recent readings

I'm reading the Omnivore's Dilemma rather slowly (46 pages so far), but what little I have read bothers me, first in a humans-suck-we-should-have-died-off sort of way, but then more so in a I-don't-think-this-is-completely-true sort of way.

The author attempts to provide insight to the rise of cheap corn, dubbed a miracle crop that's actually the stem of many agricultural afflictions in disguise. One such affliction is corn's demand for fossil fuels. Because the Haber-Bosch process of fixing nitrogen and thus fertilizer requires burning of fossil fuels, corn basically transforms nonrenewable energy, water, and sunlight into food. And that's a bad thing? I mean I get that we're addicted to oil and it's bad environmentally, but ultimately more food can't be all that bad, even if the food is subsidized to death and sometimes wasted and mostly fed to livestock. Maybe the issue isn't corn, but PEOPLE and how people treat corn and livestock. And then there's a whole spiel about the food industry and how it transforms corn into "food-like" substances. I don't mind all that much that 1/4 of groceries comprise of corn products. I don't think the author has ever been poor enough to starve and not be able to pick what to eat. Perhaps my mind will change once I finish the book and ignore the fuzzy logic. But for now corn has my good graces.

When my brain refuses to handle The Omnivore's Dilemma, I read more entertaining books. I finished Speaker for the Dead, second book of Ender's Game saga, in one day. It was that good! I'm currently enjoying the next book of the series, Xenocide, which contains some interesting philosophy about the nature of existence. I can't wait to finish it, even though there's an asian character with some pretty butchered asian cultures.

I have also started the elegant Dune series.

It is safe to conlude that I truly enjoy apocalyptic/dystopia/sci-fi.