Analysis of II) The Farm

The previous chapter talks about the lineage of corn, this chapter focuses on the actual lifetime of corn, essential from cradle to grave.

The author also highlights the irrationality behind why corn came to be as massive as it is today. Supporting the creation of mountains and mountains of corn, is actually humans playing god; essentially creating a flawed system that is creating more problems then it solves.

He paid a site visit to an Iowa corn farm, owned by a third generation corn farmer by the name of George Naylor. A lot has changed since the time Naylor's grandfather stat to farm corn; the synthetic fertilizers came, the irrational government policies came, and the "endless" demand came.


source: Environmental Workshop Group

Bound to the rise of king corn* was also the dawn of the chemical fertilizer industry. In 1947, the US government found itself with a surplus of ammonium nitrate from WWII. Since corn is the biggest eater of synthetic nutrients, this excess chemicals found the perfect mouth to cater to.
This process removes the need that farming requires any sunlight at all. Petroleum processes the chemicals to feed the corn.
It can also be noted that the Chinese government's requested aid from the west in 1970s in the form of chemical fertilizers in order to kick start their economy.



Essentially we're eating and drinking corn and the petroleum which feed from corn.

The facts and figures presented shows us that the farmer s are actually loosing money for every hectare of corn they grow, so why keep on with this madness? It turns out that US agricultural policies subsidizes the corn farms to grow as much corn as possible, creating an artificial demands, which results in excess supply of corn, hence driving the price of corn to the floor. Since corn is the cheapest "resource" (What the author is presenting this a utterly senseless negative feedback loop.

This massive planting of corn is changing the farm landscape as well. Because the industrial process of planting corn is too efficient, there are fewer farmer to plant corn. In a way, corn is driving people out. Which brings up the question yet again: which is the dominant species here?

So who profits from all of this seemly nonsense? The food corporations? The banks? The tractor companies?

maybe all of them.