king corn and big river event

Having previously viewed King Corn I had an idea of what to expect but I was blown out of the water by what was produced in Big River. It is pretty crazy how much corn we eat everyday without even knowing it! In my yogurt, frosted mini-wheats, or even fresh eggs I will also be eating corn. Usually because of high fructose corn syrup people eat corn without realizing it but it also appears in meats because of the corn that the animals are fed. America grows so much corn every year that sometimes stock piles over flow. Since it looks like the corn is grown by local farmers then it would seem about right to expect the corn to remain local for consumption by local people or local animals if wanted. This said, the corn that is produced locally in Iowa can’t be eaten by people until it has been processed beyond imagination and there are no local animals because the corn has taken all of the land. Well if the corn doesn’t stay local then it must not be too hard to follow one acre of corn to its final destination but reality is quite different. The corn from Iowa is mixed with all of the corn from all around the state and other states to be shipped out by truck and train to places all around the country and sometimes abroad, in order to be processed. Before any of the transporting of the corn can be done there is a great deal of work that must be done to the land to prepare it for the crop that will suck most of the nutrients from the soil. Top loading the soil with nitrogen fertilizer and adding many pesticides to ward off unwanted weeds the ground is plowed and ready to be planted. Unfortunately once the ground is planted and the first rain comes to aid in the growth of the corn, the rain also washes away some of the pesticides and other additives from the soil. Not only does this cause soil erosion but it also moves the horrid chemicals to larger waterways that will spread to larger numbers of people. The different bills that the government has passed over time have lead the farmers in all sorts of directions and now the farmers that are growing the corn are no longer concerned with the land they are growing the crop on as long as it produces the necessary yield. Unless they have their own private garden farmers are no longer able to eat off of their own land and they no longer care about what happens to the food that they grow or the other side effects that it may bring.
There must be a better solution to dealing with the trouble and side effects that the production of corn has on the environment. The runoff from the land is polluting water for countless miles in places that never expect it. The chemicals that are used on the land also become air born and are very dangerous and caused cancer for Chuck Pyatt’s wife who died because of it. My Year of Meats discussed the serious side effects of chemicals not meant for humans but still come in contact but the full effect hasn’t set in for many people until it is too late. If the farmers don’t continue to produce their mountains of corn then they are likely going to lose their land to giant corporations that want to build mega stores, so what other option do they have if they don’t want to move? The water that travels through many rivers obviously affects many people but so does the corn that is fed to the beef that become the 99 cent hamburger at McDonald’s. In addition the billions of people who drink sweetened, bottled drinks that have high fructose corn syrup are affected by the corn that is produced in a little Iowa town that no one has or will ever hear of.
There must be a way to keep people employed at their current jobs while finding a better way to feed people. Since corn seems to be everywhere it would take very great measures to exchange it for something else but is it possible? Could we exchange half of the corn crop for grass that could be sold to cattle ranchers to feed their cattle? I know that corn fattens the cattle up faster but since it increases the amount of fat and chances of illness in the cattle is it possible to exchange at least half of the diet? I’m not sure how but I think there are ways that we can take a lot of the corn our of our diets and improve our environmental impact and I wonder if there are people working towards that or if they are all simply figuring out how to turn corn into ethanol, which we can then breathe into our lungs and ingest more corn by way of automobiles!