The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan Part I: Corn, corn, and more corn

I'm going to start off by referencing The Omnivore's Dilemma (OD). It's due back to the library next week and I've already checked it out twice in a row, so that means I'll actually have to return it this time. I've learned so much from this book! Michael Pollan (MP) is a thorough man. After flying through Skinny Bitch like it was the latest issue of a magazine, reading OD is like picking up a text book. You need to be ready to learn and absorb. MP wants to make sure you have every detail about every topic he mentions. His opening lines are, "What should we have for dinner? This book is a long and fairly involved answer to this seemingly simple question." It's true! And I really doubt that any person with half an interest in sustainable living would read this book because it is so detailed. So this is my attempt at pointing out the details that shouldn't be missed. (I'm getting all of this info from the first 100 pages of OD and I'll try my best to quote it as accurately as possible.)

The whole book is tracking the human food chains from plant to dinner table to show you where your food comes from. It starts with the industrial food chain and that's where I'm at in the book. (He'll go on to talk about organic and hunter-gatherer later in the book.) The industrial food chain is the biggest and the longest of the chains.

The industrial chain starts with corn. Are you ready to learn a whole lot about corn?? Honestly, I thought I knew corn. I grew up in rural Wisconsin and saw a lot of corn. I knew nothing. Corn is actually a tropical grass. (What??? Since when?) It's official, scientific name is Zea mays. Corn sex is an amazing thing. There is corn that people eat and corn that animals eat--two different crops. I apparently didn't even know the basics.

Corn is so important to the industrial food chain because it literally becomes the entire chain. On factory farms (and probably lots of smaller scale farms too), corn is fed to the cow, chicken, pig, turkey, lamb, any many fish! And from those animals we get meat, eggs, dairy products, etc. MP uses the chicken nugget as an example. We already know how the chicken meat is related to corn, but modified corn starch holds the nugget together. The batter is made of corn flour. And then we deep fry it in corn oil. Hmmm, chicken nuggest or corn nugget? You decide.

Leave the meat behind and discover corn in our fabulous, processed food. Every soda on the shelf (except the new "throwback" Pepsi that uses real sugar) has high fructose CORN syrup. I was disgusted to find HFCS in my 100% whole wheat bread. I switched brands. I was also sad to discover my good friend Bud Light is corn-laden too. The alcohol is fermented from glucose that is refined from corn. MP lists the many other ingredients that are just complicated names for corn, but the point of it all is to tell you that 1/4 of the products in the grocery store contain corn. I found that fascinating! It's just one tropical grass that has its molecules rearranged to become a powerful revenue producer.

Corn is the preferred crop because it is very efficient. During photosynthesis, it creates compounds with four carbon atoms (instead of three like most plants). This is what makes it so spectacular. Most other plants need an equal amounts of water and air to grow. Corn only uses 3% from the ground and 97% from the air, so it can survive in almost any environment. Even though it is quite superior to most plants, corn needs humans. It cannot reproduce itself (but it can self-fertilize and pollinate.) Because the seeds are tucked inside the husk, it needs the husk removed, the seeds separated, and planted. It can do the rest, but it would disappear from the planet if no one planted it.

I was really shocked to discover how detailed corn sex is! I think you might be intrigued too! The female-looking tassels at the top of the plant are the male organs and the male-looking cob is the female part. Each kernel is pollinated separately. And to get the pollen grains into the husk, the kernels put out their "silk." The silk emerges the same day that the tassels release the pollen. I think that is amazing in itself. Each silk with catch one grain of pollen. The pollen will then split into twins. One twin will tunnel his way down the center of the silk until it reaches the egg. Then the other twin will slide its way down the tunnel to fuse with the egg. The first twin then creates the endosperm. Each kernel does this on every ear of corn!

This is where we get a little sleazy. Since our corn can give us an endless supply of seeds and then pollinate itself, it doesn't leave much room for seed suppliers to make a profit. The suppliers figured out how to "patent" the corn by inbreeding it. The first crop has great yields, but the following years produce less and less corn per bushel. The farmers then have to re-buy the seeds to get the same great yields. How sad...we even have inbred corn just so someone can make some cash.

I found this next fact hard to believe. I don't personally know a farmer to ask, but I'm going to find one. Until then I'll take MP's word for it. We produce so much corn that it isn't worth very much money to the farmers. MP says that the corn is so underpriced that a bushel of corn is priced $1 less than the cost to grow it. So farmers try to grow more corn to make up the difference, which drives down the price even more. The government subsidizes the corn to keep farmers in business. Could that really be true? Well, it is because I Googled it and Google is the absolute truth :) http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/farmbill2008?navid=FARMBILL2008 The government subsidizes $0.28 per bushel of corn (and other crops too.) The government spends up to $5 billion a year subsidizing just corn.

Fast facts about corn:

3 out of 5 kernels ends up on a factory farm

Each acre can produce 10,000 pounds of corn

It takes 50 gallons of oil to grow one acre of corn

America has 81.6 million acres of corn planted (do the math...lots of oil)

America is responsible for half of the world's production of corn

Corn is 25% of all crops planted in America.

Shelled cobs were used back in the day as a form of TP, hence the term "corn hole." Hehe.

I had to end on a light note! But I'm beginning to look at corn fields a little differently now.

My next post will be about what happens to that corn once it arrives at the factory farms. I'm sure you can barely handle the anticipation :)