Friday, October 2, 2009

Corn culture

Corn. It's everywhere. It's in your soft drinks as "high fructose corn syrup" (one of it's worse forms). It's in every thing you eat that has "breading" or batter on it and comes from a fast food joint, a frozen bag or wherever. Corn is in avery piece of meat you buy at the grocery store. American farmers use mostly corn to feed all the pork, beef and poultry they grow. Go down to the local feed store and take a look at the ingredients of any bag of animal feed they sell. The #1 ingredient is always corn. Take a look at the dog food you buy your dog. Only the best and most expensive doesn't have corn as the #1 ingredient. Hey, dogs are carnivores. Why the fuck are we feeding our dogs and cats corn?
I have read that in America, over 60% of the items in the typical grocery store contain corn in some form or another.

Corn sucks. As a food additive and as a feed grain, it is tasteless and not all that good for you. Don't get me wrong. Right now I've got a field full of corn that is ripe for picking (I planted it the second week of July). I've been eating the hell outta that corn right off the cobb for the past couple weeks slightly steamed with a little butter and salt. When I'm sick of eating it that way, I'll turn off the electric fence and let the dear have the rest.
But that aside, corn is a poor substitute for pure food items. Most processed foods contain corn. If it's not a solid piece of vegetation or seafood, it probably contains corn in some form.

Surprised? Don't be. Ever been in farm country? What do you see growing more than anything else? Corn.

Now, there is an ad campaign going around saying that high fructose corn syrup is good for you and does no harm. That reminds me of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. It's all bullshit.
I'm not going to go cut and paste all the evidence and research information showing that HFCS sucks. Do your own damn research. The info is out there if you want it.

Before the 70s, sugar cane and beets were processed to form sucrose, which is a 50/50 chemical combination of glucose and fructose which are both C6H12O6 sugar molecules. In the 70s, along come HFCS (high fructose corn syrup(that's the last time I'm spelling it out)). HFCS is a blend of a lot of fructose and less glucose. They are not chemically bonded so the body exerts no energy into breaking the chemical bond, it just goes ahead and processes the sugar directly into energy and stored as fat.

Just all you folks who have been around a while think about this. . .
Since the 70s, what have you old timers been noticing about the waistlines of American people? Think about the kids you went to school with back in the 50s and 60s. Remember the one of two "fat" kids in your class? Take a look at an old class picture and see how "fat" that or those kids were compared to the typical kid today. I'd say at least half if not more the the little dip shit yard apes I see around schools today are bigger than the biggest kid I went to school with.

I'm tired of corn and the corn culture of farming. The past couple months I've been working on poultry feed formulations that will wean my current flock off of corn based feeds in the next few months. Come spring when I begin raising chickens and turkeys for market, they will all be fed a corn free diet on top of their pasture grazing.

I will almost guarantee that next year's chickens will be the best tasting poultry most people have ever tasted.

Interestingly, a couple days ago I was talking to a guy who raises pasture and woodland fed hogs. He told me that Europeans will not eat american pork. Say it's too bland tasting. Has no taste to them. Seems that they feed all their pork barley.
Hmmmm, the feed mix my chickens are getting now is higher in barley and oats than corn. Next month I will lower the corn ingredient further, increase the barley and introduce rye. Can you imagine how good my poultry wil taste that's raised on barley, rye and oats and grazes pastures all day eating grasses and insects? F'in eh. Slap some of them chickens on the grill or smoke one of them turkeys!

My suggestion to all you folks out there who care about your health is to look into this issue. Decide for yourself. . . do you really want all that cheap nasty corn product in your food and in your body? If you decide you don't, start eating thinga that do not contain corn. Eat whole vegtables, eat whole grain breads that do not contain corn syrup, corn or corn glutton. Get smart. READ THE LABELS!

Just say NO to corn.

8 comments:

Herbert Weaver said...

It's like how they jammed all that corn crap into dog food and so many dog owners are complaining cuz they're dogs go bald from allergies because it's not exactly a staple of a dog's natural diet (except for the now extinct Corn coyote). Not only do we screw ourselves on our diets, we have to do it to dogs too. Doesn't pay to be man's best friend.

Mike said...

Rachel Maddow had a piece this week about how the main man behind that pro-HFCS ad campaign is also helping spread misinformation about ACORN. And he's behind an ad campaign telling people tanning spas are good for them, among other things.

Nic Heckett said...

Was your pig farmer in Mason Co WV?

Mac Daddy Tribute Blog said...

I don't even eat corn on the cob anymore. I used to put it on the grill with the leafs, take it off, put salt and butter on it and go to town. But when I became diabetic, all that stuff had to go. It's really bad on the body.

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Herb, Thanks for the comment. Too bad that damn beefy stuff is so damn expensive. I much prefer to feed my dogs on 50 cents aday rather than $1 a day, but (moan) I just go out the first of the month and buy 'em the good stuff.
Stimpy, It's all a right wing conspiracy I tell ya!
Nic, Since you are familiar with the fact that some of the finest pork in the world comes from our locale, perhaps you'd be interested in some kick ass pasture feed (truly "free range") no-corn chickens in the spring?
Yea, I can get people you know to vouch for me.
Daddy, Sorry you are missing out on the fine point of life. I suspect you make up for it in other areas!

Nic Heckett said...

I figure you were talking with my partner in pork, Dr. Chuck. I bet he will be interested in your chickens. Where will you sell them?

Kit (Keep It Trill) said...

I'd say at least half if not more the the little dip shit yard apes I see around schools today are bigger than the biggest kid I went to school with.

Heh-heh, that's sooo true. I have to point out to my kids what a normal-looking human being their age looks like. My son, whose on the lean (normal) side, was getting a complex over being "too skinny". At 6' tall and 165 lbs, I couldn't disagree more. My daughter could definitely lose 20 lbs to be of the 1970s healthy weight. She's trim by her school's standards.

I felt like a fatty years ago, until I took a hard look at women my age. Oooh, I feel so tiny and delicate... lol.

SagaciousHillbilly said...

Nic, Currently I sell them locally. I have a small customer base that is interested in really good poultry and will able to afford it.
I can always ship if the need really arose.