State of the Mooooooooonion

So apparently the Great Recession has shrunk the U.S. cattle herd to its smallest size since 1958 but fear not, meatatarians. According to Jim Robb, the director of the Denver-based Livestock Marketing Information Center, an industry and government-funded researcher (hmmmm...), there will still be plenty of beef to go around. "We're forecasting that beef production in 2010 won’t be the smallest since 1958, because the average animal processed now weighs twice as much,” he told Business Week. That's right, folks. The weight of an average catle for slaughter has doubled in the last fifty years.

Read all about the state of the meat and dairy industries - and the corn industry that they rely on - here.

(What you see in the photograph accompanyng this post is a revolving platform at a dairy "farm." It was this image or one of a slaughter house so enjoy the lesser of two evils.)

Not that I've ever doubted him...

... but a recent study pretty much confirmed that Michael Pollan is right and "fast food" is basically "corn." If you are wondering why this is awesome, let me explain. Or rather, let Wired explain. From the Wired post:

Chemical analysis from restaurants across the United States shows that nearly every cow or chicken used in fast food is raised on a diet of corn... Corn is an icon of unsustainable agriculture, requiring tons of fertilizer and pesticides, both of which require large amounts of fossil fuel to manufacture. Most of it is fed to livestock who didn't evolve to subsist entirely on corn. In cattle, eating corn increases flatulence emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas — and creates an intestinal environment rich in e. coli, a common cause of food poisoning. That necessitates mixing cow feed with antibiotics, in turn producing antibiotic-resistant disease strains... Many of those livestock end up in high-calorie, low-nutrition franchised fast foods... Fast food's biggest selling point is its low price — and that, say industry critics, is largely possible because of corn's ubiquitous cheapness.

And why is corn so cheap? Because it is subsidized by the government.

Corn is central to agriculture in the United States, where it is grown in greater volumes and receives more government subsidies than any other crop. Between 1995 and 2006 corn growers received $56 billion in federal subsidies, and the annual figure may soon hit $10 billion.

The $100-billion fast food industry has repeatedly been linked to obesity, heart disease, and diabetes (you know, the "western diseases"). So this is a pretty big deal. Something has got to change, right? Anyone else hoping that our new President Elect will spend some time with Michael Pollan or at least his books?

Kinda Corny...

It turns out that worrisome conditions earlier in the growing season leveled out and the corn yield this fall will be plentiful enough for both food (mostly for livestock) and fuel (gasoline additive, ethanol, made from corn). Oh and... hopefully there will be plenty for the October celebration of National Popcorn Poppin' Month.

From the NY Times:

The Department of Agriculture is forecasting the second-highest corn yield on record with production of 12.3 billion bushels, about 600 million bushels more than it had expected earlier in the summer...

The highest corn yield on record was 160.4 bushels an acre in 2004. The new 2008 estimate of 155 bushels is up 3.9 bushels from last year’s harvest. Total production will be lower than last year’s bumper crop, because farmers planted fewer acres of corn.

Read the full article here

Oh, and... hopefully this means there will be plenty for the lesser-known October celebration: National Popcorn Poppin' Month! I know, I know.... different kind of corn, but let's ignore the irrelevance and enjoy some corny facts and yummy recipe from http://www.popcorn.org/:

• Americans consume some 16 billion quarts of corn. That’s 54 quarts per man, woman, and child.
• There are two basic popcorn shapes: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger. Mushroom is used for candy confections because it doesn't crumble.
• If you made a trail of popcorn from New York City to Los Angeles, you would need more than 352,028,160 popped kernels.
• “Popability” is popcorn lingo that refers to the percentage of kernels that pop.
• Popcorn was used by the Native Americans not only as a staple in their diet, but for decoration. Sixteenth century Aztec Indians used popcorn in their ceremonies; young women danced a “popcorn dance” and wore garlands of popcorn in their hair.
• In 1945, an engineer named Percy Spencer accidentally discovered that microwave radio signals could be used to cook foods. His following experiments with popcorn led, in part, to the development of the microwave oven.

Popcorn S'mores
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 teaspoon baking soda10 cups freshly popped popcorn
1 package (10 1/2 oz.) miniature marshmallows
2 cups mini graham cookies (teddy bears)
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in medium saucepan. Cook over high heat for 5 minutes; remove from heat and stir in baking soda. Combine popcorn and marshmallows in large bowl. Pour sugar mixture over popcorn to coat. Gently stir in graham cookies and chocolate chips. Spread mixture evenly into greased 15 x 10 inch pan. Let cool completely. Break into pieces. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 20 pieces