Omnivore's Dilemma, Part I - Reading Response

I must regretfully but emphatically disagree with my peer on the degree of boredom associated with Michael Pollan's chapter on Zea mays, commonly known now as corn.

First, as someone with a fascination for all things linguistic, I was very interested to learn that corn once referred, not simply to maize, but to any grain, "even a grain of salt" (Pollan 25). Surely I'm not alone in having wondered, at least once, what 'corned beef' had to do corn? I don't see how one could be bored when told that a word which, for their entire life, has been inextricably linked with the image of an ear of corn (or corn-on-the-cob, in my case; what can I say, it's a tastier image), whose fundamental identity is that food, could once have referred to anything from wheat to a grain of salt.

Second, is it not at least mildly interesting to learn that the food which, of all foods, is possibly most responsible for the existence of our country, that this food which is so perfectly suited to human cultivation would in fact have died if not for that relationship? If humans had not started to eat corn at precisely the time that we did, it may very well have drastically changed the course of history.

Third, you know you've always wondered where the term 'corn hole' came from.


Fourth, I would argue that having a farming background should make this sort of thing more interesting. As I've mentioned, I worked on a farm over the summer, and the corn started to come in just before I left. After spending two hours picking corn by myself (at sunset), I'm certainly more interested in it than I was before. But maybe that's just how I am. I also don't get people who use computers everyday but aren't the least bit interested in how work. Experience means little without understanding.

(Also, I would be much more bored hearing a spiel from a state park ranger who's only giving the tourist-friendly, cliff notes version of the history of corn, and is only there because he's being paid to be there, not because he's actually interested in it. Say what you will about Pollan, but he is definitely interested in corn.)