfast cereal to batteries (Pollan, 19). But corn has become present in large portions of our diet through various other methods, which is why I chose to portray the continuous presence of corn in the typical American diet for my project. I chose mainly to focus on the idea that corn has found its way into several food products, even ones we may not have necessarily expected.
Scientists have even been able to reformulate the molecules found in corn to produce a substitute for sugar, fructose. Fructose, and therefore HCFS, is one of the major reasons corn has found a way to dominate our diets. Skittles, for example, contain corn syrup, dextrin, and modified corn starch. Corn has also become present in our diets through a more surprising route: our meat. Industrial feedlots rely on corn and a variety of other ingredients, including antibiotics, to fatten their cattle and pigs. This method is economical for the farmers; however, cows are ruminants, and are therefore not accustomed to a corn diet, which has raised several health concerns in the general public. By feeding a naturally grass-eating animal a grain, several problems have arisen on an alarmingly large scale. Because cows frequently have trouble adapting to this newly implemented diet (1 in 4 cows on some feedlots), several side effects can eventually lead to kidney failure and mad cow disease, among other illnesses.
It is important to be aware of how frequently the typical American consumes corn because such a lack of diversity in the human diet can lead to several health defects. Consuming so much of a single product can lead to nutrient deficiencies. These deficiencies can then lead to obesity, due to a diet of high fat and sugar levels, which is one of the major contributing factors to America’s obesity problem. Pollan refers to this process as a “national eating disorder” because the American population is so caught up on the idea of the diet (a diet consisting mainly of corn), yet we struggle on a national level with obesity. Also, because we feed our main sources of meat an unnatural diet, there have been several public outbreaks of diseases such as E. Coli and Mad Cow Disease, which only makes it harder to find the meaning behind the familiar sentiment, “You are what you eat.”
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
Corn has become the dominant species in the industrial food complex via sugar substitutes, diet replacements, and general processing. Corn, mainly through High-Fructose Corn Syrup (HCFS), has found its way into more than a quarter of products Americans have access to at a supermarket, ranging from breakfast cereal to batteries (Pollan, 19). But corn has become present in large portions of our diet through various other methods, which is why I chose to portray the continuous presence of corn in the typical American diet for my project. I chose mainly to focus on the idea that corn has found its way into several food products, even ones we may not have necessarily expected.
Scientists have even been able to reformulate the molecules found in corn to produce a substitute for sugar, fructose. Fructose, and therefore HCFS, is one of the major reasons corn has found a way to dominate our diets. Skittles, for example, contain corn syrup, dextrin, and modified corn starch. Corn has also become present in our diets through a more surprising route: our meat. Industrial feedlots rely on corn and a variety of other ingredients, including antibiotics, to fatten their cattle and pigs. This method is economical for the farmers; however, cows are ruminants, and are therefore not accustomed to a corn diet, which has raised several health concerns in the general public. By feeding a naturally grass-eating animal a grain, several problems have arisen on an alarmingly large scale. Because cows frequently have trouble adapting to this newly implemented diet (1 in 4 cows on some feedlots), several side effects can eventually lead to kidney failure and mad cow disease, among other illnesses.
It is important to be aware of how frequently the typical American consumes corn because such a lack of diversity in the human diet can lead to several health defects. Consuming so much of a single product can lead to nutrient deficiencies. These deficiencies can then lead to obesity, due to a diet of high fat and sugar levels, which is one of the major contributing factors to America’s obesity problem. Pollan refers to this process as a “national eating disorder” because the American population is so caught up on the idea of the diet (a diet consisting mainly of corn), yet we struggle on a national level with obesity. Also, because we feed our main sources of meat an unnatural diet, there have been several public outbreaks of diseases such as E. Coli and Mad Cow Disease, which only makes it harder to find the meaning behind the familiar sentiment, “You are what you eat.”
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: Penguin, 2006. Print.
Project Reflection
This project was interesting to me because it helped to clarify certain terms that I had always been exposed to, yet never fully understood. The main term that was clarified for me was "organic." I had never thought about how impossible it would be to make something truly organic on an industrial scale. Sure, it can have the name organic, but the organic industry still relies on feedlots for livestock. Free range is also a questionable term; the animals have the "option" of going outside, but because they are raised inside for the first few weeks of their lives they never feel the urge to go outside. Overall, the terms you see on boxes such as, "Free range," or, "Organic," can be very misleading because they are claiming to use methods and techniques that are really only possible on a small scale.
This industrial complex made me take a second look at what I'm eating. I came to the conclusion that this food does have some negative components, such as a uniform diet, but certain cultures, Americans especially, tend to turn a blind eye to these downfalls. This realization led me to believe that at some point, the industry will have done something so outrightly wrong that the American population will have no choice but to face the truth. Until that happens, the industry will keep making the process more efficient, and therefore less sustainable; thus, the population is reliant on a handful of individuals to start the process of drawing the line at GMOs and the like. If this does not happen, the industry will eventually resort on outrageous techniques of producing foods, with a heavy reliance on corn. This reliance became so apparent to me that I chose to focus on it for my project. Overall, this project was very relatable to the real-world and myself, because we do, as a population, eat constantly.
This industrial complex made me take a second look at what I'm eating. I came to the conclusion that this food does have some negative components, such as a uniform diet, but certain cultures, Americans especially, tend to turn a blind eye to these downfalls. This realization led me to believe that at some point, the industry will have done something so outrightly wrong that the American population will have no choice but to face the truth. Until that happens, the industry will keep making the process more efficient, and therefore less sustainable; thus, the population is reliant on a handful of individuals to start the process of drawing the line at GMOs and the like. If this does not happen, the industry will eventually resort on outrageous techniques of producing foods, with a heavy reliance on corn. This reliance became so apparent to me that I chose to focus on it for my project. Overall, this project was very relatable to the real-world and myself, because we do, as a population, eat constantly.