What does Corn do for us?
Our food supply depend on a large amount of corn. We feed the corn to the cattles to provide meals and to provide milk on the table. Also corn is fed to the chickens and what we get in return is the eggs and the meat from them. We have been warned by economists that the our growing dependence on corn will cause soaring prices for food if the nation suffers a drought in the Midwest but even now under "normal" conditions the costs of many foods have increased greatly just because of the present of ethanol binge. At the current rate of corn usage for non-food purposes we can see eggs at well over $4.00 a dozen and meat prices skyrocketing.
Corn cobs might seem like the throwaway part of corn, but have their uses -and more uses are discovered or developed all the time. Ground cobs are used for livestock feed. Traditional farm uses include animal bedding, toilet paper substitute, landfill, fuel, and to make corn cob jelly. Modern industrial products made from corn cobs include absorbents for oil and hazardous waste, insecticides, fertilizer, and grit for tumbling and blasting.
Last year corn prices rose substantially and in the short time of this year so far corn prices have risen an additional 20% because of worldwide demand for corn as livestock feed, use in sweeteners. American farmers are foregoing other grains to plant high cash-producing corn. This monetary incentive has even caused wheat supplies to diminish such that wheat prices are also up 21% and soy prices rose 25% this year.
Corn is also used for Ethanol Fuel, Regular gasoline-powered cars can run on gas blended with up to 10% ethanol. Corn is a renewable resource, so biofuels are seen as a replacement for fossil fuels. However, the growing use of corn for biofuel raises concerns about the diminishing availability of corn for food.
Citation:
News & Tech (The Importance of the Corn Economy)
http://www.nationalledger.com/news-tech/the-importance-of-the-corn-eco-148865.shtml#.VQGHhS71Wls
"10 Ways We Use Corn." Mental Floss. Web. 13 Mar. 2015.
This is a great informative post, though you could have related it by using a few more economic vocab words. Though overall you did a good job showing all of the ways the corn can be used from food to fuel.
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting how much we use corn in our food. I never knew that there was a shortage. I wonder if people will ever find an alternative to corn especially to save from feeding it to cows and chickens. With the shortage of corn, it does not seem like the best idea to use up all of it for fuel but I do think it is important to try and find an alternative resource.
ReplyDeleteCorn is a major part of the economy as the post says, but wouldn't it make sense if there were an alternative to corn. An alternative that would be there in case of a drought were to hit the major corn growing parts of the world. So if anything I think there should at least be some sort of back up to corn in case there is a drought and that will keep the prices of other foods from going up.
ReplyDeleteCorn will behoove us in our everyday life. It’s our main grain grown in the U.S. and as you said, it has many different uses. It can be food for humans, or food for animals that also serve as food to humans. In the last few years, as a way to decrease fossil fuel use, ethanol has been used more and more in cars and fuel. A big opportunity cost though is that if we use it more in our engines, there won’t be enough to be used for food.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea corn was such a superfood and important part of the economy. It is also a superb example of how price can rise when the demand curve shifts to the right and all of a sudden consumers get their socks knocked off by higher prices. I wonder what the input prices are for corn and how much of a profit the farmers make per year.
ReplyDeleteIts very insightful to consider all that corn can actually provide us. It can be used for so much more than we realize, and a simple change in the production of corn could greatly shift the supply curve of many other products that we depend upon. It is also a great inspiration because although everyone may not soon be driving a car powered by this unique fossil fuel, it does help push for new and innovative ways to fuel cars as the supply of gasoline continues to decrease.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting take on corn that I had never considered before. It seems to be a bit of a microcosm for the entire economy; there are seemingly infinitely many uses for an extremely scare resource, and therefore the cost of the products will reflect the dollar vote of each consumer and will mean that deem that use of corn to be the most important.
ReplyDeleteI figured that corn is important but I didn't think it could potentially bust the economy if things went south. Corn is used for a lot apparently. If we could drive cars using corn. That will be the day
ReplyDeleteI was unaware how much corn is used everyday. It is very interesting to me to see the ways that corn can feed animals and make fuel for cars. Before, I thought that corn was just food for us and sometimes cattle. If corn is going to be used more for gas, why can't more corn just be grown to compensate? This topic was interesting to read about and it was very easy to understand, great job!
ReplyDeleteThis was an interesting post because we don't realize how often we need and use corn. What do you suggest that we do to help reduce the prices? Should we try to substitute corn with something?
ReplyDeleteBefore reading your post, I didn't know corn had nearly that many uses. You did a good job of explaining the importance of corn, and about how it effects the economy. My only criticism is that there were places that you could have used some of the terms from class.
ReplyDeleteCorn is pretty important, I guess! I had no idea how often corn was used, though I did know that corn syrup is in pretty much every type of food. Some people might think that with corn's many uses, especially in fuel, that we should just grow way more of it, but that would take up a lot of farm land and wreck a lot of our soil, which would hurt the economy tremendously. The best solution, I think, would be to find some sort of alternative for corn to reduce the amount of soil erosion from growing corn and help stabilize the corn price in the economy. Overall, this was a very interesting post, though I agree that there could have been more economic terms in it. Good job!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that there were so many ways to use corn. Also, I guess I never realized that egg and milk prices were going up. It would make sense that prices would rise as the demand for corn goes up. The fact that a farmers livestock lives off of corn make me wonder as the corn prices rise will farmers start feeding the livestock something new, and if so what will it be?
ReplyDeleteI had no idea corn was so important in the economy! I knew that it had something to do with Ethanol and gas production, but I didn't know about all of those other uses AND had such an influence on the rest of the produce market. But it doesn't seem like it has been having a good effect on it; have there been any experiments for an alternative? Perhaps adding in some sort of comparison would make this a bit more informative! Either way, this is a thought provoking story and I'm going to be keeping an eye on this now.
ReplyDeleteWhat really attracted me to your piece was the title. When I think of corn I don't necessarily think of all the ways it can be used but rather eating it fresh off the grill like at the State Fair. If corn is used in gas we could definitely grow more of it because eventually the world is going to run out of it. Therefore how will cars start? Or even here in the U.S you need a car to get places so how would people get from point A to point B? In your piece you mentioned that corn is a renewable resource therefore bio fuels can be a replacement to fossil fuels but if we start using it too much then corn would become scarce for people to eat. My question is, how so? Since we can always grow more corn and there's plenty of land it sounds like a good idea to me. Furthermore I liked the picture of the car that showed if others cars were powered by corn. My only suggestion is to incorporate more words from economics class.
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize corn was so important to the economy. I think corn would be considered a resource that goes into other products as well as a product itself, which kind of makes it in its own category. Is corn counted in GDP or is the products made by corn counted? is only some corn counted in GDP? I'm also surprised that corn prices could rise that much when corn has so many substitutes, I would think that if the price of corn went up by even a little people would buy another vegetable. Corn is much more interesting than I thought it could be.
ReplyDeleteIt’s a shocking fact to me to know that there is so much dependant on corn. I already knew the obvious use for it, but I guess I never really thought about the bigger roles it played in our meat production and fuel. The government has been providing subsidies for awhile when it comes to corn growth but I think that the subsidies are actually hurting our economy now because so many farms are inclined to grow the crop if they’re reassured that they will get paid for it. Being so dependent on one thing can lead to some serious issues, so I think that finding an alternate crop or plant to provide even half of the function of corn would ease the price significantly. So all in all do you think that the government should continue to subsidize corn or invest more money into finding an alternate to it?
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