N. and I were watching TV the other day (I know, BIG surprise. As N. likes to point out on a semi-regular basis... in the event of the Apocalypse or some heinous natural or otherwise disaster, it wouldn't be the lack of running water, food or electricity per se that would do me in... it would be the death of my best friend, the TeeVee. Oh, I do love it so.)
Anyway, G*M has been running these commercials for "Go Green, Live Yellow", which is the program that supports their Flex Fuel cars -- cars that run on either good old gas-O-line... OR (wait for it... better than 'lectrcty...) CORN! Well, 85-ethanol to be exact... but in layman's terms, and lets be clear, I live for layman's terms.
This whole thing seems like a complete no-brainer to me... Are you kidding me? There are a lot of things that we, as Americans, can not figure out. Universal health care, education, contemporary art, moderate lifestyles... but corn?!?!?!?
We get corn.
We can grow it in many different varieties, in many states... we can cook the hell out of it...corn flakes, popcorn, grits, corn bread, fritters, corn-on-the-cob, creamed corn, fricassee, corn pudding, Fritos... the list goes on.
I mean, for cripe's sake, people... we were all taught in school that the the Pilgrims got off the boat and the first thing that the Native Americans gave them was CORN. This is our heritage, folks... it only make sense that we would eventually combine our favorite grain with our favorite past-time, driving big-ass SUVs.
About freaking time... I think that the corn farmers have been waiting for something to save them from this low-carb craze.
In this part of the world, where we grow much o' the maize, some interesting billboards are springing up. Pictured on one side is a good ol' Midwestern corn farmer in his field, looking much like many people I know. On the other, a Saudi shiek. The text reads, "Who would you rather buy fuel from?" See? Three favorite American things right there - corn, driving big-ass SUVs and thinly-veiled racism!
Posted by: Robin | Saturday, June 17, 2006 at 09:00 AM
Have you been reading The Omnivore's Dilemma? The author puts out the notion that humans eat so much corn (it's in *everything* from vegetable wax to salt) that we are like corn chips with legs...good book. The corn thing creeps me out...
Posted by: Floosen | Tuesday, June 20, 2006 at 02:47 PM