Corn – America’s Bane?

I think it is important to take notice when the price of seed corn reaches a price that farmers cannot afford to purchase it to plant. What causes the price of corn higher on the front end (for planting) than more than what it yields on the back end (harvesting)?

Ethanol. This craze for maze to make ethanol has turned the food production system onto a mess. Arguments on both sides of the debate whether or not corn is a viable resource for the production of ethanol. So tout it uses more energy to produce than it yields. Couple that with the amount of acreage now being devoted to it; is placing great strain on the rest of the agriculture grown for food. Land once used to plant wheat, barley soybeans and oats are being used exclusively for corn.

This trend is driving food pricing askew, flour prices are soaring and creating a greater food shortage for the low income consumers.

Corn is everywhere in our lives. We used it as a fuel additive, sweeteners, fillers, feed for livestock and as an additive to treat our roads as a de-icer.

As a sweetener it is contributing to our national surge in the amount of adults with type 2 diabetes. Where natural cane sugars were once used, corn as a sweetener is now preferred because it is cheaper and more profitable. The food industry has been marketing corn and corn byproducts to us for decades.

Processed foods contain corn as a filler to stretch the core ingredients allowing for greater profitability. We feed our lives stock corn instead of the grasses they were created to eat. This creates the need for supplements and antibiotics because corn isn’t sustaining enough by itself.

Think about it, when you eat corn with a meal, does it digest in your system or does your body pass it along with the other wastes your body discharges? An ultra sweet cob of corn, steamed to the proper temperature dipped in fresh butter with a sprinkle of salt is delicious but it does the body little good. As a fiber it contributes little, other than a little gastric distress in some.

Corn is a multi billion dollar industry, it reaches all walks of life around the globe yet it provides little of the needed nutrition we require. Why do you think corn isn’t found as a wild crop? There are other grains far better than corn for consumption by animals and humans.

My Cat Is Fat

Well she is, though not in an obese way, just a full sized loving ball of fur. Actually we have two cats, sisters. One is lean and the other chubby. One prefers canned food, the other dry. The lean one is the one who will only dine on canned food. While her plumper sister nibbles just enough on the canned food to get a taste. She prefers the dry, snacking a few times a day, not gorging herself by any stretch.

So the other day I opened a new pail of litter to fill their litter boxes, inside I found a sample pack of food, dry of course. Nothing new about this, it is an effective way to get product into the hands of pet owners who will of course let their pets try it.

There is nothing to lose on the owners part, if the cat doesn't like it so what. If they do, then there is another food they'll eat if their primary choice isn't available. Our cats will only eat one type of canned food, but don't seem to be too fussy about the dry stuff.

This sample however drew their attention immediately. I don't know if it was the smell or what, but I used it as a treat. All I had to do was move the bag and they knew I had it in my hand. So while I was letting them snack on a few kibbles from the sample pack I read the ingredients.

Two of the first three ingredients were corn. The first being processed chicken by products...probably things like feathers, feet, heads, beaks and other innards we humans won't consume willingly or knowingly. Corn, well we are learning that corn causes us to get fat. It is used in one form or another in just about everything we eat that is processed. Whether it be a corn based filler, or a corn based sweetener is doesn't do the body good. Just hollow calories which turn into fat.

I don't recall seeing any of the animal documentaries about cats, large or small, wild or domestic that preferred to graze on corn. They killed rodents and other animals for substance. Lions and Tigers attacked and killed the farmers, not strip their fields of their crops. Feral cats hunt and kill birds and mice, they do not raid feed sacks full of grains.

So, I know one reason what contributes to my cats as well as my own midsection...Corn. Will I purchase this dry food based on the sample and my cats like for it? No, probably not, I love my cats and I want them to live a long healthy life. I might as well watch their diet as well as my own.