the US produces a massive surplus of corn (questionable government subsidies), only a tiny portion “sweet corn” (not shown on upper graph) is ever meant for the table
the VAST majority of US corn is relatively inedible “feed corn” meant for agricultural feed lots (blue bars, “Feed and residual use”) and industrial chemical manufacturing – ethanol (orange bars, “Alcohol for fuel use”), and fertilizers, food additives, etc. (gray bars, “Other food, seed, and industrial use”)
EDIT: check out Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) to get an idea of how dependent US is on industrial corn
the US produces a massive surplus of corn (questionable government subsidies), only a tiny portion “sweet corn” (not shown on upper graph) is ever meant for the table
the VAST majority of US corn is relatively inedible “feed corn” meant for agricultural feed lots (blue bars, “Feed and residual use”) and industrial chemical manufacturing – ethanol (orange bars, “Alcohol for fuel use”), and fertilizers, food additives, etc. (gray bars, “Other food, seed, and industrial use”)
EDIT: check out Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma (2006) to get an idea of how dependent US is on industrial corn