Sheesh, you'd think I was living on a farm, the way I'm worrying about agriculture, but if you're wondering why that steak you used to buy for $4.95 a pound now costs $6.39 a pound, and why even chicken is more expensive, the answer is corn. And it's likely to get worse.
Corn has doubled in price. It's more than $6 a bushel. Worldwide demand for corn is up. Corn, mainly in the form of high fructose corn syrup, is in virtually every processed food we eat. As a grain it forms the main diet of pigs and cows and chickens. As a source of bio fuel, the pressure to produce ethynol from corn has driven prices up. But weather is also a factor. A cold wet spring in the midwest has prevented farmers from getting their crop in. May 10th is the outside optimal date for planting corn, and that date has passed. Only 51% of the US corn crop has been planted. Late planting doesn't necessarily mean a poor crop yield, but it's out of kilter with the prime moment for corn pollenation at the peak of summer heat. Things don't look great.
According to an NPR story, food processing giant H.J. Heinz is looking to breed a naturally sweeter tomato for the sole purpose of cutting down on the amount of corn sweetener used in ketchup, which accounts for 10% of the cost of the product.
So now, after reading two books by Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, I'm trying to see how I can reduce my corn footprint. That is, how can I cut down on, or completely cut out high-fructose corn syrup, corn-based additives and feedlot food from my diet. Believe me, this is not just about being a yuppie locavore, or being a food snob. It's about money. I cannot afford to buy as much center-of-the-store food anymore. I'm cutting down on ready made marinades and salad dressings, jarred tomato sauces and ready-made salsas. As we head into summer, I am determined to build a diet around as many fresh, local choices as possible. And of course, I will continue to cook.
Even if you avoid fast-food, it's difficult to avoid corn. When you analyze what you eat, you will be shocked to see how much of it is based on our out of whack corn economy. As Pollan says in his books, Americans are pretty much walking corn chips:
Like other critics of industrial food, Pollan seizes on corn -- the most heavily subsidized
and prolific U.S. crop -- as the example par excellence of a food
system gone rancid. "There are some 45,000 items in the average
American supermarket, and more than a quarter of them contain corn," he
reports. Indeed, corn and its array of byproducts have so successfully
colonized the U.S. diet -- and so dominate the diets of the animals
consumed here -- that Americans have ripped the title of "the corn
people" from Mexico, where corn was originally domesticated and remains
a staple. Because of corn's rare carbon signature, Pollan writes, it's
possible to discern from flesh or hair samples how much corn
contributes to the formation of human bodies. "When you look at the
isotope ratios, [U.S. residents] are corn chips with legs," a biologist
tells him. -- Tom Philpott in Grist
Some days its easy to eat off the corn chain. Wednesday night, for example, I picked up my 1/2 share at my local CSA, Tuv H'aretz. I also had to bring in a dish for a vegetarian pot luck lunch at work. So I made a soba noodle dish, and not a single ingredient was corn-based, though several were wheat and soy-based. My dish had fresh bok choy, grated carrots, chopped scallions, onions and steamed chopped mustard greens, all from a farm about 30 minutes south of Atlanta. It was dressed with fresh lime and ginger, and pantry items that included canola oil and soy sauce. It was mighty tasty.
Some days you can go down low on the corn chain, but not off it entirely: Thursday night I sauteed chicken thighs (feedlot food) with leftover commercially grown tomatoes and threw in the rest of my CSA haul to use up before going out of town for the weekend. It was a delicious meal, and pretty local in origin, save for the chicken and tomatoes.
It's not enough to become carbon neutral...we can also be more corn neutral. I'm trying.