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Are You Being Controlled ... By Corn?


What if humans are all just pawns in a clever strategy game masterminded by corn? In this video, author Michael Pollan asks you to see things from a plant‘s-eye view -- to consider the possibility that nature isn‘t opposed to culture, and that biochemistry rivals intellect as a survival tool. By merely shifting your perspective, perhaps you can help heal the Earth.

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As food shortages and hunger crises loom on the horizon, I found Pollan’s speech -- and the ideas it represents -- to be a ray of hope. There is a reason why Joel Salatin, the farmer mentioned in the video, can easily call his farm Polyface “beyond organic.”

“We are in the redemption business,” it says on the farm’s homepage. “Healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture.”

What a breath of fresh air.

Contrast that to the plague of modern agriculture, whose factory farms are among the worst polluters in the United States, and it’s easy to see how the future of our land and food supply lies in people who are willing to embrace the principles of permaculture.

What is Permaculture?

The Permaculture Institute puts it quite well. They define permaculture as an “ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor.”

The word itself comes from “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture,” and at its foundation is developing agricultural and other systems that are interconnected and dependent on one another. In other words, they mimic the natural ecologies found in nature. The focus is not on any one element of the system, rather the focus is on the relationships between animals, plants, insects, soil, water and habitat -- and how to use these relationships to create synergistic, self-supporting ecosystems.

“Though the problems of the world are increasingly more complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple,” said Bill Mollison, co-founder of the world-wide permaculture movement. And I couldn’t agree more.

What is Needed is a Return to Nature

Those of you who are new to the natural health scene may find it surprising that the modern food system is in danger of collapsing. The food system began its dramatic decline the second the world turned away from the farming practices of our ancestors, and began to attempt to outdo nature with technology.

Now, producing food on a massive scale at the lowest price possible has taken precedence over obeying the laws of nature. The system is pushing natural systems and organisms to their limit, forcing living creatures to function as machines.

Of course, “whatever we may gain in industrial efficiency, we sacrifice in biological resilience,” Michael Pollan pointed out in Our Decrepit Food Factories.

Soon, the animals, and consequently your food supply, become unhealthy. The honeybees begin to get sick and die off. The bacteria prove that they can outwit man-made antibiotics, and create super-versions of themselves.

And as nature has shown us many times before, when you take away one part of this integrated, living system, things begin to crumble.

You may be wondering what you can do about all of this. Well, short of starting your own sustainable farm (which you can do on a small-scale in your own backyard), you can steer clear of foods that come from factory farms, and instead support sustainable agriculture movements in your area.

You can also stay informed and help to spread the word about the problems with the modern food system. Michael Pollan, for those of you who don’t know, is a New York Times author who has written extensively on this topic. He wrote the brilliant article about the perils of factory-farmed beef back in 2002, and he also published the book Omnivore's Dilemma in 2006, which is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the future of food.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (86)
 
 
Posted On May 06, 2008
I'm not controlled by corn, but the tomatoes are really bossy.

 
qualitygeek
Savvy User Savvy User, Joined On 10/2007
qualitygeek  
Replied

New to Natural
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 11/2007
New to Natural  
 
Posted On May 06, 2008
And be wary of the "green pepper revenge" 

They get me every time! 


Pat Ormsby
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
Pat Ormsby  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

I'm on my knees beholden to a large number of leafy tyrants--but really, permaculture techniques are very important to learn, and I thank Dr. Mercola for bringing this up.  Raising our own vegetables and having extra to provide other people really gives us a sense of security in an increasingly insecure world.



Mercola Fan
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2006
Mercola Fan  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

The site that this talk comes from is very interesting and has a LOT of useful info. TED.com

One guy talks very convincingly and intelligently about how to get us off of oil. With the price of fuel going up at the clip that it is, what is going to happen to the people who are on a budget when they have to heat their homes this coming winter? Many of them will have to come up with an additional several thousand dollars. What will THAT do to the economy if the price of gas is creating the problem that it is?

Eye-opening, and do-able....

www.ted.com/.../51



Julia Owens
Novice User Novice User Joined On 12/2006
Julia Owens  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

I think "Veggie Tales" is on to something.



ryree
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 6/2006
ryree  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

Look what our government is trying to do to impoverished countries now...

