Pollan Claims Industrial Corn Created Ultra-Processed Food Industry, Not Consumer Demand

What was said

"We grow huge amounts of corn in giant monocultures that would fail if not for lots of chemical application because monocultures are just not the way nature works. It's not exactly food. You can't eat the kind of corn we grow. They're basically big packets of starch and protein that can be broken down into their component parts and then reassembled as ultra-processed foods."

Michael Pollan reveals that the ultra-processed food epidemic originated from a government agricultural policy decision in the 1970s under Nixon, not from market demand. He traces the system to Earl Butz encouraging monoculture corn farming to drive down food prices, creating massive surplus that could only be consumed through industrial refinement. This contradicts the mainstream narrative that consumer convenience drove processed food development.