I hate horror movies, a distaste that I trace back to an ill-fated childhood viewing of the 1984 film portrayal of Stephen King’s short story Children of the Corn. While the plot was scary, it was the setting in Midwestern farming country that for me was downright terrifying. The contrast of the green, waving cornstalks and the horrifying subject matter struck me as unbelievably spooky; after all, what could be more wholesome than the cornfields of Nebraska? Who would ever expect a death parade to start there?
Recently, though, I’ve begun to think of those bucolic, all-American cornfields in an entirely different and more menacing light. According to Michael Pollan, celebrated contributor to The New York Times Magazine and author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, these cornfields may have much to do with the wave of obesity that has been sweeping the United States. In his book, Pollan details the key changes in U.S. agriculture that have occurred over the past century, changes that took family farms growing a variety of crops in the 1940s and ’50s and converted the ones that survived into corn- (and, occasionally, soybean-) producing agribusinesses. While overly dense at times, the book makes a strong point that the rise of nitrogen-based fertilizers and super-hardy hybrid corn seed were the major factors that spurred U.S. farmers to grow more corn and less of other crops.
The result of all of this Darwinian agriculture can be seen in any supermarket, convenience store, or vending machine, where thousands upon thousands of items rely on corn products for their very existence. Without the high-fructose corn syrup maltodextrin and its cousin compounds, we wouldn’t have modern-day Coca-Cola, Twinkies, or a million other “foods.” In fact, corn produces a huge percentage of most meals in this country—from chicken nuggets to bread to potato chips.
That these corn-produced processed foods are highly popular is not surprising: they taste good. What is surprising is that they are so inexpensive compared to other items. According to Pollan, a dollar can buy 1,200 calories of largely corn-based potato chips but a mere 250 calories worth of carrots. This unnatural currency:calorie ratio is not seen in most other countries.
It’s the dollar-to-calorie mismatch that makes buying healthier foods more expensive for poor families. And in an odd turnabout, it has helped to make the poorest segments of the U.S. population the most obese.
How these foods became so inexpensive, of course, is the most important part of the story. Today’s corn business—an estimated 10 to 11 billion bushels per year—is a direct function of the U.S. Farm Bill, which subsidizes corn to keep the crop easily available and cheap. The result, of course, is 69 cent Twinkies and a couple of extra BMI points for all.
As a pediatrician, I find all of this infuriating. I know that most of my patients can’t afford to spend extra money on food and will buy whatever is cheapest to fill their children’s bellies. The fact that U.S. agricultural policy more or less dictates that the cheapest foods available are highly processed and high in calories is unacceptable.
Advocating change of the U.S. Farm Bill could increase the price of processed foods and create incentives for lower-priced, healthy options. At the very least, advocates could consider pressing for warning labels on foods containing high-fructose corn syrup, a major component of many of the highest calorie processed foods. Physicians and their organizations concerned about pediatric obesity could organize and lobby Congress to make these changes. Our country has worshipped at the altar of corn for far too long. Without change, we may soon be in a horror movie of our own making.
Tarayn Fairlie, HMS ’06, is an intern in pediatrics at Baystate
Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.
The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Harvard Medical School, its affiliated institutions, or Harvard University.
