Corn at Farmers' Markets in Boulder & Longmont

Understanding CORN

Eating cooked sweet corn significantly boosts the grain's health-giving antioxidant activity, which can substantially reduce the chance of heart disease and cancer. "There is a notion that processed fruits and vegetables have a lower nutritional value than fresh produce. Those original notions seem to be false, as cooked sweet corn retains its antioxidant activity, despite the loss of vitamin C," says Rui Hai Liu assistant professor of food science at Cornell University. The researchers found cooked sweet corn increases levels of antioxidants. The scientists measured the antioxidants' ability to quench free radicals, which cause damage to the body from oxidation. Cooked sweet corn also releases increased levels of ferulic acid, which provides health benefits, such as battling cancer."When you cook it, you release it, and what you are losing in vitamin C, you are gaining in ferulic acid and total antioxidant activity.

Wikipeida on Maize and Sweet Corn

Corn Math

An ear of corn averages 800 kernels in 16 rows.
A pound of corn consists of approximately 1,300 kernels.
100 bushels of corn produces approximately 7,280,000 kernels.

Ever notice that every ear of corn has an even number of rows? And that there's one filament of silk for every kernel of corn?

FDA statement of what is natural about High Fructose Corn Syrup
corn.org

corn.org/HFCS Natural

A suit against Snapple stating that using HFCS is not natural. corn.org/FDAdecision

Corn is the most widely produced feed grain in the United States, accounting for more than 90 percent of total value and production of feed grains. Around 80 million acres of land are planted to corn, with the majority of the crop grown in the Heartland region. Most of the crop is used as the main energy ingredient in livestock feed. Corn is also processed into a multitude of food and industrial products including starch, sweeteners, corn oil, beverage and industrial alcohol, and fuel ethanol. The United States is a major player in the world corn trade market, with approximately 20 percent of the corn crop exported to other countries. ERS analyzes events in the domestic and global corn markets that influence supply, demand, trade, and prices. ers.usda.gov/- Corn

Colorado is a corn-deficit state, which means we use more corn than we grow. This is due to the fact that Colorado ranks 4th in the U.S. for cattle on feed and 10th overall for cattle numbers; not to mention the increased need for corn in the many ethanol plants that are being built around the state.

Currently Colorado plants approximately 1.2 million acres of corn. In other words, 1 out of every 4 acres of Colorado's farm ground is devoted to the production of corn. The majority is grown for grain and 10% is raised for silage. In 2006, Colorado corn production ranked 18th for silage and 15th for grain in the United States. The combined value of corn for grain and corn for silage was estimated at $480.3 million. While cash receipts accounted for 5.2% of the total agriculture receipts in Colorado, corn is often fed to cattle on the same farm without changing hands. Corn remains first among field crops and behind the leaders beef and dairy, which the Colorado corn industry helps support.
www.colorado.gov

USDA research
Global Agricultural Supply and Demand: Factors Contributing to the Recent Increase in Food Commodity Prices
ers.usda.gov/Publications

The Effects of Ethanol on Texas Food and Feed
AFPC Agricultural and Food Policy Center
Texas A&M University
ncga.com/ethanol

National Corn Growers Association

This chart is designed to help corn growers determine what kind of corn to grow.
ncga.com/biotechnology

National Corn Growers Association view of sustainability and pesticides. It is interesting to understand the use of pesticides and fertilizers in corn production, they compare it to other crops tomatoes to potatoes, penuts and cotton.
ncga.com Sustainability

History,

Corn probably originated as a type of gigantic grass growing on slopes of the Andes. Pueblo Elders in Southwest America, however, take it straight back to the beginning of Time: they say that in the beginning, when People were just about ready to step upon Mother Earth, their Creator gave them one last gift--corn, 4 kinds of corn. Yellow corn, associated with the South, the home of the grandmothers and grandfathers who give spring and new life. Red corn, from the West, that gives long life as our spirits travel westward with the sun. White corn, from the North, which gives strength. And Blue corn, from the East and the rising sun, that brings wisdom and understanding. He told the People to be corn's caretakers and showed them how to plant, harvest, and use the corn for food, medicine, and prayer.

soupsong.com

Columbus, on returning home, crammed this wonderful treasure into the cargo hold of his ship and presented it to his king and queen. It was placed on the level of the great spices from the Orient because of its nutty sweet taste. In Central America, corn grew like forests across the valleys and hills. The stalks were so dense with cobs that, to the explorers and missionaries, they became like an unpenetratable stone wall. If there had been an opening to get through, you didn't enter. It was considered suicide to walk through an Aztec field of corn because they were protected like gold.

Corncobs

Link - Bt corn - all about it.

Link - the price of corn on the commodities market

Article in Front range living on corn
With lobster and corn recipe. I wonder if it works on crayfish?

frontrangeliving.com/cooking/Corn

Less than 10 percent of Colorado's corn has traditionally gone to ethanol production, said Colorado Corn Growers executive director Mark Sponsler, with the remaining 90 percent going to livestock feed. That should hold true again this year. To fulfill the 9 billion gallon mandate for 2008, however, almost one third of the national corn crop will go to ethanol production. The USDA estimates that between 30 percent and 32 percent of the national corn crop will go to ethanol production this year, Colorado Farm Bureau spokesman Shawn Martini said. This is up from about 18 percent in 2007.

reporterherald.com