Corn is everywhere, it’s undeniable. Most American cows are corn-fed (even though their grass-digesting stomachs suffer greatly when fed with grain), high fructose corn syrup seems to taint every processed food and drink, and many American rural areas are covered with acre upon acre of corn fields. It’s a romantic vision, those beautiful cornstalks with their pretty tassels sprinkling pollen in the breeze.
Before industrial agriculture, corn was grown with companion plants that would help nourish the soil, and crops were rotated so living soil could regenerate itself, but in commercial monocrop agriculture those days are no more.
Corn is very nitrogen-hungry and depletes the soil and when grown industrially, requiring more fertilizers and pesticides than any other food crop. These industrial chemicals are made from oil and natural gas, thereby locking us deeper into oil dependence. And all those agricultural byproducts pollute the local air and water.
Plus, keep in mind that most industrially grown corn in the United States comes from genetically modified strains, and new risks from GM foods are always being discovered.
So, if corn is used to feed cows, sweeten foods, and even provide ethanol for fuel, what does that say about the state of agricultural land in this country? Are we walking right into a landscape of GM monocrops laden with poisonous byproducts? That’s what it looks like, and trust me, it’s not in our best interest.
Image: Kables