Corn for Everyone...Even the Corn (Portfolio)

I can remember hearing, for the longest time, that there is a shortage of corn. I always took this as truth and never thought anything about it. So, when the government decided to put ethanol as a requirement for gasoline, I thought the price of my corn tortillas was going to go through the roof.

I was under the impression that the laws of supply and demand were going to make the prices of all my food go up, because I was aware that there really was corn in everything. What I failed to recognize is that, though there might be corn shortages in other countries (this would be locally grown corn), saying that there is a shortage of corn in the United States is about as far from the truth as the Moon is from the Earth.


The first section in Michael Pollan's book ,"The Omnivore's Dilemma," I received an eye opening education: the only corn shortage we have in America is a shortage of corn farmers. As it turns out, because of advances in agricultural technology there are mountains of corn (like the one pictured above) all over the Midwest (this corn didn't fit in the silo behind it).

There is so much 'extra' corn, if fact, that agribusiness has had to find numerous ways to use the corn. Among the uses are feeding farm animals on CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and, by means of state of the art chemistry, coming up with, get this, hundreds of different organic compounds (Pollan, pp 86). I can understand maybe coming up with a few different compounds just for the heck of it, but hundreds is an entirely different story. There has to be a ton of corn! The most common compound is High Fructose Corn Syrup, and it has long been used as a cheaper sweetener than cane sugar. Why, one might ask? Supply and demand: the surplus of corn is so immense that the prices to produce these compounds has naturally decreased until it fell through the floor.

My concern here is simple: why was I told that there was a corn shortage? Someone doesn't want me to know, and they have gone to great length to make sure I don't find out. My solution? I'll just start reading the ingredient lists on my food, and do my part to get out of the corn trap.