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Attack of the killer corn (my soap box rant is at the bottom as I couldn't get the @#$ font to downsize)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Attack of the killer corn Posted by Tom Philpott at 11:40 AM on 22 Feb 2006 While researching my Poverty & the Environment piece on the food system, I had occasion to look closely at the corn harvest, source of so much of our cheap food. As bad as the annual flood of cheap corn is for our health -- nutritionally worthless high-fructose corn syrup, cheap feed for confined animals pumped full of antibiotics and hormones -- it may be even worse for the environment. Bolstered by government subsidies that have averaged about $4 billion annually since 1995, U.S. production accounts for nearly 40 percent of the world's corn output. Every year, the USDA reports, corn farmers dump more than 10 billion pounds of nitrogen fertilizer onto their fields -- a heavier dose than for any other crop by a factor of nearly three. (Source: Download table 2 from this USDA/Economic Research page.) This annual cascade of "artificial fertility" (as the farmer and activist Jason McKenney calls it) parches soil of nitrogen-fixing bacteria. It crushes biodiversity and makes soils reliant on more fertilizer. According to McKenney, less than a fifth of that nitrogen makes it into corn plants. The rest leeches into groundwater, feeding algae blooms that smother water-borne life from the northern reaches of the Mississippi River clear down to the Gulf of Mexico, where a dead zone about the size of New Jersey emerges each year, blotting out what was once a robust source of food and jobs, to say nothing of an important marine habitat. As Richard Manning puts it in the winter 2004 American Scholar (unavailable online): Already, the Dead Zone has seriously damaged what was once a productive fishery, meaning that a high-quality source of low-cost protein is being sacrificed so that a source of low-quality, high-input subsidized protein can blanket the Upper Midwest. In a sense, by ending up in the Gulf, that fertilizer is coming home: nitrogen-based fertilizer derives from natural gas. What do we get for this taxpayer-funded, soil-and-marine-life destroying harvest? For one thing, we get way too much corn. In 2004, U.S. farmers produced a mind-numbing 11.8 billion bushels of corn (a bushel equals 56 pounds). Even given such dubious government-generated uses as ethanol and high-fructose corn syrup, even with the NAFTA-sanctioned dumping of cheap U.S. corn on the Mexican market, they only managed to sell 10.8 billion bushels. For this feat of overproduction, the government paid them $4.5 billion. Let's be clear here. The great bulk of farms are being left off of this gravy train. Environmental Working Group reckons that in 2004, 20% of subsidized corn farms received 80% of that $4 billion payout. A few big farms are grabbing most of the cheese. The real beneficiaries of this twisted system aren't most corn growers; it's the buyers, processing giants like Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill. That one-billion-bushel surplus of corn in 2004 exerted enormous downward pressure on corn prices. In 2004, a bushel -- 56 pounds -- of corn brought in $1.95 to the farmer. That's about 3 cents a pound. At that rate, the only way a farm can make any money at all is to scale up as much as possible and then hope for a government check. No wonder mid-sized farms are rapidly going extinct. Archer Daniels Midland makes a killing off of our cheap-food system; a few mega-farms in the Midwest do OK as well. But for most people, and for the environment, what we get is a government-underwritten disaster. I can't imagine a better place for greens, social-justice activists, and real-food enthusiasts to unite for change. I got this today and decided to share it with a few of you. It makes me sad as a gardener and someone who takes stewarding the land seriously. I mean, I stand here helpless with my hands outstretched wondering how these governmental idiots can allow our HOME and LAND and water and such to be so trashed all in the name of money. I have NEVER seen so many fat ass people in my short life, and I KNOW it's because the food industries are using more corn products in our food. High frutose corn syrup for sweeteners, making the children (and adults) crave sweet more, the filler foods are cheaper, the masses of people is almost sickening if it weren't so frightening. I see women and men who look like white Sumo wrestlers walking thru Walmart's and such. sigh........sorry........ spring has grabbed me by the hair and I'm about to write about my gardens. I take Grist! e-magazine and it's highly informative..........and depressive. I see this and I wonder what my gardening friends across the pond must think of us as people to allow such travesty and horror to continue. And don't get me started about Katrina. Have no doubt that I do not live with my head in the clay soil, I am very aware of the situations around me and the world, but sometimes it's just overwhelming. I apologize for the opinion of the above as well as my mini-rant about the appearances of the people around me. All along I've been telling people that it's in the freaking food for crying out loud............why else would a woman who is well past the pause that heats and torments (menopause, that is) would ovulate after eating a stripped down McD's hamburger with cheesy material with only pickles and mustard on the rare occaison that I find I have to get something to eat on the fly. (the fish and chips would be better were it not for what they probably fry the fish and chips in, I hope it's soy oil, I'd prefer peanut or canola, but that's just me, and I won't eat the potato's.....) now that I've blown, I'll hopefully be better and will settle down and give you an update on what's popping up here in Fairy Holler. thanks for humoring and enduring me....... maddie, -- "The flowers, the gorgeous, mystic multi-colored flowers are not the flowers of life; and it has been a most precious pleasure to have temporarily strolled in your garden" Lord Buckley, his Royal Hipness |
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Dave |
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Attack of the killer corn (my soap box rant is at the bottom as I couldn't get the @#$ font to downsize)
Dave Roberts wrote:
[...] Thanks Maddie. I enjoyed your rant. The U.S. is the only door to free-speach left in the West. In the U.K. we are heavily constricted, about what we can and cannot say in a public place. Free-speach is dead; something of which we used to be immensely proud. Dave But I see you're keeping up the good old-fashioned right to free spelling and hyphenation. Noble fellow, to risk imprisonment for the above courageous declaration. I'd never have the guts to say agricultural subsidies were a bad idea in the UK: you get ten years with hard labour for that. -- Mike. |
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Attack of the killer corn (my soap box rant is at the bottom as I couldn't get the @#$ font to downsize)
Dave Roberts wrote:
Thanks Maddie. I enjoyed your rant. The U.S. is the only door to free-speach left in the West. Yeah right...go deep into America's bible-belt and proclaim that you don't believe in god and that Jesus is a sham, you'll be lucky to survive 24 hours. |
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Attack of the killer corn (my soap box rant is at the bottom as I couldn't get the @#$ font to downsize)
I did, my son is Wiccan, and we're still
alive...........................we're at the "buckle of the bible belt" so you can't get much deeper than this..........this is the place where the idiots think that the dogwood is "a sacred tree"......sigh...................it's a freaking TREE people!!!! and a myth and rumor............................someone PLEASE research this and tell me what tree they used to crucify the prophet, Jesus, please?? maddie off to wander about Fairy Holler and report back to youse later....... "Phil L" wrote in message k... Dave Roberts wrote: Thanks Maddie. I enjoyed your rant. The U.S. is the only door to free-speach left in the West. Yeah right...go deep into America's bible-belt and proclaim that you don't believe in god and that Jesus is a sham, you'll be lucky to survive 24 hours. |
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Richard Dawkins did! And survived well enough to make a T.V. program of his atheist opinions. Dave |
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