Corn is King

I watched a fascinating documentary the other night, about corn grown in Iowa, and where it goes once it's grown, and how it's grown, and stuff.

One of the first things the two documentarists did was to see how much corn is in their bodies; apparently how you do this is, you have your hair tested. And sure enough, according to their hair, both these guys were pretty much made up of corn. Because it's the main ingredient in everything from cattle feed to soda; the western diet is full of corn.

We are what we eat.

I think my family would not be made up entirely of corn. Since I read Omnivore's Dilemma, we have made every effort to ensure this, starting with membership in a meat CSA in addition to our veggie one.

And, I bake my own bread - in fact, all our baked goods (just about).

And, the kids and I spend much time in summer picking berries so that I can freeze them, turn them into jam, pies, etc. for the off-season.

There are other things, too - but I don't want to sound like too much of a survivalist wacko.

However, I will say this: watching a documentary about all the horrible things people have done with corn - using it to mistreat domesticated animals, creating high-fructose corn syrup and putting it in everything - and all the horrible things that happen to people as a result (type 2 diabetes in children comes to mind) justifies everything we do here.