I'm not sure that makes sense - I'm sure he'd still sell for less than the
gorceries, whcih attracts people. Also, corn for food will be harder to
get as more and more is dedicatedto ethanol production (even tho' plain
ol' native Switchgtrass, IIRC, is more efficient, btu that's another
story). Prices are also up along with anything and everythign telse that
gets shipped by truck - higher fuel prices means higher checkout prices.
People still need to eat, and corn will still be cheaper than many other
things.
Plus, corn is a *cultural* staple - I mean, who ever heard of a
picnic/cookout/BBQ without corn on the cob? No joke, corn is just
quintessentially *American* (as in all of th eAmericas), given it's
predecessor (teocinte) was native to Mexico and IIRC the area of the US
SouthWest, and maize was developed by the First Americans.
Corn, potatoes, and tomatoes.
(Wild rice was harvested by them as well, but rice is of course not unique
to the Americas.)
Anyhoo, seriously - corn is more than just a food, it's a cultural icon, a
symbol, as much a part of the American identity as other foods are part of
other cultural identities.
And personally, I'd much prefer paying farmers directly for produce, even a
the same price, because it's not like most of them make all that great a
living by farming - plus, it's so much fresher, and usually just-picked, as
opposed to spending 3-7 days being shipped. And it's local.
I have to fine a farmer's market here (havent' yet), but in the past, I've
always gone to them, and/or local farmer's stands. The quality is jsut so
much better, and it benefits the farmers more.
Re: appearance, it's been said for at elast 3 decades that one of the
largest contributors to food prices in the US has to do with appearance -
if there is even the smallest blemish, groceries will often reject
produce because people "don't like the looks of it".
Interestingly, neither being completely unripe, nor hard as a baseball,
counts as a blemish - go figure...esp. givent hat fruit does NOT ripen
when it's picked green and left to sit - sure, some of th estarches
convert to sugars, but the fruit is not taking up any more water or soil
nutrients or anything. So it's not ripening, it's just aging.
Concommitantly, I read a couple months ago that stufies show the
nutritive value of crops is actually *declining*, because they're forced
to grow too fast and -yup! - picked while unripe.
Re: corn, I like it with grilled steak and white lima beans (I boil the
dried beans in low-sodium 99% fat free free range chicken broth). I l
like to pop teh cobs into boiling water for just a couple minutes, so it
gets just soft enough so the bits don't stick under my gums
(yeah, I know, what an old fart =:-o)
and eat it plain. No butter, yuck.
It's also good left in th ehusk, wrapped in foil, and grilled - it sort-
of steams.
It's not bad for you, it's just bad to eat *too much* (that includes 'too
often', because it is so starchy/sugary - OTOH, it's certainly no worse
than pasta or white rice...). It's fine as one small part of a balanced
and varied diet.
Soybean is a legume, so it takes nitrogen from the air and fixes it into
the soil in a form that other plants can use - sort-of like free
fertilizer.
I could do without the butter - I use a little butter on average MAYBE
once a month. I just lost the taste for it. If I need to "butter" a
pan, I use either X-tr virgin olive oil, or walnut oil (which is
lighter), or even lighter, almond oil if I have some on hand. If I want
to pan "fry" somethign like battered catfish (which is a PITA so I seldom
do it), I use grapeseed oil.
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