We are children of the corn....

[MarkC]

Corn is what they call a "C-4" plant. During photsynthesis, most plants create compounds that have 3 carbon atoms, corn makes compounds with 4. This gives it the advantage of grabbing more carbon each time it opens its stoma, which reduces water loss.

There's a long story to the rise of corn, I suggest reading about it.
As for feeding grain to cattle, it makes them so unhealthy that most of their lives, they're really well on the way to dying, even if they didn't get slaughtered.
Feeding them corn, which they can't naturally digest makes it necessary to shoot them up with hormones and antibiotics. You are what you eat eats, so all that stuff is coming to you one way or another.
Guess how much petroleum it takes to grow a steer to the slaughterhouse. If he eats 25 lbs. of corn a day and gets up to 1200 lbs body weight, he will have eaten the equivalent of almost a barrel of oil.
Corn wears out the soil, as someone else already stated.
Anyway, there's a lot of information in the book, too much to summarize here.

 

[K-Man]

One reason corn (maize) requires human intervention to harvest is that the plants are all female. There is a male maize plant, but it does not produce cobs and is not grown commercially. It is found in the wild mainly in the area of Mexico where maize is thought to have originated. Today's commonly grown hybrid sweet corn varieties are also rather fussy about growing conditions and reproduction as well.

This plant is valuable and has its place, but most Americans consume way too much of it (as for much other stuff)—especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup as sweetener and filler. I avoid foods containing it like the plague.

Cattle are far better off eating natural grasses, and the product is better.

 

[Shannow]

Gary,
there are some tasty grass fed steaks around.

A couple of workmates raise and sell "Angus", a naturally tender and tasty meat. Both grow them on rye grass, and occasionally turnip tops if there is likely to be enough moisture to make that worthy. Also hay for the leaner times. Both get very good money for their animals, as they are good meat.

A former workmate has started feedlotting, and turns his grass into sileage. He takes in grazed animals, and spends some time preparing them for market in his lot (yes also uses grain). Picks up around $2500 per animal over his purchase price.

There was a scandal down here a while ago with the cotton industry selling its waste to cattle farmers as high protein, high energy (read fat) feed. Ended up releasing a huge amount of pesticide into the Oz meat market.

The practice was banned.

So they now sell their "cholesterol free" cottonseed oil to takeaways.

 

[JavaMan]

"Fat is flavor."

"Wow!!!!!!!!

I'm not a tub of lard!!!!!

I am flavorful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Everything in moderation. We don't eat a huge prime porterhouse steak every night. But, once every month or so it's nice to put one on the grill. In between we eat a lot of chicken cooked very healthfully.

 

[Shannow]

ekrampitzjr, are you sure that there's male and female plants ?

I thought we were taught at school that there's male parts and female on each plant. The pollen from the male plant falls onto the female part, and each of these interactions produces a single kernal. If the seasons end up getting mucked up, the two parts mature at different times, and no corn results.

The reason (we were taught) that new seeds are required each time is that the crops that we like are all hybrids that won't throw true into the next generation, and have to be recreated each season from two "true" strains.

Over 5 seasons, I started with sweet corn. Plented their proginey the next year, and so on. After 4 or 5 turns, the result was smaller ears, and much more starchy, and no where near as sweet or juicy. (I like this better)

 

[K-Man]

There is a male maize plant. Obviously it isn't absolutely essential for propagation of the species, and the existence of male plants isn't widely known. What you were taught is true, but keep in mind that corn has been harvested for thousands of years and dealing with only the female plants is down to a science. The female plant does have male and female parts, which is why the male plant isn't essential when humans intervene to grow maize. In a nutshell, as I understand it, the male part of the female plant is nearly rudimentary, which complicates reproduction. I don't know whether the male plant has a female component.

The hybrid problem is common to most commercially grown crops and flowers, not just maize. They usually don't breed true.

