Corn

Corn seems like a pretty basic, straight-forward crop at first glance.  

Over the last few years, however, I've come to realize how complicated this plant is.  I'll do my best, though I'm not an expert, to give a little picture on the complicated nature (or lack of nature) of corn.

I first became aware of Monsanto and GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) when I watched the documentary Food, Inc. on Netflix with my husband.  Since then, I've tried to stay more educated about how my food is produced.  In 2011, 88% of the corn grown in this country was genetically modified.  In other words, if there is any product in your house made from corn, it is most likely a GMO (unless labeled non-gmo or maybe not if it's organic).  Monsanto is the company producing these seeds (they also make Round Up).  

How is corn being modified?  There are two ways.  The first is to inject a bacteria that produces a toxin within the corn.  This toxin poisons pests, and so the corn is able to grow without those pesky moths trying to eat it.  The second method is to modify the corn to resist herbicides (like Round Up).  So, farmers can spray Round Up on their corn all day long and it won't kill the corn.

Are GMOs harmful?  The jury is still out, but to be frank, I'd rather not eat corn that even the moths won't eat.  And I'd rather not eat corn that has been doused in Round Up.  I'd rather not be messing around with the genetic make-up of our food.  

Monsanto, the company making these GMO seeds, is a whole issue in and of itself.  There are a lot of folks up in arms against this massive corporation for running out small farmers who try to grow non-Monsanto seeds (among other reasons).

All this to say, I'm cautious about corn (and soy, which is the other top GMO).  My tortilla chips, popcorn, and cornmeal all have NON-GMO Project labels on them.  I like that I can use my money to vote for the products I want to see on the shelves.  

But there is another side of this story for me, which is that I think stressing out too much about 'green', organic, health issues is, well, unhealthy.  I'll try to be educated and do what I can, but I'm not going to turn down someone's cooking if it has GMOs in it, and I'm sure my pantry isn't totally free of them either (like my canola oil, for instance).  Our chicken feed isn't organic, which means it is made from GMO corn... it's on our list of things to remedy, but we have to find a cost-effective, sustainable solution that will work for us.

This brings me to my garden.  We're growing corn for the first time this year.  I was excited to see a packet of organic non-gmo sweet corn, so I figured we'd give it a try.  

 It has been really fun to harvest our first couple ears. 
My kids love corn-on-the-cob, and I feel pretty good about them eating this corn.

 For the kids, helping in the garden almost always means playing with worms.

To get outside, to touch the earth, to eat straight from the plant... these are beautiful things for a child to do.