Beyond corn -- food for thought

Suddenly it seems as if everything I read or see has to do with food. It is more than recipes or how to grow veggies, but it has to do with the nature of what we eat.

I recently saw "The Future of Food." The Future of Food is an in-depth documentary about the engineered and genetically modified foods that have entered our food shelves. It was frightening to realize how big corporations (such as Monsanto) have genetically modified seeds so much that we are now unable to save seeds. We don't know the impact of these foods on the rest of our seeds.

See, once upon a time we would grow our food and collect the seeds to be grown the following year. Without those seeds we would only be able to grow food one time. We would have to purchase seeds every year. Well, now seeds are engineered so that we are unable to save the seeds. They are made to grow only once. This makes us dependent upon the corporations which developed the seeds. We would have to purchase the seeds every year to planted again.

This documentary covers other issues about the food infrastructure. The laws that cover corporations rather than the farmers. Those who have patents on genetically engineered seeds have more rights than those people whose land accidentally gets planted with those seeds (via wind or the like). It is shocking and disturbing.

With recommendations by Burdockboy and Tracey, I have started to read the Omnivore's Dilemma.

I am only a few pages into the book. It has already shocked me. I live near corn country. I live in corn country. I always wondered why this area grew so much corn. The pages that I have read answered my question. Corn is in everything. Everything. Corn is in the wax that covers our peppers. Corn is fed to the beef and chicken that we consume. Corn is in soda in the form of corn syrup. Corn is what we consume.

At the same time that I was reading these pages there was an article in the local paper about corn. The demand for corn has sky rocketed. This is because now corn will fuel more than our bodies--it will fuel our cars. Farmers are now deciding whether to sell their corn for ethanol production or food/livestock production. Corn sold for ethanol pays much better than the latter. What does this mean?

Farmers are deciding to sell their corn for ethanol (to fuel our cars). This means that there is less corn available for the food market as mentioned in the Omnivore's Dilemma. There is less corn available to feed livestock/soda/food mixes/boxed foods. Corn prices go up and everything else will have to go up.

I think that it is time for us to take control of our food. I am trying to eat food in closest to the form that it originally came from. I know I am doing well when my husband tells me that we have nothing in the house to eat and then I create a scrumptious meal (ingredients rather than a box). I am now buying heirloom seeds instead of GE seeds. I want to know where my food comes from and have as much control over it as possible. I want to eat food that does not travel 1500+ miles.

This time of year may be difficult to start thinking about eating locally (especially for those of us in the cold north). However, I challenge you to start thinking about it. I think we should wean ourselves from boxes of food and return to ingredients. That will make it easier to eat locally when the farmer's markets reopen in the spring.