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Mayra Moran
Professor Lynnette Morinini
English 114B
7 May 2015
Can I Not Have Some Corn today?
Overtime corn has become one of the most highly used crops in the entire industrial food
industry. Corns ability to easily adapt to the farmers and consumers needs made it the easiest
crop to use in the industry. Corn is broken down and processed down into high-fructose corn
syrup and is then used to make everything from to soda to cosmetics. Now it may be a wonderful
thing that the food industry has found ways to disguise corn and use corn products in foods and
other things, but what happens when there starts to be too much of corn? According to Michael
Pollan cheap corn has enabled big food companies to take over our land, our food industry, and
even our bodies (Pollan 39). The industrial food chains huge production of corn-related
products negatively impacts American society because it may increase the number of unhealthy
corn-intensive diets, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and reduce the variety of
nutritional food America once had in their super markets.
Corn has taken over most of Americans bodies through the high production of highfructose corn syrup in the food industry that can be used in products such as soda, canned
vegetables, salad dressings, etc. Since high-fructose corn syrup is cheaper and easier to produce
than most sweeteners it has become a main ingredient to many items in the food market and may
possibly be a main factors to higher obesity rates.

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The article American Farm Subsidies Contribute to Obesity by Julie Gunlock explains
how farm subsidies share a correlation with the higher rates of health disease in the American
population. According to the article, farm subsidies artificially reduce the cost of some food and
pays farmers to produce large amounts of one crop like corn which reduces the cost of unhealthy
food (Gunlock). The cost of fast food and unhealthy snacks may be low, but the long term
effect it may have on some families health conditions may have a higher price. The article
describes a scene from the film King Korn where a Hispanic family is shown eating at a fast food
place and are discussing their diabetic health problems in their family due to the consumption of
cheap unhealthy food. In the article Calorie-sweetened beverages and fructose: what have we
learned 10 years later Dr. G.A. Bray conducted research that demonstrated Drinking two
sugar-sweetened beverages per day for 6 months induced features of the metabolic syndrome and
fatty liver( Bray). This research demonstrates how processed drinks and foods are having an
impact on peoples health. The food chains demand of king corn negatively impacts America
because it helps make unhealthier food cheaper, which could possibly increase the High-fructose
corn syrups intake that is correlated with health problems.
The industrial food chain corn supply has not only made its way into the worlds drinks,
food, and restroom supplies, but it has also made its way into the atmosphere. For many years
farmers have added Nitrogen to their soil in order for plant cells to produce proteins and DNA,
and fertilize their crops with manure from their farm animals, but now there is very few farmers
left that follow these techniques. The farming process that once use to be powered by a natural
cycle is now powered by oil coal, and gas. According to the book, The Omnivores Dilemma by
Michael Pollan On the industrial farm, it takes about ten calories of fossil fuel energy to

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produce one calorie of food energy (Pollan). This means that the factory farms are burning more
fossil fuel energy in the process of farming and this is harming the atmosphere.
Pollan interviewed one of the largest corn crop producers, George Naylor, about his corn
field and his strategies used to produce his corn. In the section in the book that explains how
nitrogen pollution is produced in the atmosphere Naylor, mentions that farmers purposely put
large extra amounts of fertilizers into theirs crops as a form of yield insurance. Pollan explains
however, that when Naylors corn plants dont take in the extra amounts of nitrogen Some of it
evaporates into the air, where it creates acid rain. Some of it turns into nitrous oxide, a gas that
increases global warming. The food industry encourages famers to produce massive amounts of
corn so that they can turn into fructose and high fructose corn syrup and use it for all sorts of
products, but they are not looking at the damage it its causing to our atmosphere and peoples
health. Naylor is just one the main the farmers that grows corn field; there are other farmer who
follow Naylors yield insurance as well, and thats a lot of excessive amounts of nitrogen in
the air that is harming the global atmosphere.
One of the biggest effects the massive corn production has made in the United States is
that it has taken over every crop and has dominated itself in almost every American supermarket.
Most of the food in the supermarket today now contains some sort of corn product such as drymilled corn, wet-milled corn, high fructose syrup, and whole corns (Pollan 68). According to an
article Michael Pollan wrote Whats Eating America, There are some 45,000 items in the
average American supermarket, and more than a quarter of them contain corn. What seems like
a variety of different food products all comes down to the same corn processed ingredients.
There are so many corn food products in the food markets now that are quick on the go and
microwave ready that many Americans choose these options over home- cooked nutritional

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meals. The food industry creates an illusion for the consumers by covering artificially made food
packaging with all sorts of colors, fun little animals, and facts that are untrue, but they dont see
the damage it is causing to the country.
I understand that it may be difficult for some people to understand the effect corn has had
in America and to step-out of corn intensive diet because it is in almost every item in the food
market now, normally cheaper than fresh fruit, and because it taste good. Who doesnt love to eat
some French fries or eat a scoop of ice cream on a hot summer day? However now it has gotten
to the point where you cant even find a food product that doesnt have modified high fructose
corn syrup in the market. Even the cows, chicken, and salmon are now fed corn, corn is
everywhere. Perhaps the consumer audience should consider more organic options that use less
pesticides although they may cost a little more, or maybe should trying growing a couple a
vegetables in theirs household. If no change is made in the way we are the food in the food
industry, obesity rates will continue to increase and corn will continue to take over all the other
crops in the food industry.
We must look beyond the market isles and take a look at how America is producing the
food that everyone eats every day. When we see all the colorful bright packages for fun snacks
we forget about what it all really is, processed corn. If no one speaks up and demands that the
government makes some positive changes their will continue to be a huge effect from the corn
industry in American and obesity rates will probably continue to increase. America should
detach itself from its huge reliance on king corn that is negatively affecting the American
community and instead should give old farming techniques and other crops opportunities to take
bigger place in the food industry for the better of the American consumption.

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Works Cited
Bray, G. A. and Popkin, B. M. (2013), Calorie-sweetened beverages and fructose: what have we
learned 10 years later. Pediatric Obesity, 8: 242248. doi: 10.1111/j.2047-6310.201
Gunlock, Julie. "American Farm Subsidies Contribute to Obesity." Obesity. Ed. Scott Barbour.
Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Eating Is No Fun
Anymore." National Review Online. 2009. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 25
Apr. 2015. 3.00171.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore'd Dilemma The Secrets Behind What You Eat. New York: The
Penguin Group, 2009.
Pollan, Michael. "What's Eating America." Smithsonian 37.4 (2006): 96-101. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 25 Apr. 2015
King Corn .Dir. Woolf, Aaron, Curt Ellis, Ian Cheney, and Jeffrey K. Miller. New York, NY:
Mosaic Films, 2007.DVD.