Your sweet corn reverted to what we in the US call "field corn". Many varieties are very good when the cobs are picked young, but the kernels get hard as a rock as the cobs mature. Sweet corn is for direct human consumption, and field corn is ground for meal or used for animal consumption. Of course, you could be like the smart-butt I heard a while back who said, "Field corn? As opposed to what, air corn?"

Shannow, is "corn" used in Oz to mean only maize as Americans do, or is the word used in the British sense to mean any grain commonly grown in an area?

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:

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"Fat is flavor."

Wow!!!!!!!!

I'm not a tub of lard!!!!!

I am flavorful !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---

One lean healthy coworker right out of the navy took exception when I said that I was much more muscular then he was. I was very "husky" compared to him. He scoffed. I pointed out that any fat that I had was probably the lightest tissue in my body and that the majority of my mass surely was composed of muscle. I then pointed out that it wasn't as lean and healthy a muscle mass as his ..but it was most assuredly more abundant ..to an extreme degree.

It was only when I referred to marbled beef vs. lean beef that he accepted that the (by military standards) lazy sack of (bigger and stronger) kraap was more "muscle laden" then he was.


I won't compromise on my beef. I love beef. When we dine out ..which we don't do often, I want the most tender and marbled steak that can be had. I can cook shoe leather at home @ a whopping discount. I wan't stuffed mushrooms with the richest crab imperial. We eat eye of the round and london broil more commonly at home. Quality beef prices have really gone up in the past couple or three years. We had a very good butcher that solid really tender beef for reasonable prices ..but he retired with no family continuing the stand at the local farmer's market. Stuff that we thought was expensive @ 4.95 goes for $9.95+ now ..and it's not as good

I'll continue to take my Lipitor.

Chicken ...somehow I only like it fried. I can't seperate chicken from feeling poor. Fish? That I can handle ..but ..you're just poor when you buy as much as you want.

I want them to make good tasting food harmless. I cannot and will not engage in a life of twigs and grass clippings garnished with ground up tree bark for my bodily needs. I'll just have to cope with the consequences.

 

[Shannow]

Quote:

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Shannow, is "corn" used in Oz to mean only maize as Americans do, or is the word used in the British sense to mean any grain commonly grown in an area?

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ekrampitzjr,
yep, specifically sweet corn, anlthough corn flour is still called corn flour. Corn in breakfast cereals is called corn, while in canned and baked stuff it's often maize.

The other stuff (Barley, millet, etc etc is referred to as what it is)

 

[Bryanccfshr]

Grass fed beef and free range chicken and chicken eggs is what I seek out. In my part of the country I have had the oppurtunnity to find farmers who ranch holisticly and through paddock rotations have some very healthy protien sources. If you haven't had a free range chicken in a while that gets to eat grasshoppers and scratch throuh cow poop looking for fresh greens, you haven't tasted the way chicken is supposed to taste, and the eggs..MMM.

 

[Bob Woods]

Quote:

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.This plant is valuable and has its place, but most Americans consume way too much of it (as for much other stuff)—especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup as sweetener and filler. I avoid foods containing it like the plague.

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I understand the process to make high-fructose corn syrup creates a by-product that is classifed as toxic waste.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:

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Quote:

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.This plant is valuable and has its place, but most Americans consume way too much of it (as for much other stuff)—especially in the form of high-fructose corn syrup as sweetener and filler. I avoid foods containing it like the plague.

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I understand the process to make high-fructose corn syrup creates a by-product that is classifed as toxic waste.

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Well, we know that it produces a large amount of waist.

 

[JavaMan]

"Grass fed beef and free range chicken and chicken eggs is what I seek out."

What ever makes you, me and eveyone else happy. I like corn fed and you like grass fed. It's great to have choices.

 

[MarkC]

Corn fed mostly means Confined Animal Feeding Operation, industrial meat. If you followed a calf through his short life under these conditions, you might not want to eat steak for a few weeks. At least not until you smelled one cooking....

 

[Gary Allan]

Heck, go get that real expensive beef that they have in Japan ..where the animal never moves and gets it legs massaged

That's a little steep for my wallet.

 

[Pablo]

Beats eat human. The other white meat.