“We are at once the problem and the only possible solution to the problem”(A Gardener's Education, 2007). The American food system manipulates everyone into living in such harsh and health-depreciating ways, contributing to America's catastrophic health catastrophe, which will continue indefinitely without the practice of complexity. Complexity is based on the idea that health is the most important priority, taking into account the lives of all and providing a more efficient and healthy way of life, as opposed to America's most prominent way of Industrial farming, which consistently fails the lives of all who are subjected to it, and with this, we will unknowingly lead ourselves to our obliteration.

       

     Whether Americans can afford their health care or are willing to try, those who rely on such a profit-driven industry are doomed to fail, as only through the practice of complexity can we eat without fear of poisoning. In the same way that one can manipulate another to become obsessed with an unstable ideology and then use this power to exploit them while they struggle unknowingly, the industry uses this same system to profit off of all who rely on it, revealing the great irony that a nation so obsessed with eating healthy can be the only nation in such ruins due to the excessively high death rates caused by diet.  “With widespread lipophobia taking hold of the human population, countless cattle lost their marbling, and lean pork was repositioned as "the new white meat" — tasteless and tough as running shoes, perhaps, but now even a pork chop could compete with chicken as a way for eaters to "reduce saturated fat intake” (In Defense of food, 25:06). The food industry's capacity to suddenly wield so much control over Americans, benefitting from their health-obsessed habits, was quickly dubbed "Food Science's Golden Age." Once the industry has mastered the manipulation of imitation food, rebranding it as something more appealing such as "low carb" or "low fat," they can now sell false health claims on overly processed foods that are incredibly less healthy than any of the real nutritional foods that the industry refuses to promote, such as fruits and vegetables, whose high nutritional value has seemingly been forgotten. America is based on the concepts of efficiency, riches, and success, portraying it as a land of vast knowledge and opportunity, where individuals are not bound by their government but rather have free will and the freedom to make their own decisions. The irony is that, despite being regarded as efficient, the American food business, which refuses to put any effort into taking advantage of life's natural cycle, is founded on the mistaken belief that it must ruin its residents' health to sustain profit. The ability to exploit life's natural cycle is to eliminate the necessity for relying on the deterioration of health and life to generate profit and instead put in the labor to efficiently feed Americans without killing them in return. However, in America, putting one's hands to work is automatically regarded as inefficient, regardless of how destructive or cruel the speedier option may be. This contempt for life stems from a sense of entitlement and ignorance; as long as those in authority profit and use power and manipulation to cover up their wrongdoings, there is no reason to care what happens to the less fortunate. Thus, whether it's other horrific present-day crises that tend to go unrecognized and uncared for or our corrupt food system, those with enough power not to be subjected to the issue will not care about those who are if they can benefit from it. This ignorance and failure to include the practice of complexity in the food industry will surely lead to its collapse and contribute to our nation's demise. Consequently, despite being misled into believing that we are not constrained and can choose whether or not to be healthy, this is not the reality. Even people who are aware of this cruel industry and make an effort to eat well are deceived by nutritionism. While they believe they are eating healthily, they are contributing to America's massive population of sick and cancer sufferers. The government ensures this by pushing health rather than actual, whole foods, which would be unprofitable. Furthermore, the few people aware of the food industry's manipulations and can decide what to eat despite the obstacles placed in their way typically need help to afford their health. America's industries, whether the food industry or any other, are usually constructed on the premise that money is paramount, regardless of what it takes to obtain it. Providing healthcare for everybody is not regarded as profitable; therefore, it is not prioritized, and it is only truly available to the few who can see through the industry and government lies and have enough money to do something about it. Furthermore, processed foods are everywhere, with happy, tempting graphics and phony health claims on practically every item, distracting from what's genuinely within. In contrast, real food is almost buried on the store's sides. As previously stated, processed foods have taken over production, leading to the overwhelming issue of restricted availability of natural foods.  in Food Inc, “The average grocery store has 47,000 products which make it look like there is a large variety of choice – but it is an illusion – there are only a few major companies (like Monsanto, Tyson, and Perdue for example) and a few major crops involved” (Food Inc, 1:32). With the low and expensive availability of natural foods, it is difficult not to feed into the industry, and once people do, it is even more difficult to leave as these processed foods are laced with chemicals designed to mimic highly addictive symptoms as any other drug would, thereby making it more difficult to achieve optimal health. The industrial food system thrives on this deception because, unlike farms that practice diversity, the only way industrial corporations can maintain profit is by deceiving their consumers; if the truth about what their food consists of was revealed, profits would be compromised. We live in a time where profit comes before all else, where those in power feel the need to rely on the quickest way to achieve a goal, regardless of how many people it may kill. Therefore, the only way we can save our nation is by acknowledging that we can maintain efficiency without relying on manipulation, and this is through the practice of complexity.

