The NCGA, or National Corn Growers Association, has a rather compelling website. They state the many valuable and viable attributes of corn, it's uses and how it can move us into a new ideal. "...A reliable supplier of food, feed, fiber and fuel for the United States and the world marletplace." Ethanol, a renewable fuel derived from corn, already stands to produce 11.5 billion gallons annually.* Amazing! Domestic jobs, no more foreign fuel, a resurgence in farms! The NCGA is fully motivated to relax our dependance on foreign fuels and diversify and accumulate domestic jobs....what could be better? The incredible, edible corn.
As a country, we utilize corn in almost every product we use from day to day. It is very vital to our society...more than we realize. Maybe it's time to rethink...
According to Wessels, "large industrial farms produce(s) a limited number of crops -- low diversity -- and consume(s) great quantities of petroleum..." (p 79). This is not necessarily a turn towards the future that I think we as society should be looking for. As a culture, unhealthy, filler foods consumer us, products and materials overwhelm us. Providing a large part of these, corn may be to thank, or not.
Again referencing Wessels, farms were once deverse, offering many crops and options for farmers to explore. Agribusiness has changed how farms fuction and who controls them. As lobbyists and policy makers push for business, a way of life held in the highest regard in our country has been diminished under their control. If we attempt to take government out of farms, they will suffer. Less funding could destroy them completely. What should be done? What can we do to regress our alliance...to corn?
*www.NCGA.com
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