Zea Mays or more formally, corn, is possibly the most important agricultural product the world has ever come to see. As Michael Pollan writes in the first chapter of his book Omnivores Dilemma, our daily lives revolve around corn and we may live our whole lives without even realizing it. It only took a few pages in his book to make my eyes bulge and my jaw drop. The fact that corn is a constituent of pesticides, fiberglass and even cosmetics is startling. I could have never imagined such dominance and prevalence of only one crop. When was the last time anyone took a second out of their day to appreciate what corn does for us. Even the cows we get our meat and dairy farm are fed by corn. This angle only makes me think where we would be without corn. The reason I think Pollan opens his book with the introduction to corn is to open the readers mind to a new world of thought. Before anyone can pick what they want to eat they must know their options. The most interesting part of the whole chapter is when he said that a quarter of the 45,000 items in a given super market contain corn.
What I took out of this reading was an increase appreciation for corn and anything that influences my life so greatly without my knowledge. however, what scares me the most is what would happen if many corn fields were to burn down, or if farmers jacked the prices up for corn. It seems like they would be able to rule the world if what Pollan says does in fact hold true. If some wealthy fortune 500 CEO were to buy up all the corn fields in the U.S. he would really be buying the entire food industry market and give him, what I think would be more power than the president.
Does the U.S. have any backup plans in case of a corn famine?
What happens if the produce for a given year is found to have a disease?
Would we be able to enjoy the things we enjoy every day if corn was not existent?
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