     The source of our ignorance, which continues to exploit all life, stems from a place of normalization of the thought that we exist above all, and it is with this entitlement that we shall lead one other to our destruction unless we eventually admit how out of touch with reality we genuinely are. We have become so reliant on others to tell us what to believe, eat, and do, whether it's from the internet, the food industry, or the government, that we have limited ourselves from discovering the truth on our own, developing a common ignorance that allows vital animals like sharks, on which we rely for survival, to be slaughtered mercilessly at an unreasonably high rate for something as trivial as soup. Industrial systems such as the Shark fin industry feed off of this ignorance. As Pollan states in Omnivore's Dilemma, “Our food system depends on consumers not knowing much about it beyond the price disclosed by the checkout scanner. Cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing”(Pollan, 245). When we continue to allow others to manipulate our beliefs, such as when the movie Jaws was released, people decided to label all sharks as "vicious" animals, regardless of how inaccurately the media portrayed them, and to kill them without remorse, as they were no longer viewed as living beings, but as savages. The power humans act as if they have over all other life will only lead to their tragically ironic demise because, despite being taught by the media that nature only exists "out there," the way we treat our surroundings always comes back to affect us, proving how intertwined we truly are with nature. The American food industry mimics the way of entitlement, but on a much larger scale, just as the Shark fin industry led to the deterioration of our environment and most vital resources by feeding us toxic sharks, putting it in foods we are unaware of, and manipulating us into contributing to this ignorance. Enormous quantities of greenhouse gasses are emitted by industrial agriculture, causing deforestation and an increase in water and air pollution, contaminating many vital water sources and further affecting the planet's climate. Those in authority continue to rely on an unstable system, normalizing that they and everyone involved in the industry are ruining the earth on which they reside. Farms that fail to practice complexity refuse to work with nature and would instead work against it.

In contrast, farms like Polyface rely on symbiosis, nurturing the environment in exchange for our support; the industrial system drives us to extinction. For instance, as Pollan states in Yale Environment, “The antibiotics these animals consume with their corn at this very moment are selecting, in their gut and wherever else in the environment they end up, for new strains of resistant bacteria that will someday infect us and withstand the drugs we depend on to treat that infection”(Hitt, 2013), illustrating that whenever we try against nature, we will always fail. Thus, the only way to efficiently produce food without contributing to the demise of our planet is to recognize that we are only a small part of the larger circle of nature, meaning that if we continue to work against it, refusing the practice of complexity ignorantly, we will eventually destroy everything we need to survive. 

In the United States, profit is of the utmost significance; as a result, there appears to be little room for reform in an already lucrative business, regardless of the number of people injured by this rule. 

     And it is with this ignorance of such a robust enterprise that we are manipulated into a system that is designed for us to fail and submit to, possessing the power to place us all in a common state of ignorance that allows such harsh practices to be accepted as usual. Without a change in the incorporation of complexity practice, we will continue to lead each other to our own and the planet's demise.

Works Cited 

Pollan, Michael. Second Nature: A Gardener's Education. Grove Press. 

UCtelevision. (2008, May 16). In defense of food with Michael Pollan. YouTube. Retrieved February 13, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBr_i1mH_08

Christina, et al. “The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan.” Ardent Reader, 6 Sept. 2018, ardentreader.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/the-omnivores-dilemma/.

“Food Inc.” Food Inc Watch Online Full Movie - Documentary Mania, Documentary Mania, 2009, www.documentarymania.com/player.php?title=Food+Inc . Accessed 12 Feb. 2022.

USA TODAY, director. Polyface Farm. YouTube, YouTube, 21 Apr. 2009, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxTfQpv8xGA .Accessed 12 Feb. 2022. 

Stewart, Rob, director. Sharkwater. Sharkwater Extinction, 23 Mar. 2007, Accessed 12 Feb. 2022. 

Jack Hitt • May 28, et al. “Michael Pollan on the Links between Biodiversity and Health.” Yale E360, e360.yale.edu/f