Chapter 2 Omnivores Dilemma

In chapter 2 of The Omnivores Dilemma, The author was saying how he went to a corn field with a farmer named George Naylor and he got to see what went on and how the corn husking industry works. Pollan noted that it was almost hypnotic in the motion of plowing the corn and gathering it up day in and day out. He also said that very good corn has to be fertilized by the sun and for that to happen, farmers need to wait a long time because the weather in the Midwest usually is not all that great so to speed up the process, farmers use artificial fertilizers that act as sun so that the corn could give off the impression of being fertile by the real sun. According to Pollan, this is why there is hardly any "ecological" process of farming crops these days-it takes too long and crops aren't sold. On another subject, Pollan talked about the economic toll on farmers of growing crops. For example, the price of vegetables are dropping and corn, for instance, used to be $3 and now its $2 therefore, farmers make less money than they produce the food. Also, there is competition between farmers in areas mainly occupied by farmers. The farmers see who can get most of the profit and sell the most corn. I agree that these results are interesting and it stresses for me even more why it is so difficult to be a farmer in today's world.