Corn as art

By Anastasia on 11 June 2011

Field of Dreams in Dyersville, IA by John Bollwitt.

We often talk about the science of corn (aka maize) but there’s so much more to it. I’ll be leaving corn country soon to start a new job, and I know I’ll miss being in the center of so much maize.

Consider the natural beauty of a cornfield swaying in a summer breeze, with killdeer and red-winged blackbirds calling amongst the buzzing of grasshoppers.

It’s just a cornfield, but the combination of symmetry and asymmetry from afar and up close, of being in the presence of a plant that has been touched by humans for thousands of years, somehow makes it a very interesting place to be – even when I have many hours of pollinating or harvesting behind and ahead of me.

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Uses of corn

By Anastasia on 10 June 2010

The Center for Crops Utilization Research at Iowa State University has produced a great poster showing some of the many uses of corn and corn derived compounds. Did you know that grits, as well as being a delicious food, can be made into wallpaper paste and floor wax?

CornUsesPoster

Click on the image to view the full size poster.

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Corn syrup myths

By Anastasia on 25 January 2010

There are a lot of myths out there about high fructose corn syrup. While there are plenty of reasons to avoid consuming too much corn syrup (and all sugars), that’s no reason to spread rumors.

Have any commonly held beliefs about corn that you’d like to know more about? Let us know in the comments.

Myth: Huge amounts of the sizable US corn crop go to HFCS production. Here’s an example that sums up this idea from Grist: “The Big Corn People began to grow so much royally-subsidized GMO corn that they turned it into millions of gallons of high fructose corn syrup.”

It’s true, a portion of the US corn crop is used for HFCS production. It’s also true that corn syrup is cheap because the corn industry receives subsidies. But there’s a lot more to this story.

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