corn people

My first real awareness to a 'corn diet' was from reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan.  It was one of the unexpected realities that I walked away from while reading it... especially in contrast to an Asian cultural background as I read it while Ming and I were in Taiwan visiting family.  It highlighted a fact that if any Americans are not aware of now, they soon will be.  I have not seen the movie 'King Corn,' but it looks like it can offer the same publicity as 'Super-Size Me' did for previously available books such as 'Fast Food Nation.'  It it a testimony to the fact that Americans are made up of 2/3 corn.

So what in the hell is so bad about corn?  It helped the first American colonials to survive after being shown how to grow it by the Native Americans.  They ate it at the first Thanksgiving, right?  Corn tastes good and is more American than apple pie.  We are truly a 'corn-bread nation.'

Part of the highlighted problem is that we have based our diet around one single plant... just like our society is dependent on one single fossil fuel.  Instead of becoming more diverse in our system of nourishment, we have tunneled ourselves into one big ole corn hole.  We use corn to feed the livestock that supplies us with meat everyday... the big 3 American proteins beef, poultry, and pork... all fed on corn.  Cows cannot even sufficiently digest corn, but they are corn-bred because we have mountains of corn piled up.  Corn is further processed into the basic ingredients that all processed packaged items and fast food menus are made of.  Colas and sodas commonly nick-named sugar water are in actuality corn water.  HFCS makes its way onto almost every label on every package on our shelves and coolers.

So if cows ate grass, wouldn't we all be made of grass?  Not exactly.  Aside from being present in everything we eat, corn molecular structure is based on a 4 carbon molecule instead of the more common 3 carbon molecule.  This is a corn adaptation that allows the plant to photosynthesize by maximizing its carbon dioxide intake while minimizing its water loss due to evaporation.  Corn doesn't pick and choose carbon like most plants and intake a sizeable amount of not-so-popular carbon 13 isotopes.  Once cows eat corn they contain carbon 13 isotopes, then we eat the beef and contain carbon 13 isotopes.  When corn is processed into many of the disguises that exist on the ingredient labels of packaged foods, those foods contain carbon 13 isotopes that we in turn ingest as well.  We are carbon based life forms so this is a very important consideration in our diets.  Eons after we die, if someone digs up our remains and puts us under an electron microscope, they will see carbon 13 isotopes (ever heard of carbon dating?).  This isotope is part of the permanent fingerprint of corn.  We have more corn in our bodies than the people of Mexico who have integrated corn into almost every meal of their daily diets!

It's all a real shame too.  I love corn in its pure undisguised form.  I love corn cobs in my seafood boils.  I love corn tortillas and maque choux.  I love popcorn.  I love grilled corn with butter.  I even love grits and polenta.  It's a real shame... like a relationship gone sour by an overly dominating partner.  Like Edna Lewis said about grits in response to the many non-traditional grit dishes chefs were playing with years ago... "people should just leave grits alone."  We should all just leave corn alone too.

Comments

[sygyzy]

Excellent post with lots of good facts. Surprised you didn't get into the farm subsidies and how much the government and farmers work together to create this reliance on the crop.

[chadzilla]

Federal subsidies are just part of it. This is the subject for an entire book. Although there will be some sensationalism in the King Corn movie, I'm sure a lot of great points will be touched upon. I am definitely not an authority on this subject, and not informed enough to elaborate on it. I only have the concern that every American should have about our nation's diet.

[Maria Jimena]

Thanks for show the other side of food industry and cultural preferences.

[Bruce F]

King Corn does a good job of explaining the mess we're in without sounding too preachy.

The movie reminded me that the hybrid of corn grow by agribusiness can't be eaten by humans unless it's first processed. Not so good for the cows, either.

http://www.campusprogress.org/filmtv/2120/taking-on-king-corn

Pollan's new book, In Defense of Food, is good too.

http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-Manifesto/dp/1594201455

[Capt. Charlie]

The hybrid variety of corn grown by agribusiness is not the same wholesome product that came out of Papere's garden. It's this strange commodity used as a medium to make everything from food film, fuel and twinkies to rootbeer. The monculture in which it and it's economic cousin the soy bean are propogated is rough on the topsoil too.