The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 2 of 10: We are Corn
November 18, 2009 by dr. lam
If we are what we eat, then we are corn, spoonfuls, gallons, and tonnage of corn. When the Europeans came over to settle North America, they considered themselves wheat people, as a more glorified expression of their stock; juxtaposed against the Native American folk and Mexicans who were truly corn people. Even today, many Americans may believe that they are of wheat origin, except of course our proudly corn-fed Midwesterners who hail from a different breed. However, that is simply not true anymore. We are corn.
Corn expressess a very strong DNA footprint of carbon 13 given its unique molecular structure that carries 4 carbon atoms compared with many legumes that only have 3 atoms. We can actually scan a person’s hair and other body parts to see how much we are made of what. Mexicans today who consume corn but not in the radically superabundant quantities that we do actually have much less carbon-13 corn in their systems than we do. We are filled with corn. High-fructose corn syrup colors our daily lives as opposed to the pure cane sugar that the Mexicans still heavily rely on. Further, their meat still oftentimes graze on grass, whereas our cattle, chicken, lamb, and even fish eat corn. So we are not only what we eat but we are what we eat eats and again that is corn.
The story starts in Iowa, the epicenter of corn manufacturing. How did we get to where we are? First, corn provides abundant calories owing to its unique possession of a carbon 4 (C4) structure, alluded to earlier. Second, corn is mass produced in Iowa owing to what George Naylor, a corn farmer featured in the book, calls “the Naylor Curve”. Farmers, believe it or not, actually lose money on every bushel of corn they make. In order to actually feed their families when the price of corn drops, they have to squeeze out more corn in marginal land using more heavily fossil-fuel laden nitrogen fertilizer (we will discuss this tomorrow) to try to make ends meet. Of course, this further drives corn prices lower, which compels farmers to make even more corn. The $5 billion a year in corn subsidies that the Federal Government supplies further supports this non laissez-faire economy.
All this cheap corn continues to be more and more prevalent owing to this vicious cycle, burning up heavy fossil fuels (estimated at 50 gallons of oil per acre of corn and not even a 1:1 calorie substitute of fossil fuel for food), plaguing the water supply with contaminated nitrogen from over-fertilized, marginal lands, and burning up the quality of the land year after year.
Stephanie Smith
Today, a quarter of the foodstuffs in our flourescent-illuminated grocery aisles contain corn. Is corn all that bad for you? First, it is filled with omega 6s as compared with omega 3s that could otherwise enter our food by way of grass-fed animals. Not to mention that animals that graze on grass are not used to eating corn so that their digestive systems are in absolute turmoil, necessitating antibiotics and also escalating the risk of e.coli exposure. It has been found that feeding cattle grass even for the last few days of their lives could reduce the risk of toxic e.coli that grows in the cows’ normally pH neutral stomachs (acidified by corn), by over 80%. However, we live in a world driven mainly by money not by thoughts of how food could actually benefit our environment and our bodies.
As an update to this blog post, here is an article about Stephanie Smith, a dance instructor, who is paralyzed for life at the tender age of 22 from eating contaminated e. coli meat, that I read from the New York Times on October 3, 2009. Here is also a frightening video about how we get our meat that appeared in the New York Times that I also posted on my Twitter account on November 3, 2009.
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12 Responses to “The Omnivore’s Dilemma Part 2 of 10: We are Corn”
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That’s it! I’m going vegetarian! Is chicken safe? I don’t want to go completely vegetarian because I typically can tell if someone is one because it shows, but I might only do chicken if it is safe.
I have to respect how well that girl is handling that even though she was upset. I really would be an emotional wreck if I went paralyzed. I just don’t think I could handle it.
If we take our omega 3 pills, does that make up for all this corn we are eating? I’ve been taking mine.
Thanks for doing all this research, Dr. Lam!!! Awesome!!!
remember that too much omega 6 will cancel all your fish oil out so you must cut down your 6s!
Okay, thanks!
Wow. Pretty sobering, eye-opening info. I pray the young lady mentioned has miraculous recovery.
Heather, I am virtually vegetarian. I worked in a processing plant three summers to earn money for school. College kids got the worst jobs, and those were plentiful. Among my experiences: collecting fetal pigs, excising (pork) buccal fat, o.k. that’s too much information, sorry. It is true that “they use everything”. Happy to report it was all surprisingly clean and closely monitored. All these years on, I don’t eat much beef, pork, lamb or by-products. Not a political stance or anything, just resultant from that exposure, I feel.
GREAT INFO and now want to learn more. Thanks.
thanks. i was told that Food Inc. is a great flick. have not had time to watch it yet.
Thanks Nord, for the info!! lol I would certainly be avoiding those foods too in your shoes, knowing too much!…lol I’ll stick with my chicken! Know anything about it that you should let me in on, Nord?
Glad to know that the meat is clean and monitored anyway! 
my chicken blog will be coming up very soon! can’t remember which day but within this blog series. watch out!
Dr. Lam, I desperately need to know this information now…lol I pretty much eat chicken everyday, so if there’s something I should know, spill the beans early for goodness sake…lol
Errr!
don’t worry. it is not as scary as the beef stuff. just make sure you cook your chicken well. the blog is about organic versus non-organic.
lol
Thanks, Dr. lam! I always cook it well so whew!!!
You’re so nice! 