Corn

For the first time in over two decades corn is growing on my family farm. My friend Scott along with his brother and some helpers planted over 150 acres of corn here -- some in fields that have been resting since the late 80s (off duty at behest of the government). This week, on the north side of the drive, neatly aligned rows of little green plants have broken through the soil and now dot the field that has been lifeless and bare all winter. On the other side of the drive, a mass of dead, brown grass hides the newborn corn in the recently released CRP fields -- death being reborn into life before my eyes. As I drive down my driveway, sided north and south now by the circle of life, I can’t help but wonder at this innocent looking infant plant and all its implications. Most of the people here would crown this little guy king and praise all he does for humanity. Others believe him a genetically modified serial killer out to get us all. Such a strange lot of contradictions for a little plant only 4 inches tall and struggling to survive.

When you look at the plant in the photo here, know that what it produces will end up on someone’s dinner table. For this particular plant, I’d hazard it will come to you in the transfigured form of a hamburger or steak because most of the corn grown here is consumed by beef cattle. Picture this little guy the next time you grill or bar-b-que because it is part of what you’re cooking. (And oddly enough, corn really isn’t that great of a food for livestock. Nature never really intended it to be part of a cow or a pig or a chicken’s diet; but it worked out well for humans that way and it must taste good to them - the cows, the pigs and the chickens - because they eat it up like candy.)

In food and beyond, corn has become one of the most integral cogs in the human machine. Since World War II corn has become a greater part of our lives each and every day. Today corn sustains more human life than ever conceived possible and, right now, someone somewhere is exploring ways to get more corn into your life -- actually, make that a bunch of someones all over the globe. If you want to know how much corn effects your very existence, try to live a day without it. Eating would be difficult to say the least. Almost every processed food contains corn in some fashion or another and in the US we're very attached to our processed food. Most meat is out because almost every animal consumed in this country has been fed corn or a derivative thereof at one time another on its journey to your plate. And, don’t think the produce isle will fill your rumbling belly -- you must know that corn based fuel may have resulted in the planting and/or harvesting of the vegetables found there. Corn is in food and fuel and paint and plastic and nylon and liqueur and soda and more and more things every day. It's in what we consume, what we burn, what we touch, what we throw away, what we manufacture and what we grow. Corn is in our bodies and our minds and our lives in ways we can't even imagine.

There are those who testify to corn's goodness; exalt it to the highest and search for more and better ways to ingrain it in our lives. Across the row, there are those who claim corn is killing us, kernel by kernel, ear by ear. Too much of a good thing, it seems, can be hazardous to more than just our health. Just one little consideration out of a million: with all our dependence on corn, what would happen if our enemy committed terrorism on our precious yellow grained friend? Disaster. Destruction. Think of that the next time you wonder why the government would budget for an Agricultural Terrorism task force.

To look out over the fields on my farm and think about the global implications is truly mind altering. To think about how many lives will be touched by what grows here is awesome on all accounts. To understand how the brethren of this little plant at my feet -- just inches away from the camera lens in my very modern, very plastic phone which itself probably owes some of its existence to corn -- have changed the world seems strange ... it is so small, so unassuming, so caught up in its own little battle for life.

If you’re interested in further information on this topic, here are some resources:

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver