Philosophy
This article from Chemical & Engineering News does make one wonder about the sustainability of having one primary food source in the complex food chain. If the "corn" link is broken as in severe drought or disease, it would have a devastating effect on the food chain. It has already been compromised by the alternate fuel hysteria resulting not in a broken food chain but higher product costs. Has there ever been a successful society that relied so heavily on one product's diversification and has that society collapsed when that one product disappeared or severely compromised?
EVERY TIME PATRONS of fast-food restaurants bite into a burger or devour a fistful of fries, they are, in essence, enjoying a heaping serving of corn. According to chemical isotope analysis, the vast majority of beef and chicken served in fast-food eateries is raised on a diet of corn, and corn oil is frequently used to cook fries (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2008, 105, 17855). The findings are the first to scientifically demonstrate corn's fundamental role in the fast-food industry, on which Americans spend more than $100 billion annually.
University of Hawaii researcher A. Hope Jahren undertook the fast-food forensic-like analysis to find out how reliant the industry is on corn. Corn agriculture in the U.S. has been criticized as being environmentally unsustainable, requiring disproportionate amounts of fertilizer and fossil fuels. And although the fundamental role corn plays in the U.S. diet has been the subject of other reports, such as Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma," these accounts have been based on journalistic investigation rather than scientific study.
"I think society is struggling with the need for dietary information that's not forthcoming," Jahren says. Throughout the course of her study, she notes, she attempted with no success to find out from fast-food corporations how their livestock are fed.
Jahren and graduate student Rebecca A. Kraft analyzed the carbon and nitrogen in nearly 500 servings of burgers, fries, and chicken sandwiches. Carbon in corn has a specific isotopic signature, so when livestock consume a corn-based diet, that signature is left in the animals' tissue. Similarly, the nitrogen-based fertilizer used to grow that corn also leaves a telltale trail in nitrogen's isotopic ratio.
The researchers gathered the fast-food staples over the course of two years from McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Denver, Boston, and Baltimore. They found that 100% of the chicken and 93% of the beef had been fed exclusively a corn-based diet. And the nitrogen analyses indicate that the livestock had been dining on heavily fertilized feed.
The carbon signature of the fries indicate that Wendy's uses solely corn oil for frying, although the company claims it may also use canola, soy, or cottonseed oil for this purpose. McDonald's and Burger King fries are cooked with various vegetable oils, according to the results.
"This study reinforces our observations that North America is becoming reliant on a single crop for a food source," says Stephen A. Macko, a University of Virginia researcher who uses isotopes to study the human diet. Macko questions whether Americans' dependence on corn is sustainable or healthy, noting that corn-based agriculture is heavily subsidized and that cattle raised on a corn-based diet tend to be sick.
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An interesting story. I often wondered how many lives were lost before ancient man realized which plants were poisonous, medicinal, and tasty and the same with hunting technology or even sex and communication. "Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables"...
- Orville Redenbacher...colonel Of The Kernel
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Philosophy
King "corn"
This article from Chemical & Engineering News does make one wonder about the sustainability of having one primary food source in the complex food chain. If the "corn" link is broken as in severe drought or disease, it would have a devastating effect on the food chain. It has already been compromised by the alternate fuel hysteria resulting not in a broken food chain but higher product costs. Has there ever been a successful society that relied so heavily on one product's diversification and has that society collapsed when that one product disappeared or severely compromised?"Fast Food's Corny Roots"
Isotope survey is the first scientific study to demonstrate corn's central role in burgers and fries
by
Bethany Halford
November 17th, 2008
Chemical & Engineering News
Isotope survey is the first scientific study to demonstrate corn's central role in burgers and fries
by
Bethany Halford
November 17th, 2008
Chemical & Engineering News
EVERY TIME PATRONS of fast-food restaurants bite into a burger or devour a fistful of fries, they are, in essence, enjoying a heaping serving of corn. According to chemical isotope analysis, the vast majority of beef and chicken served in fast-food eateries is raised on a diet of corn, and corn oil is frequently used to cook fries (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2008, 105, 17855). The findings are the first to scientifically demonstrate corn's fundamental role in the fast-food industry, on which Americans spend more than $100 billion annually.
University of Hawaii researcher A. Hope Jahren undertook the fast-food forensic-like analysis to find out how reliant the industry is on corn. Corn agriculture in the U.S. has been criticized as being environmentally unsustainable, requiring disproportionate amounts of fertilizer and fossil fuels. And although the fundamental role corn plays in the U.S. diet has been the subject of other reports, such as Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma," these accounts have been based on journalistic investigation rather than scientific study.
"I think society is struggling with the need for dietary information that's not forthcoming," Jahren says. Throughout the course of her study, she notes, she attempted with no success to find out from fast-food corporations how their livestock are fed.
Jahren and graduate student Rebecca A. Kraft analyzed the carbon and nitrogen in nearly 500 servings of burgers, fries, and chicken sandwiches. Carbon in corn has a specific isotopic signature, so when livestock consume a corn-based diet, that signature is left in the animals' tissue. Similarly, the nitrogen-based fertilizer used to grow that corn also leaves a telltale trail in nitrogen's isotopic ratio.
The researchers gathered the fast-food staples over the course of two years from McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's restaurants in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Denver, Boston, and Baltimore. They found that 100% of the chicken and 93% of the beef had been fed exclusively a corn-based diet. And the nitrogen analyses indicate that the livestock had been dining on heavily fertilized feed.
The carbon signature of the fries indicate that Wendy's uses solely corn oil for frying, although the company claims it may also use canola, soy, or cottonseed oil for this purpose. McDonald's and Burger King fries are cooked with various vegetable oils, according to the results.
"This study reinforces our observations that North America is becoming reliant on a single crop for a food source," says Stephen A. Macko, a University of Virginia researcher who uses isotopes to study the human diet. Macko questions whether Americans' dependence on corn is sustainable or healthy, noting that corn-based agriculture is heavily subsidized and that cattle raised on a corn-based diet tend to be sick.
- Government Mandated Veggies
In Elena Kagan's Supreme Court hearings before the Senate's Judicial Committee, Oklahoma's Senator Tom Coburn asked whether it would be constitutionally permissible to pass a law requiring Americans to eat vegetables. Clearly a grandstanding...
- Peruvian Indians And Good Ole Popcorn
"Study suggests ancient Peruvians 'ate popcorn'"January 18th, 2012BBC NEWSA new study suggests that people living along the coast of northern Peru were eating popcorn 1,000 years earlier than previously thought.Researchers say corncobs found at...
- Ethanol...simply A Bad Idea
"The Ethanol Catastrophe" Biofuels aggravate global warming and cause hunger. Why won't the U.S. stop subsidizing them? by Bjørn Lomborg March 10th, 2011 Slate Spectators at February's Daytona 500 in Florida were handed green flags to wave...
- Neanderthals Cooked Their Vegetables
An interesting story. I often wondered how many lives were lost before ancient man realized which plants were poisonous, medicinal, and tasty and the same with hunting technology or even sex and communication. "Neanderthals cooked and ate vegetables"...
- Orville Redenbacher...colonel Of The Kernel
Orville Redenbacher July 16th, 1907 to September 19th, 1995 Orville Redenbacher was an "American agronomist and popcorn business founder, born in Brazil, Ind., Popcorn King whose devotion to creating and promoting a fluffier, tastier popcorn turned him...