People of the Corn

The people of the corn are not the folks in Chiapas, Mexico, who have been known to call themselves that. Or, I should say not just them. Who else? The people of the USA. Maybe much more so than the people in Mexico.

I learned this from listening to Michael Pollan, author of the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, who was on NPR’s Science Friday two days ago. His book explores the origins of the food that we eat every day, explaining the changes that have occurred in agriculture that moved us away from the traditional model of a farm (that many of us still have in our heads) to the current model: No animals, no pastures, no variety. Just a few specific crops, like corn. Corn grown for all sorts of reasons, and very few of them for the actual corn itself as a food. Instead, it goes into nearly everything that we eat (and more) in huge quantities. The vast majority of the food that we eat has corn at its base in some way or another. Either directly, such as in the sweeteners added to nearly every procesed food, or indirectly – corn is used as feed for producing the animals that we get meat, milk, etc, from. You can use a mass spectrometer to trace the corn in the bodies of the US population, and see that an unusually high amount of the carbon that comes from corn. How so? Corn contains an unusually high proportion of carbon 13, and so it is easy to tag the corn trail in this way. The typical person from the USA is pretty much made of corn. The other thing that is interesting -and shocking if you’ve not heard it before- is the degree to which the other picture we have from our childhood about our food supply is wrong – the energy cycle is awry. We drew pictures in our childhood of food cycles where the sun was king. All the energy came from the sun, and then found its way to us through various routes along the food chains. Not so anymore. We use fossil fuels a huge amount in our food production too, via the fertilizers, etc, that we extract directly from petroleum and pump it into the corn, etc, which then finds its way into so much of our food. As much as 20% of the fossil fuel consumed in the USA is used this way! There’s a couple of barrels of oil in tht plate of food you’ll eat next.

Why is this interesting? Well, it is worrisome for a number of reasons, as outlined by the author. On general grounds, it seems very unwise for such a huge population of of omnivores to have such a narrow focus in our food supply. In fact, things have got to the stage where it is possible to gorge yourself (as people do) on a large amount of food and still suffer from a range of nutrient deficiencies in the USA. There are many cases, and the number is growing. The other question is whether this is at all a stable situation? Should we rely so heavily on one source?

Other vital concerns include the effects on food distribution, local economies, and other important things, including flavour. This is also picked up nicely in the discussion later in the program with Brian Halweil and Jennifer L. Wilkins. Where does your food actually come from? Why is it that on average it comes from about 1500 miles away when it it perfectly capable of being grown within a few miles of your home? At some point, because of (among other things) the corn-centred system described above, and the remarkable ability to move all sorts of foods around on trucks, trains, etc. (at great energy cost, of course), the incentives for a primarily local produce supply melted away in most states. This leaves us with the odd situation of (for example) Iowa being the “breadbasket” of the USA while at the same time having Iowa residents not being able to get a great deal of variety of locally produced food – including corn! The corn’s mostly not for eating. It goes off to be processed. Again, it is depressing to learn how much energy (in fossil fuels) is used to move food around in a way that just seems unnessary.

Let’s not forget, of course…. all of this results in food that just tastes pretty dreadful compared to how it could actually taste.

I recommend listening to the program. It is very interesting, informative, and does have some discussion of how we might begin to fix some of this situation.

Well, it is Sunday morning, and time for my weekly visit to the Hollywood Farmer’s Market. Yes, I know that’s annoying to some of you, because you might not have one nearby, but I’m sorry- What am I to do? Ignore this wonderful resource? The movement is growing. There’s a reasonable chance that there is a good source of local produce near you if you look for it. If not now, perhaps soon. This is because there are new sources of distribution popping up. For example, (I’m sure there are others) Ysanne Spevack (who I met in the Hollywood Farmer’s Market last spring -long story) the editor of a large online organic food magazine (see here) has recently started an online organic food shop “In food we trust” in the UK, to distribute certain food products to your door. I hope that it, and other ideas like this, will grow into a large and accessible distribution, ultimately leading to people demanding more of that sort of food be produced locally. The result is that -I hope- people take back control of their food. Let’s support the efforts that are out there now.

-cvj