How important is corn in our diet? Surprisingly, corn is apparent everywhere has a huge prevalence in our lives. Nearly every processed food contains some form of corn, from the obvious corn chips to the more discreet chicken nugget composed of corn meal, corn oil, high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, and nine other corn derivatives. In section I of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Pollan explores the incredible idea that America's basic grocery list revolves around a single crop. About 75% of all supermarket items are composed of corn, from the plant itself to corn syrup, beer, cereals, chips, meat from animals fed with corn, corn starch, and even in plastics such as the plastic coating on magazine covers. There are 10 billion bushels of corn harvested from the American Corn Belt per day, thanks (or no thanks) to the Haber-Bosch process developed in the 20th century to create ammonia from hydrogen and nitrogen, a chemical compound that all life forms need to prosper, one which corn farmers spread as fertilizer. The results from a food science lab's test for corn percentages found in a McDonald's meal are astonishing:
Soda - 100% corn
Milk Shake - 78%
Salad Dressing - 65%
Chicken Nuggets - 56%
Cheeseburger - 52%
French Fries - 23%
(Pollan 117)
Not only was it surprising to me that 100% of any soda was basically derived from corn in the form of corn syrup, but the immense energy losses due to the creation of processed foods/drink. Only one tenth of the corn calories used to produce a soda is left over in your cup - the other nine-tenths are wasted in the process of creation. This means that valuable calories are lost just in creating a Pepsi.
Agribusiness has a much larger handle on our life and economy than I had ever realized, and with Monsanto controlling GMO's, this is a scary concept to consider.
No comments:
Post a Comment