As Michael Pollan pointed out in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, we have become the people of the corn. Only we don’t seem to get that notion. If we did, alarm bells over this past summer’s drought in the corn belt would have been blaring and it would be a campaign issue.
But just wait until the Bacon Shortage hits next year and we’ll hear the howling. The UK National Pig Association reports:
A world shortage of pork and bacon next year is now unavoidable,…
New data shows the European Union pig herd is declining at a significant rate, and this is a trend that is being mirrored around the world. Pig farmers have been plunged into loss by high pig-feed costs, caused by the global failure of maize and soya harvests.
US farmers are scrambling to replace the increasingly expensive corn based feed for their livestock. And they’ve been finding some interesting substitutes. From the Vancouver Sun:
As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year’s U.S. corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed.
In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.
These cheap alternatives will run out soon enough because what has made them cheap is all the HFCS — CORN syrup. On the plus side, consuming less meat and corn will make our diets healthier.
