<p>A lot of U.S. corn (about 20% of U.S. production) is exported, especially to Asia where it’s used primarily as animal feed. Corn represents about 90% of animal feed used in the U.S., and close to 100% of ethanol production. Much of the rest is used to produce corn starch, corn syrup, corn oil, alcohols, and other derivatives that have a wide variety of food and non-food uses, including:</p>
<p>–sweeteners in soft drinks, which are mostly high-fructose corn syrup (except for “diet” sweeteners)
–candies and other confectionary foods, as well as cough drops
–confectioner’s sugar
–corn flakes, corn flour, corn meal, grits, tortillas, tamales
–cooking oil
–margarine
–bourbon
–industrial alcohols
–toothpaste
–explosives
–absorbents for oil and hazardous waste
–insecticides
–cosmetics
–soaps and dish detergents
–glues and adhesives
–thickening agents in ice cream and yogurt
–vitamin C additives and tablets
–textiles
–medicines
–paper matchsticks
–baby powder and disposable diapers
–deodorants and hand sanitizers
–electrical conductors, including some car batteries
–plastics, especially of the biodegradable variety</p>
<p>It’s pretty hard to avoid the stuff. Some estimates say that one out of every 4 items in the typical American grocery store contains corn or some corn derivative.</p>
<p>I’ve even heard that the medical community had been known to force dihydrogen monoxide intravenously on patients who refuse to ingest it. And EVERYONE who ingests it will die!</p>
<p>^^^Thanks for posting the above list. As someone who has just completed a 4-week elimination diet in which I consumed no corn, soy, dairy or gluten, I can attest that corn is an ingredient in so much more than you’d imagine – nearly all condiments (ketchup, barbecue sauce, salad dressings), cereals, baked goods, snack foods, etc. So is soy. To eliminate it completely, you’ve got to resign yourself to a very restrictive diet.</p>
<p>^^ Just watch Food Inc. They had a nice “presentation”. </p>
<p>
That’s funny. 40+40+20 equals…</p>
<p>@garland One of the rides at Disney had exposed pipes with the chemical names of what was running through them. The three pipes were of H2O, CH3COOH, and C6H12O6. I heard a mom telling her kid to stay away from there because dangerous chemical were in them. I just snickered.</p>
<p>Can some of you let us know your science backgrounds? </p>
<p>I did a lot of research on food safe containers for growing vegetables. Long story and I am a layperson interested in science, without much more than a shred of real understanding of bio and chem. But, something about molecular sizes, what can actually be absorbed through human cellular membranes (whatever it is…) It would be interesting to know WHY certain chemicals are considered “safe” versus toxic or potentially damaging. To humans.</p>
<p>I’m all with whatever protects bees, etc. In more of that lay research, I was convinced to endure the miner bees who found part of my garden.</p>
<p>ps. add me to the group with the bacon addiction. I can’t even have it in the house. But, thought it was full of cancer causing nitrates-? Life’s tough.</p>
<p>Monsanto’s real crime is preventing farmers from using some of their harvest as seed for the next crop, which farmers have only been doing since the beginning of agriculture.</p>
<p>Those chemicals are everything but toxic. It’s just water, glucose, and acetic acid. Acetic acid has such a low Ka that you would probably have to have 4,000 L of it to consider the level of H+ significant or even the least bit worrisome. </p>
<p>Toxicity most likely depends on how it dissociates and reacts with the human body. </p>
<p>@lookingforward AP Environental Science (specialization on agriculture), AP Chemistry, and AP Physics.</p>
<p>
You said eventually. I’m a kid. We live in the present. By the time bacon prices sky rocket I’ll be at a campus with a dining hall that has endless amount of bacon. I’m not worried. ;)</p>
<p>Niquii77 and I don’t agree on driving, but we do agree on that. My nurse friend raises chickens. They don’t eat corn, but they do eat worms. Does this mean I can’t say I that I don’t eat worms because I eat their eggs?!</p>
<p>Let’s not get absurd here. I try to eat the least processed diet I can. No breads, chips, crackers, or boxed rice, pasta, or cereal. I buy beef from grass fed cows, I buy only one brand of eggs which are from completely free range chickens when I can’t get them from my nursing friend’s farm (definitely as “pure” as it is possible to come). No fast food unless absolutely forced to. I don’t eat corn, whether it is fresh, canned, or in any other form. That’s what I mean when I say I don’t eat corn, and I think that was fairly clear. I can’t control “residue” on my fresh spinach, but as a general rule, I’m not really eating corn in any significant way. As Seinfeld used to say, “not that there’s anything wrong with it,” it’s just not on my plate anymore, tasty as it is.</p>
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<p>If you like bacon, you’d love the nitrate-free applewood smoked bacon from Whole Foods. I don’t eat it very often, but OMG it’s good. It has ruined regular cheap bacon for me-eating cheap bacon now tastes like I’m eating strands of rope.</p>
<p>I grow my own bacon and steak. The corn prices for the feed are killing me though :)</p>
<p>Today’s American farmer feeds ~153 people worldwide. In 1960 it was 26. Not all that efficiency is through machinery–some of it is through seed. I do find it interesting that in my ag community, I don’t hear the farmers hating on Monsanto or GMO seed.</p>
<p>lookingforward - you should be able to find “uncured” bacon which has no nitrates or nitrites. The flavor doesn’t come from those chemicals, it comes from the hickory smoke.</p>
<p>My doctor had me stop all the most common food allergies and then every week add one in to see if it made me feel better. Just a good way to find out if you have food allergies. </p>
<p>Corn is her number one food that can cause problems. I’m sure everyone has already gone over how almost all corn is gmo.</p>
<p>“We already know of some of the environmental risks of these crops. Butterflies die after eating nectar from the flowers of round-up ready soybeans.”</p>
<p>Cotton farmers in India die after growing Btcotton.</p>
My nurse friend raises chickens. They don’t eat corn, but they do eat worms. Does this mean I can’t say I that I don’t eat worms because I eat their eggs?!</p>