Our Inevitable Support of a Vile Corn Industry

In reading Michael Pollan’s Omnivores Dilemma, chapters 1, 2, and 3, I am repulsed by our country's situation concerning the extreme connection of all our food to a corrupt corn industry.  Pollan describes the immense diversity within a supermarket.  From produce of all kinds, to dozens of meats, to the endless shelves of unidentifiable products that at one point were manufactured using plants, animals, and/or fungi.  Just before the incredible diversity, though, there seems to be quite a lot of corn. Livestock are fed corn, and then land on our plates as meat.  All kinds of sweet snacks and drinks are full of high fructose corn syrup, clearly derived from corn.   And as for the countless additives listed at the end of nutrition labels, many are some how created using corn.  Pollan also explains that even the items that aren’t food contain corn, from cosmetics to cleaners to the building itself.  In attempt to pursue the path that our food takes from farm to dinner plate, Pollan decides it is necessary to follow corn.  Landing in Greene Country, Iowa, on George Naylor’s farm, Pollan learns the truth behind corn.  Corn, as it turns out, has taken over every inch of spare land in Iowa.  Farmers are able to overuse the land by adding synthesized nitrogen and fertilizers, creating many environmental and health problems.  The cheap cost of corn has created great hardship for thousands of farmers as each harvest costs more to produce than it is worth on the market.  Held back by government policies and inability to sell any other crops, farmers are forced to continue to sell more and more corn, increasing yield as much as possible as they continue to drive the price down with their high supply.  As this cycle continues, the corn, as Pollan describes, is like a river of commodity, rapidly flowing to companies for creation into various products.

In my opinion, there is a real problem on our hands.  I’m actually quite disgusted by the fact that our “diverse” world of food all stems from corn, and even more disgusted by the conditions in which corn farmers are living.  It is incredibly unfair that these farmers are stuck in an inescapable debt, simply so we can have our thousands of cheap products.  The fact that the government is doing nothing to fix the situation is ridiculous.  It makes no sense for the government to subsidize farmers, yet still not even pay them back for the cost of producing the corn.  There is clearly a huge problem here, and the companies just continue to thrive at these farmers’ expense.  It sounds fairly impossible these days to even escape from supporting this process.  Even our basics are contributing to the problem, milk, meat and eggs come from animals fed corn, and even other products like magazines and trash bags contain corn.  It is an inescapable fact that everyday we are supporting this repulsive industry, yet almost no one even knows of the great issues they are buying into.

What do you think we could do to try and stop this seemingly impenetrable cycle?

Why are we all so unaware of the bad situations at hand in our world, even when we are contributing to the problem?

Besides this being a moral issue, do you think there may be a nutritional or health issue with the fact that almost all our food stems from corn?

[Drawing], Retrieved Feb 1, 2011, from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/56739839@N00/391695819/