The trouble with corn, or at least the industrial feedstock variety grown in North America, Roberts explains, is “it’s an extremely low-nutrient food, just an energy provider, which is used in an agricultural system that does not value human, animal, or environmental health as one of its outcomes.”
Citing the corn-fed, fatty meat, and HFCS-based soda-pop obesity epidemic, Stephen Macko asks, “We are overwhelmingly corn, but what price have we paid?”
Corn is also in everything. No, really, everything. Sue is allergic to corn so we check labels carefully. Corn, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maltodextrin,, and many other additives are made from corn. It is sometimes difficult to find food it is not in, cold pills too.
“Hair functions as a nuanced physical record of diet over time, much like a tape recording,” he explains. His collection includes locks from George Washington, Edgar Allan Poe, Diane Sawyer, and his favourite, Oetzi the Iceman. Through a complex process involving burning the hair to measure the isotopes released, his testing finds on average, about half the carbon in an average North American is derived from corn.
One third of corn is grown for ethanol. However it looks like that party is about over given that corn ethanol is basically low grade, expensive, and energy hungry to create. This assumes that the $5 billion a year in corn subsidies is ended, that is. Basically it’s a low-grade, not particularly healthy food grown in huge quantities by agri-business. And they just aren’t real concerned with our health.
Corporate power nom nom nom
Yeah, but have you ever tried eating “popped amaranth”? Yeck.