I’m no wimp when it comes to nutrition.

But with my processed food diet, sounds like I won’t live long enough to read a 400 page book about food: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

But the Slate.com book review club delivered a terrific audiocast. Stephen Metcalf is a particularly eloquent and articulate reviewer. Listen to that podcast.

For reasons historic and political, corn is used to feed American cattle. Unfortunately a corn diet can kill a cow. Thankfully we have drugs to keep the poor beasts alive until slaughter date. (About 18-months-old, I believe.)

Consider a McDonald’s lunch. Corn feeds the cow that turns into the burgers. Corn is the oil that cooks the fries. And corn syrup sweetens the shakes and the soft drinks. Corn even makes up 13 of the 38 ingredients in Chicken McNuggets.

If you wisely avoid Rotten Ronnie’s, know that a quarter of the products in your grocery store contain corn.

Avoiding corn is as easy as avoiding things made in China.

This cannot last much longer. So much petroleum is needed to keep the corn economy running that the corn economy is not sustainable long-term. Something must change.

New Zealand was held up as a non-corn-based model. They dropped all agricultural subsidies long ago.