According to the Chicago Tribune, the White House is attempting to force famine stricken countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, to plant genetically engineered (GE) crops, as part of a $770 million aid package. Untested and largely unregulated GE crops are controversial, not only in Europe and other industrialized countries, but in the developing world as well. At least 40 countries around the world have restricted GE farming and ingredients in foods by requiring mandatory labeling, while a number of nations and regions have banned genetically modified organisms in agriculture altogether. Beyond health and environmental concerns, and contrary to industry propaganda, GE crops do not significantly increase yields, but rather force farmers to stop saving their seeds and instead buy toxic chemicals and highly priced patented seeds from biotech companies such as Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dupont, Dow,'s and BASF. Please take action today and urge your members of Congress to reject the Bush Administration's force-feeding of biotech crops to impoverished nations: www.organicconsumers.org/.../article_12463.cfm



TheTrishna
Novice User Novice User Joined On 2/2007
TheTrishna  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

I thought the therapist was telling me I was co-dependent, but now I get it! Read "Corn-dependent No More!" and "Beyond Corn-dependency" to extricate yourself from your abusive, corn-dependent relationships.



beneficialbugnetzero
Novice User Novice User Joined On 5/2008
beneficialbugnetzero  
 
Posted On May 23, 2008

Someone commented on invasive species councils. So glad to see people are picking up on the fact that chemical companies are behind the big push for people to think that anything non-native is a problem. Hmm... the honeybee anyone? Care to think about what we're going to do when these acclimated critters are all gone due to pesticides killing them off directly as well as weakening them to the point of their not being able to do what we expect them to do for our benefit?

For any of you in the Bay Area, we have a great program about the Light Brown Apple Moth pesticides program happening 6/5, 7-9 pm, at BFUU, 1924 Cedar St. Daniel Harder, botanist, will speak, as will David Theodoropoulis who wrote, Invasion Biology: Critique of a Psuedoscience. He has tracked chemical companies' worming their way into the "environmental movement" getting local groups to declare emergencies around non-natives, and then calling for the use of herbicides in the case of vegetation, and the state is using a boatload of toxics in response to a long-acclimated moth.

Do we let them? Read all about it at www.dontspraycalifornia.org, and tell your friends. It's NOT just aerial spraying, but toxic twist ties, toxic traps, ground spraying and permethrins on utility poles. We have all the toxicology on our site and many downloadable materials you can use in your own organizing and tabling around this horrific program.

6/5 we also will have some Caltrans roadside spraying workers speaking who will be discussing how they have been injured by the pesticides used and are being refused medical help for their pesticide injuries. Please get that info out to friends and join in getting these people support and help they need.



countryclassic49
Novice User Novice User Joined On 2/2008
countryclassic49  
 
Posted On May 23, 2008

Ryree....RIGHT ON! Everybody on this site (AND ALL their friends should writeand phone the reprsentatives...on BOTH sides of the Border) gee, I wonder why Bush's Gov't is trying to force 3rd world countries into GE seeds???? and how do we know what can be worked into the genetics of these seeds? Maybe a scenario like that old sci-fi book "Day of the Triffids", eh? or maybe just some time-bomb disease to decimate the population? So who's playing GOD here? That "god-fearing" southern redneck who pretends to be a cowboy?? I say PRETENDS, because I come from a long line of cowboys who were REAL, and it is embarassing that he tries to impersonate them!!!


 
 
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

Nope, corn no longer controls me.

When I discovered that corn is man-made (a 5000 year old hybrid of teosinte - corn will not grow by itself - it must be planted every year) and has no natural immune system of its own, it usually has numerous molds growing on it (up to 27 types, most not visible to the naked eye - even the corn you grow at home will have these molds, so it is NOT just a BigAg problem), all of which produce mycotoxins on the kernels (which you then eat and accumulates in your body), I simply stopped eating corn. I also now refuse to eat any food containing corn or corn byproducts (nearly every processed food in the grocery store), which includes soda pop (sweetened with HFCS - high fructose corn syrup). I also quit eating refined sugar and anything with soy (that mayo you put on your sandwiches is about 75% soy). As a result, my arthritis has disappeared. No more tendinitis, bursitus, etc. either. A tumor in my throat has disappeared. Oh, and I have lost over 150 pounds. I am now healthier than I have ever been in my life.


 
Cap.n Chaos
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 5/2008
Cap.n Chaos  
 
 
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

Food shortage?  Really?  Hard to believe when you see the huge volumes of food refuse thrown out each week by grocery stores. ... not to mention the enormous daily food refuse (unused, not just leftovers) from restaurants and fast food chains.  Food shortage seems like an inaccurate assessment.  Maybe food distribution imbalance is a better one?

None-the-less, I like the idea of permaculture.  I'm going to have to read up on that.


 
Tilapia2006
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 5/2007
Tilapia2006  
Replied

Gussie
Novice User Novice User Joined On 10/2007
Gussie  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

I agree with you as I have seen school lunches thrown out,big garbage full of food, lots of corn.  We are a nation of waste.  I did not get to see the video; it would not play for me.  Dr. Mercola has some good things on his web sit but one would have to live in a bubble if we followed all these warnings and suggestions. I can throw us into panic!!



heatherschulte
Novice User Novice User Joined On 6/2006
heatherschulte  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

I agree.  The so called "food shortage" is hype.  I was guessing it was created by the oil industry, or Monsanto to convince us that GMO's were necessary.



Voltaire
Novice User Novice User Joined On 3/2008
Voltaire  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

Take Note: i AM ON A MISSION FROM CORN!

