Grain Elevators: How Corn Gets Distributed

I know the past few posts have been rather monotonous. While learning about corn (and other food) can be boring, I think it's important to know this history because how else would you know that leftovers from WWII are being used to make your food? Or that corn makes up a lot of processed foods? It's good to know that corn has taken over and that the government should take a lot of the blame. This post is also about corn, but I promise that soon I'll take a break and post about something else.

The corn that George Naylor, and most other farmers, grow is called number 2 field corn (so distinguished as the "lowest common denominator"- the moisture content is no more than 14% and fewer than 5% exhibit insect damage). While it looks like the regular corn we're used to seeing on the table, it's different. In order to eat it, the kernels must be soaked in water for several hours, and then once you bite into them, you don't taste corn, but lightly corn-flavored starch.

How Corn Became King: Part 2

I briefly mentioned that government had a role in helping corn become the giant mega-crop that it is today. The price of corn has steadily fallen over the years (factoring in inflation), and today the price of a bushel of corn is about a dollar below what it costs to grow it. Government farm programs were once designed to limit production and support prices, but were quietly reprogrammed over the years to increase production and drive down prices. During the Nixon administration, the government began to subsidize corn at the expense of farmers.

A Brief History of Chemical Fertilizers

One of the biggest turning points in corn's history came about after World War II. A factory in Alabama had a large amount of ammonium nitrate, the main ingredient in manufacturing explosives, left over after the war. Because ammonium nitrate also happens to be an excellent source of nitrogen for plants, the Department of Agriculture thought it would be great to use as fertilizer on farmland. In addition to chemical fertilizers, pesticides were developed from an excess of poisonous gases. Hybrid corn, which was bred to stand up straighter and grow much closer together, loved the chemical fertilizers.

How Corn Became King: Part 1

After learning about how much corn is in everything, Michael Pollan visited a corn farm in Iowa. He described how once upon a time farms grew a variety of crops, including oats and hay for their farm animals. Now most farms in the Midwest grow only corn and soybeans, and each feed an average of 129 people. Even though farmers like George Naylor, who Michael Pollan shadows, are statistically some of the most productive humans ever (in regards to terms of output per worker), they can hardly afford to support their family living on the farm.