32 Taking Stock
in the bank. Producers have chosen varieties that are easy to grow
yet survive processing and packaging; their inclusion is a minor cost
of production. Some are proprietary, some are mixed, some a single
strain, yet all become part of carefully worded and unprovable prom-
ises. In 200 , the European Union instructed companies to provide the
evidence behind their claims. Its scientific advisory group subsequently
reviewed and rejected all of them.
Whether or not such claims are true, total milk production in the
United States over a decade went up by 6 percent, while the number
of milk cows grew by only 2 percent.^ The deviation points to another
key feature of the modern food system. Each year, the average cow
is expected to be more productive or else is cut from the herd. On
paper, a Holstein (black and white) cow can live twenty years before
succumbing to old age. In practice, 35 to 0 percent of typical modern
dairy herds turn over each year as cows die or are culled and sent to
slaughter. In a system plagued by excess production, this is survival
of the fittest. Cows compete with each other while replacements are
groomed to take their place when one falters. Under the grand food
bargain, dairy farms survive by treating cows as machines and by
scrutinizing costs—a process not dissimilar to growing bananas.
Even bread, the “staff of life,” has been stripped down and dressed
up to move more loaves. Wheat flour starts from seeds, whose role
is to propagate the next generation of life. The seed’s outer shell is
nutrient-rich layers of bran loaded with fiber. Inside, the embryo or
“germ” is encased by tissue called the “endosperm” that nourishes
new life with proteins and starches until photosynthesis kicks in.
Our ancestors ate all of the seed. Their bodies thrived on it. Our
DNA traces back to them.
An early breakthrough of the modern food system was new grain-
milling technology that removed the bran and germ but kept the endo-
sperm. Calories went up (flour was more concentrated), nutrients went
down, fiber disappeared, and a bleaching agent was added. In return,
shelf life increased and flour boasted a consistent white appearance that
masked impurities and a slightly yellowish tint. But then deficiency