Every five days , the United States has the project of renewing its omnibus farm bill . The current statute law , theAgricultural Act of 2014 , kick the bucket in September 2018 , and new drafts are already being debated . The bill is design to support husbandman and the food residential area , based on the U.S. require for nutrition , crop indemnity , conservation and other commodity programs .
So what influence does a major crop like corn — the United States ' most rife in terms of land area — and its farmers play in shaping the next farm account ? A lot .
In 2016 , for example , U.S. corn sodbuster yielded a total of 86.7 million Akka ( 35.1 million hectares ) of corn . This craw was appreciate at $ 51.5 billion , far exceeding the $ 40 billion time value of America ’s secondly largest food for thought crop : soybeans .
Where does this corn go ? The answer might storm you . Just 205 million bushels ( or 1.4 percent ) of the 15.1 billion bushels produced in 2016 survive to cereal and other foods . ( An average bushel of corn weighs about56 pounding . ) Another 480 million bushels ( 3.3 percent ) go to makehigh - fructose corn syrup , a sweetener used by the food manufacture . And a large percentage — 15 pct — or 2.2 billion bushel was export .
Much of the rest go to feed stock ( 5.6 billion bushels , 46 percent ) or to produceethanol(4.2 billion bushels , 28.9 per centum ) . In fact , corn is the most wide produced provender food grain in the United States .
What these statistics mean is the U.S. devote more than90 million acres(36.4 million hectares ) of farmland to corn , but very little of that is grown for human economic consumption . " People postulate to bar thinking about corn as solid food , " says Mark Lambert , aged communication director at theNational Corn Growers Association . " It ’s very various . It ’s not just food . We ’re grow way , manner more than what we want for food purposes because we can . "
But does " because wecan " mean weshould ? The answer is complex and multifaceted . First , the Agricultural Act of 2014 include several dissimilar farm subsidies and type of craw insurance , which could have influence why the U.S. maturate so much clavus . Before the late 1990s , crop policy was designed to assist farmers when craw yields fell short from disasters likeweather .
However , according to Colin O’Neil , agriculture insurance policy director at Environmental Working Group , these subsidy programs now bear out regardless of crop yields . They ’re subsidise tax income alternatively . Take 2016 , for exemplar . Corn growers had a record twelvemonth ; remember , 86 million acres ( 35.1 million hectare ) of maize was glean deserving $ 51.5 billion . But many farmers were still able to collect subsidy payments because the 2016 harvest price for corn was set at$3.49 per bushel , 10 percent lower than the $ 3.86 project price .
So why the shortfall in corn price in 2016 ? Perhaps it was due to simple provision and requirement . Take 2016 again : It was the third - large corn crop haul planted in the U.S. since 1944 . So with such a strong demand and magnanimous provision , the price per bushel went down , leaving taxpayers to pick up the difference via subsidy payments .
And whether the U.S. should develop so much corn is not just a question of economics ; it ’s also a question of good environmental policy . In 2014 , for example , the U.S. government’sNational Climate Assessmentresearch platform reported that mood variety could significantly bear on the Midwest and the Great Plains in the descend year , decreasing take and driving Leontyne Price higher . The reason is simple : Corn is a thirsty crop that can be easy bear upon by extremedrought , withering heat wafture and the lack of precipitation . harvest yields slump when temperatures get hot and rain is limited .
Corn also consumes a large amount of freshwater , roughly 5.6 cubic international mile per class — that ’s about 6.1 trillion gallons ( about 23 trillion cubic decimetre ) . That water comes from lakes , rivers , streams and hugger-mugger aquifer . impenetrable rainfall can delay planting and decrease production .
overflow from these farming area is also another environmental concern . corn whiskey use more fertiliser than other crops , about5.6 million tons ( 5 measured dozens ) of nitrogen fertilizereach year . As a result , the chemicals and grime washout into waterways when it rains , polluting rivers , streams and oceans . The results can be seen in the Gulf of Mexico where scientists say excessive nutrient befoulment has created a hypoxic , or miserable - oxygen , dead zonefor aquatic life at the mouth of the Mississippi River .
And all that corn that the U.S. change state into sporty - cauterise grain alcohol ? conservationist say ethanol production is n’t effective . develop and processing corninto biofuel utilise a huge amount of country andfossil fuel , which ultimately neutralise any environmental benefits .
Some think the way to pay off the problem is to craft a farm bill that would prioritize farming of goodly foods that are grown in more environmentally friendly way . Jonathan Foley , executive film director of the California Academy of Sciences , wrote : " This reimagined agricultural system would be a more various landscape painting , weaving Zea mays together with many kinds of grains , crude oil crop , fruits , vegetables , grazing lands and prairies . Production practices would blend the estimable of formal , conservation , biotech and constitutive land . Subsidies would be aimed at reinforce husbandman for producing more healthy , alimental nutrient while preserving rich filth , clean water and palmy landscapes for succeeding generations . This system would feed more people , engage more farmers , and be more sustainable and more resilient than anything we have today . "
