That’s just one of the great lines featured in the documentary King Corn. Yes, I have a one-track mind. And it’s set on learning as much as I can about our food system, and what’s wrong with it, so I can influence people to smarten up and think before they eat. Not only for the planet and the animals that inhabit it, but for their own health as well!
The documentary was created by two local guys (inspired by Michael Pollan’s work) who decided to go out to Iowa and grow an acre of corn. During this process, they learned about how farming in the Midwest has drastically changed in the past generation and where the corn grown out there ends up.
Here’s the super-abbreviated answer: a small part of the corn becomes ethanol. A large part is used to quickly make feedlot cows fat. More on that in a second. A larger part is processed into high fructose corn syrup, which can be found in almost every processed food we eat, especially soda. In a nutshell (or should I say corn cob?), corn is America’s crop, and it has taken over. It’s all about the bottom line instead of our health and well being.
Back to the cows. You’re probably wondering, why do I care what cows eat? Cows are made to eat grasses, which is why they have a rumen (specifically there to digest plants, such as grass). Grain isn’t part of their diet. Feedlot cows are fed a diet that’s primarily corn. Because corn is high in starch, is causes their stomachs to become more acidic, which causes health problems for the cattle. To paraphrase someone from the film, feedlot farmers are killing the cows by feeding them so much corn, so it’s a good thing they get slaughtered young since they’d die anyway. How does that affect us? First, corn-fed beef is much higher in saturated fat than grass-fed beef. This is due to the food they eat and the limited space the cows have to move. Meaning they don’t get exercise, while at the same time stuffing their faces with starch. Second, these feedlot cows are given antibiotics to help them fight the stomach disease–acidosis–caused by the corn diet. This is one reason that disease has become so prolific – due to all these antibiotics we unknowingly ingest, the viruses become resistant to antibiotics. Third, feedlots create TONS of pollution that threatens public health.
So why so much corn? (And yes, I’ve blogged about this before.) The government makes it so that growing many acres of corn is more profitable for farmers than growing any other crop. That’s why the “family farms” of yesteryear have become fields of corn as far as the eye can see. It’s also why high fructose corn syrup has become the number one sweetener. For more on this and how the corn subsidy came about, click here. I highly recommend you read this article.
You should watch King Corn, if not to learn a little more about what you’re actually eating, then at least to see a couple of Bostonians “grow” corn, eat it, and “sell” it. (And find out why I put grow and sell in quotes.)
Guess it’s a good thing I don’t eat much meat anymore and no processed foods. It’s scary what’s going on in and with the food industry these days.
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Between your Celiac’s and this, what DO you eat?! But I guess the whole gluten allergy forces you to really review processed foods.
We all still love Mexican, which is corn everything, but that’s okay. It’s the hidden corn that sucks.
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Vegetables. Lots and lots of vegetables. Rice. Potatoes. Tofu. Eggs. Yes, knowing that I can’t eat most processed foods means I’ve cut almost 100% of them out of my diet. Which is good for me, but sometimes I really want that box of mac n’ cheese!
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[…] is allowing the amount of ethanol used in gasoline to go from 10% to 15%. Not sure if you read my blog post about corn, but I mentioned the fact that part of the industrially-farmed corn is used to make […]
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[…] other books like Eating Animals and The Omnivore’s Dilemma and watching documentaries like King Corn and More Than Honey. When I wasn’t in a blinding rage, I started blogging about and doing […]
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