The wonderful thing about Polyculture A.K.A. Permaculture is it is a way to have our cake and eat it too. David Blume's masterpiece "Alcohol can be a Gas" is really as much about Permaculture as it is about running Your car on the internal combustion engine's original fuel. Ethanol.

Even with monoculture using corn to power the first stage of Ethanol's return as a fuel, We will eventually end up with superior cattle feed using everything but the carbs in corn that was pulled out to make Ethanol. Cattle have far lower vet bills on DDGS since that food will more closely resemble what cattle are supposed to eat. Grass (corn) is not the preferred feed for cattle as they bloat on too much carbs. Bloat can kill a cow. Cows would eat forest browse in nature.

Big Oil is on a rampage to kill ethanol, blaming food increases on corn going to make fuel, but the leftovers are feeding cattle and very little is being lost, except Big Oil's bottom line.

The proof is that Oil is not going up in terms of any stable currency. Only in terms of the Fiat dollar is Oil going up in price.

What would help is stopping the 40 million acre conservation land bank that farmers are paid to not grow food.

That land could make 44 billion gallons of ethanol if planted to fodder beets that make almost 3x what corn yields in ethanol. 44 billion gallons is almost one third of gasoline usage in the U.S.



montanaanna
Novice User Novice User Joined On 10/2006
montanaanna  
 
Posted On May 29, 2008

I believe the food shortage crisis is just hype so food processors can justify raising prices.  Approximately 80% (YES! 80 PERCENT!) of red wheat grown in the state of Washington is exported to China, yet we have hungry people on the streets.  Talk about over farming an area!


 
 
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

We all need to get involved in gardening. It is healthy exercise. If done organically the produce is far superion to what is available in the stores.

Charles Snyder

author of Six Months to Live.

http://www.sixmonthstolive.com


 
aservant
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 11/2007
aservant  
Replied

SusanF
Novice User Novice User Joined On 11/2007
SusanF  
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

I recently found out that there is a big organic farm near our home.  I have signed my boys up for work there this summer.  I am so excited to be a part of this -excited for my boys too!

God put this world in motion.  Any time the arrogance of man supercedes(or at least thinks it can supercede) anything of God, there will be problems.  The fact that the plants and the earth and man work well in harmony is God designed. Man is blessed with the gift of ingenuity, but that ingenuity needs to be first and foremost respectful of God and His Creation.


 
 
 
Posted On May 22, 2008

to bagarino, if everyone took some time to grow anything at all to feed themselves, it would go a long way to ease pressure, and get real food. and done correctly permaculture produces more on smaller areas than large mono  culture farms, better profit too as no chemical input or very minimal.  all "waste is put where it should go, Back! " Acres usa is a precious and valuable learning source., Albrecht and Walters are well worth taking very seriously. they dovetail with permies so well.

the real proof- if required- of how well? accepted chemical high production farming works is..well you have it just now, saline, windblown, sandpits, that were good farmland under old methods(pre chemical) nitrate infiltrated wells and streams, chemical soup not clear lakes.

i study soil biota daily as my job, a soil that has been supered to death and injured by glyphosate at best and much worse is biologically inert dirt! it breaks my heart to incubate...nothing. Joe Salatins 2003 article is so much what is also happening in aust it scares me.selling cookies for a fundraiser or taking kids for a ride on a horse are so "ruled on" it stopped people bothering, just what big industry wanted! rather similar to merck and others bitching re herbal natural cures. they could be dangerous...hmm and drugs aren't? the organics assoc is also infiltrated by chemical companys, they sponsor+ get appro for rather un organic fertilizers,( you pay them -they accredit your product,) the N ,or p, or k, in NPK can be a natural source or a synthetic produced in a factory, the labels give no indication. and your usda allows and encorages it thus. if 2 extra beers each,by the drinking population of china would send norways harvest of barley bust, imagine that a few lettuces or tomatos grown in a porch tub, could also have a large effect overall. it all starts with US! from little things, big things grow.1.50 for 300 lettuce seeds, or 2 to 4$ ea?? for chemical soaked ones, you choose!


 
Amicus Curiae1
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 2/2008
Amicus Curiae1  
Replied

countryclassic49
Novice User Novice User Joined On 2/2008
countryclassic49  
 
Posted On May 23, 2008

Good points, Amicus. Yes it is our choice. I have been growing an organic garden and saving my own seeds for close to 40 years. My soil is teeming with great bacteria and wonderful earthworms, because I feed the soil and the soil feeds the plants. Our natural food is our first and finest defence against all the pollutants our bodies have to put up with nowadays. My gosh, what an affront to chemical and pharmaceutical companies!! I am fortunate to have a piece of ground to garden, but those of you who live in the city can do it by container gardening, too. We must make this time a REAL green revolution, not just the hype that is mere chin music. At some point, the Powers-that-be will try to take even our seeds away....we'd better not let them get ANYWHERE near that stage of the game. Fight for our rights and freedoms, you won't realize how precious they are until they are gone, leaving us all screwed, blued and tatooed!


 
 
 
 
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