Shortage of Corn – A Blessing in Disguise

The looming shortage of corn may be a blessing in disguise.

But if you have been listening to the news you’ve heard that food prices will rise about 4% because of the drought affecting the corn harvest.

You may be saying, “But I don’t eat corn so why should I worry about a 4% rise in corn prices”.

And you may very well be right if you eat food that does not have ingredients, but rather are the ingredients. In other words if you’re avoiding packaged, processed food and preferring whole vegetables, fruit, meat, whole grains and nuts and seeds, then the rising price of corn may not affect you.

But did you know that we have a corn-based society? That hundreds of processed food items come from corn starting with these basic derivations:

• Corn flour
• Corn gluten
• Corn masa
• Corn starch
• Corn syrup
• Cornmeal
• High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS)

And corn hides in:

• Alcohol
• Ale/Beer
• Bacon
• Baking Mixes
• Baking Powders
• Batters for frying
• Beverages (sweetened)
• Bleached White Flour
• Breads & Pastries
• Cakes
• Catsup
• Cookies
• Corn Flakes
• Cream Pies
• Fritos
• Frostings
• Fruit (canned)
• Fruit Drinks
• Gelatin Desserts
• Graham Crackers
• Gravies
• Grits
• Gum
• Hominy Grits
• Ice Cream
• Jams
• Jellies
• Infant Formula
• Margarine
• Meats (bologna, sausage)
• Oleo
• Peanut Butter
• Popcorn
• Powdered Sugar
• Preserves
• Puddings
• Salad Dressings
• Soups Soybean Milks
• Syrups
• Tortillas
• Vinegar, Distilled
• Wine

Ingredients that may indicate presence of corn:

• Dextrose
• Hydrolyzed Protein
• Maltose
• Maltodextrin
• Modified Food Starch

Non Food Products Containing Corn:

• Aspirin
• Cough Syrups
• Envelopes
• Gelatin Capsules
• Powders
• Stamps
• Starched Clothing
• Talcums
• Toothpaste
• Vitamins

So if you eat or use anything on that list you are consuming corn one way or the other.

Corn is a huge commodity in the United States. Agri-business politics succeeded in garnering huge subsidies to grow corn. So corn and corn products wind up costing less for the consumer than the actual amount of money it takes to produce them.

What’s the problem with that?

1. Food manufacturers put corn through intricate processing techniques to produce cheap calories. In other words, a dollar’s worth of Twinkies buys you many more calories than a dollar’s worth of carrots. But producing the Twinkie requires very intricate technology, first extracting the individual ingredients from the original real food source and then putting those ingredients together in an exacting process.

Now do you see why Americans, especially poor Americans, are fat? They go for the calories instead of the real nutrition in whole food.

It doesn’t quite make sense that it’s cheaper to produce Twinkies (which I consider a “death food” like all the other “food-like products” out there) than it is to grow a crop of carrots and bring them to market.

So corn and its products make us fat.

2. Corn fattens up the cattle and other animals that we eat, so meat prices are forecast to rise.

Interesting side note: we realize that corn fattens cattle, maybe we should wake up to what it’s doing to us, especially in the form of high fructose corn syrup.

3. 88% of production corn (not sweet corn) has been genetically modified.

Genetically modified food has not been tested long term for the effects on people, animals and the environment. Therefore I recommend only eating corn products made from organically grown corn.

So what’s the blessing in the corn shortage?

Maybe we will learn to make healthier choices even if we have a small food budget. Choose less expensive whole food like brown rice and beans rather than the fattening, disease-inducing processed food.

Maybe we will learn to avoid genetically modified food and save our lives and our planet.

Maybe we will “buy local” from small farmers in our own area and quite supporting the big businesses that have more interests in our dollars than our health.

Maybe we will make the effort to grow at least some of our own food, even if it’s in a small back or front yard. Folks have turned suburban plots into major food production for their families.

Maybe we will wake up and stop being deceived by big farming and big business and choose health.

Another author presented this topic in a very brilliant way. I would recommend reading this article:

http://naturalhealthdossier.com/2011/04/the-economics-of-obesity-why-are-poor-people-fat/