One Nation Under Corn

He does seem like Alton. I'm sure Alton would approve of his dislike of high fructose corn syurp and the like. Maybe we could turn those billions of pounds of the sickeningly sweet stuff into ethanol instead. Food for thought.

cool pod.

The US Government subsidizes the corn crop making it inexpensive and abundant.... which as you can see from the pod leads to health issues not only in humans (high fructose corn syrup!), but in animals!!! I think this is an interesting connection.

At the movie theater, the bag or bucket of popcorn, actually costs more than the popcorn kernels used to make the popcorn itself. Outrageous!!

Do we still pay farmers not to grow corn? Willie Nelson, help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There was a comment about turning corn into ethanol. This is a huge boondoggle. Corn takes tractor fuel, pesticides, and fertiliser, all either petrochemicals or petro dependant. It requires a significant part of a gallon of oil to produce a gallon of alcohol.

http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/profile.cfm?id=187

Three words:

Archer Daniels Midland.

Making profits off the American taxpayer and govt subsidies.

I'm not advocating a complete switch to ethanol, but as a flexible fuel component, ethanol will increase octane ratio and will lower hazardous fuel emissions. To simply say "We can't use ethanol." is the real boondoggle. We are harvesting so much of it as it is, why not apportion some that is already harvested to ethanol production?

That was a good piece thanks! If your interested in some in depth writing on the subject check out "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

yeah, the omnivore's dilemma was my inspiration for this piece. what a great book.

i'm working on another pod about organics, which should be up soon.
thanks!

Information on our food sources helps us to make better choices. Would love to see more pieces on what's in the supermarket and what isn't.
Great pod.

Pretty good video, a little bit one sided. Would've been nice to here some positives about corn because there are quite a few.

Organics are the least of my concern with the pod. The Farm Bill is one of the most devastating pieces of legislation, subsidizing crops and shaping global and local economic activity. It creates an environment where Nigerian cotton farmers and Mexican corn farmers can't sell their produce for the cost to make it. This has a huge effect on immigration. Lower income families are ushered towards choosing foods that are monetarily cheap, but nutritionally poor. The reduction of a whole food (removal of fiber, water, vitamins and minerals) to its tasty energy dense parts (fats, sugars, starches) is the at the heart of the health and obesity crises. The corn industry is so degenerate that they want us to believe that corn ethanol is a viable energy alternative, when (as stated previously) producing the stuff is actually an increased strain on the environment. The farm bill is the same type of subsidized economic policy that shapes our defense budget (that's another issue). Whether your grapes were produced organically is less important than if it were produced in Argentina on a huge factory farm and the amount of gasoline used to get it into your refrigerator would disgust you. Non-organics is less the enemy than agribusiness is, especially with the newly established racket of certifying organic. The lightly cynical tone of the pod is not respectful enough of the severity of the issue and the economics that shape our world.

cool pod. thank you.

Pense que solo el "hight fructose corn syrupe" era el unico elemento danino proveniente del maiz.Ahora veo que hay que estar mas pendiente de esos elementos daninos que se encuentran en los productos que nos venden en los supermercados y que estan ocasionando no tan solo obesidad si no que estan ocasionando muchos danos a nuestra salud.

It has been found that High-fructose corn syrup suppresses your body's sensation of feeling full which allows you to unknowingly binge.

Yet another reason why increased use of high-fructoses are in direct proportion to growing obesity rates.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=...

Also, not mentioned was the effect of growing the same crop, on the same land, year after year.

Essentially, doing so drains the soil of nutrients. The only way to combat this is to rotate crops (less likely with the demand of corn), or to fertilize heavily (which is a story for another day).

Nice work.

This pod sort of rubs me the wrong way. I think it's not the message itself. I agree with many of it's points. My problem is with it's delivery.
It won't reach people who make their living off of corn. The very people who's minds he'd like to change on the matter. It's not just big business farmers who rely on corn for their living. It's the truckers, factory workers, farm workers, waitresses, etc. Basically people who live in the corn states.

The way this message is delivered insults the intentions of good, hardworking people who are probably of the opinion that any "damage" corn may do is much less than say, the damage done by the images Hollywood sells.

It's also pretty rude to make generalizations about the choices lower income people make when feeding their families.

Better ideas for making the needed change here? Demand that the government subsidize a larger variety of crops. Use your buying power to lower the profits of unhealthy corn products. Two ideas that just may work better than lecturing to and insulting people who aren't warm to the message in the first place.

(The link to my own posting shows the other side of biotech. It's not all evil and you'll find that most organics are not what they're cracked up to be.)

Great job!!! I didn't know all those other ingredients were also from corn.

Cool pod but I have to object to the statement that "Corn is bad"... thats like saying water is bad...of course too much of it is definetly not good.

Corn is good (especially the organic kind) the problem is the industry has gone too far in making people and govt think that we need so much of the stuff.

there's a documentary coming out exactly about this issue: http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/kingcorn/trai...

For further reading:

"The Omnivore's Dillemma" by Michael Pollan.

If you found this pod interesting, READ THIS BOOK--IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!!

One nation under corn, indigestible, with Lipitor and dextrose for all.... : )

like many people here, i think this pod could have gone further. while it pretty clearly explained the situation and the moral dilemmas that are cause by the situation, i would have liked to learn more about the economic effect it has on our country. i know it has a large economic effect on our country as well as other countries. yes, perhaps a 'one nation under corn 2.'

Yup, I wish I had saw that before having to sit through the documentary "King Corn". This pretty much summed it all up in that very fast and efficient Current style in way way less time.

Thanks Current TV.

no no no no no no no no NO!

The Omnivore's Dilemma goes SO much further!

IT'S MIND BLOWING I PROMISE YOU!!!

omg an anti-corn video. God! help me ..whats next?

good to know..