Corn: feed, food, fuel. But, in which order?
About a year ago I was unpacking some porcelain dolls I inherited from my grandma. It was neat to look at the newspaper from when they were packed up 16 years ago. I thought this children’s section was pretty interesting, given all the discussion about the role corn will or should play in our lives; how its volatility has a hand in seemingly making or breaking an economy. Can it put an end to American dependence on foreign oil? Will it, in the meantime, indirectly contribute to oxygen-deficient lakes, rivers, and oceans that cannot support life? Is it the answer for the struggling independent farmer; or is it the nail in the rancher’s coffin? Just some thoughts on this breezy August night.
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I like seeing this old page of newspaper. There really are so many different ways to approach this issue. It points us right back to an issue that’s so big, it’s often not discussed except for on a more superficial level – interdependence.
Maybe what we’re looking for isn’t more stats on why corn is better than oil or is worse than oil, is feeding the world’s hungry or is depleting our farmland of bio-diversity…or whatever. Maybe what we’re looking for is a paradigm shift, one that shifts us back to local interdependence in general.
I know, big thoughts – they don’t always make sense right away. Maybe I’ll continue digesting on it, and it might make more sense later.