Final answer:
Pollan calls hybrid corn greedy because it rapidly depletes soil nutrients due to the practice of monoculture, demands extensive use of fertilizers, and contributes to soil health issues such as pesticide resistance and susceptibility to diseases like southern leaf blight.
Step-by-step explanation:
Michael Pollan refers to hybrid corn as 'greedy' primarily because it depletes the soil nutrients rapidly due to monoculture, which is the practice of growing the same crop repeatedly. The extensive cultivation of corn, especially in its hybrid forms, demands a significant amount of nutrients from the soil, leading to nutrient-poor soils. These soils require substantial amounts of fertilizer to maintain fertility, further contributing to this perception of greediness. Additionally, hybrid corn can lead to agricultural issues such as pesticide resistance, increased salts in the soil from fertilizer use, and potential for disease like southern leaf blight due to crop uniformity.
Furthermore, corn relies heavily on ecosystem services provided by soil biodiversity, which maintain nutrient cycles and soil structure necessary for plant growth. These beneficial factors become strained under intensive corn production systems. The depiction of corn as 'greedy' might also refer to its heavy reliance on such ecosystem services while contributing to their depletion by requiring high inputs and causing a negative impact on soil health over time.