We are corn
Has anyone seen King Corn, the little independent documentary that traces a couple of best friends who forego getting jobs after college graduation for an adventure into solving a mystery of why we are corn? We saw it last night on PBS. (Handy to have that little indie film company go along with ya).
In 2006, these dudes moved to Iowa to learn where our food comes from. They rented an acre of land, planted genetically altered corn with stalks that will grow close together and resist even the most harshest poisonous herbicides. And signed up for government subsidy. They attempted to trace their bumper crop into the food chain and found that about a third of it would go to export or to make ethanol, a lot of it would go to feed animals and a lot of it would go to make high fructose corn syrup that is present in virtually every box and jar on the shelves of the grocery store. (I have found that you have to be totally on the ball as a label scanner to avoid it. But sometimes you get tricked. I bought some barbecue sauce the other day from a little lady selling it for her church. She said it was her recipe, and they cooked it. Stan had bought it before and raved about it so I was so excited to get some. I read the label when we got home. It's in there. How does that happen? Can you buy high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient?).
The documentary was fascinating and frightening. I knew it would be. One of the premises the guys stated for this journey is that some say this (our) generation will be the first to have a SHORTER lifespan than the previous generation. Why? Corn has a lot to do with it.
They showed us some cattle feed lots with cows packed like sardines gorging themselves on grain. They interviewed scientists who told us how awful corn diets are for cattle. They showed us how the freak-of-nature-resilient-and-horrible-tasting corn makes it's way into every part of a Happy Meal. Corn fed beef, syrup in the bun and the pop, the corn oil fries are cooked in, and probably the napkins too! Oh, don't forget the ketchup.
We are corn. It's in our hair.
In Iowa, the old homesteads are gone. Replaced by corporate farms that plant miles (literally) of rows of corn. More yield and time saving when you don't have to turn those behemoth tractors! The local farmers who are still around and playing the game don't much like it, but what to do?
Our food scares me. For my family and for all of us. Stan told me he heard (on NPR) a story about how Asian countries are backing off of rice production because of costs, and a lot of that rice goes to feed the hungry in places like Africa. (How Africa came to depend on food from another continent is another thought thread entirely).
Another reason to move to our own little farm. I am encouraged that we, the people, do seem to be getting it, and trying to make changes. We belong to an Oklahoma Food coop, where we buy eggs, grass-fed beef, chicken and buffalo, awesome cheese, and vegetables from farmers all over the state.
Even in our neighborhood, I see we are going to offer a little farmer's market on the first Saturday of each month.
I've been rereading Jordin Rubin's books again, The Maker's Diet and Rx for Healthy Living. Good stuff and scary. Such a complete turnaround to the way we eat and think and buy and cook. We still eat too much at McDs and rely on convenience food more than we should .. my children's (and my) tastes love it all. It's hard to eat healthy. And expensive. And takes planning. I'm not a planner.
But we try.
Posted in: on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at at 8:03 AM
