It's the corn subsidies, stupid

Just when I thought our class reading could not get any weirder, we get to read Michael Pollan's Power Steer. Pollan does a good job of taking us though the life cycle of a 21st Century steer, from oil, to corn, to cow, to our dinner table. But, Pollan did not talk about the powerful corn lobby and the powerful influence it has on Congress to keep their federal subsidies for corn.

Clearly, Pollan favors grass fed cows over corn fed cows. Should any journalist advocate for a position, rather than just listing the facts and letting the reader make up his or her own mind?

By the way, what does Pollan mean when he wrote that in waterways downstream of feedlots, scientists found fish exhibiting abnormal sex characteristics?

Here is a link to the Corn Refiners Association Internet page.

http://www.corn.org/

Prescription for Trouble: Using Antibiotics to Fatten Livestock

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/science_and_impacts/impacts_industrial_agriculture/prescription-for-trouble.html