It May Sound Corny…
Posted: August 7, 2012
It may sound corny, but lately it seems that a lot of people talk about the omnipresence of corn. While this fact is inarguable, the negative tone of many articles on the corn-centric nature of our lives seems befuddling. This week, the Kansas City Star took a more insightful approach to exploring how people interact with the crop in their daily lives. As it turns out, a world without corn doesn’t seems like such a great place to live.
The author carefully walks through what a day without corn might look like. Unable to brush his teeth, scramble a decent egg and with his clothes falling to rags, he finds that corn actually makes small improvements to an incredible number of the items that make our lives more pleasant, healthy or comfortable.
The properties inherent to corn make it our nation’s most abundant crop for a reason. Lending useful applications to products as varied as pharmaceuticals and fireworks, corn may really be the glue the binds us together in many ways.
Another kernel of wisdom, it helps to make that glue too.
Corn is king not because it rules over us. Corn it king because IT RULES! Take a minute to check out how many great, interesting, useful ways that corn is used.
Farmers across the country work hard year in and year out to make sure there is a supply of corn so that consumers can enjoy everything from cosmetics to cola. Let’s support the great efforts of our nation’s hardworking family farmers, even if it may sound corny to some ears.
zt Said,
August 8, 2012 @ 7:21 am
Those of us allergic to corn HAVE found ways to live without it. There are brands of toothpaste out there without corn-derived ingredients. We have found safe eggs and butter/oil/bacon grease with which to fry them. Our clothes are washed in non-corny detergent. Ways can be found around products that use glue, too, as in using fresh tea rather than tea bags. Our life is much more difficult than that of many people because corn is in so many products, and is UNLABELED. We have to constantly be detectives, trying to figure out how corn is hidden in products. Corn is not a benevolent ruler for us.
maubs Said,
August 8, 2012 @ 10:32 am
Thank you, corn industry, for turning our corn-allergic lives into an obstacle course of avoiding corn at every turn. You’ve infiltrated nearly all of our food and cosmetics and rendered the world unsafe at every step. Even our toilet paper is contaminated by the corn starch used in the packaging! Corn ethanol is burned all around us as auto fuel, and is the basis for scented products in the air. High-Fructose Corn Syrup, corn starch, dextrose, and corn-derived Citric Acid are present in processed foods and drinks of all sorts. Every day staying corn-free becomes more difficult as new uses and products are developed for corn, all without the common courtesy of labeling this all-too common allergen.