If you take all the products in the supermarket and sum their collective weight, 25% of that weight is derived from corn. At least, that’s the statistic reported by Michael Pollan in The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Not hard to believe when you look at the ingredients list of all the processed foods.
- Your sodas are corn.
- Your cereals are corn.
- Your pancake syrup is corn.
- Your oatmeal is corn.
- Your yogurt is corn.
- Your beef is corn.
…and so on, ad nauseum.
Everyone knows the saying, “You are what you eat.” So by this logic, people these days are largely derived from corn. But is that so bad? I mean, isn’t corn healthy? We have in our mind endless cornfields in the Midwest growing on rich, black soils, but that’s not the modern situation.
The lifecycle of corn these days begins in an oil field. Petroleum is refined to create synthetic fertilizers that provide just enough nutrient content (NPK) to make damaged topsoils viable for growth. Farmers can skip crop rotation knowing that synthetic fertilizers will make the land produce corn for yet another year. The cost of this process is damage to the soil itself, toxic fertilizers draining into the waterways, and low nutrient content in the food itself.
Of course, describing this type of genetically modified corn food is a bit of a misnomer. Most of the “grain” corn grown in mass quantities is actually unfit for human consumption without additional processing. It is used in:
- CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) - also known as feedlots!
- Processed foods - Also known as everything in the supermarket.
- Ethanol - Oil begets oil! David Pimentel, a professor at my fine alma mater, published this paper arguing that production of ethanol nets a -29% energy balance.
This is the world our government and industrial farming practices have created with cheap corn. If you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.
Suppose you avoid all the processed foods in the supermarket and begin to feel good about yourself. Maybe you buy extra produce and imagine that you’re getting a quality product. Labeling produce “conventional” is an interesting euphemism to describe produce grown with synthetic, petroleum derived fertilizers and pesticides in nutrient-starved soil. It might be more appropriate to name it “chemical” produce.
Organic food, by comparison, is portrayed as the saintly opposite of the convential produce. These foods are a big improvement because pesticides and synthetic fertilizers are not used, but are still not ideal. Industrial distribution processes dictate that even organic foods are delivered from places like New Zealand, California, and even Argentina. The nutritional and taste qualities of perishables generally do not benefit from being hauled halfway around the globe.
What’s the answer to all this madness? How do people obtain sane foods that won’t hurt their families, the environment, and farmers? The answer is simply to go local. Reduce the length of your food chain to the point where you know exactly where the food came from. Buy from local farmer’s markets, CSAs, or even grow it in your own garden. Ask the farmers about their growing practices. Enjoy seeing and eating foods that celebrate real biodiversity. The food you can get locally is literally not the same thing you can get through industrial food chains.
Opt out of the industrial system. It sucks for you and your family.