Sky-High Corn Prices Will Be Felt Beyond the Grocery Store
By Jean-Paul McDonald, Farms.com
When you think about corn, you probably think about it first as a food for humans and livestock, then perhaps as a fuel source used for Ethanol production. But we rarely ever think about it as being an ingredient in “Spark Plugs” for our cars or “Drywall” for our homes and businesses. The practical uses for corn are many, but most people don’t look at it that way. We enjoy it grilled on the barbecue, in stews and pot pies, perhaps as a seasonal decoration – but that is just the beginning for this versatile plant.
Many of our everyday consumer products contain corn in some form or another. Soft drinks, for example are often sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup and not the granular sugar-bowl type we all associate with sweetness. We never look at the painted walls in our homes and think about corncobs being responsible for the Tetrahydrofurfuryl Alcohol used in the paint as a solvent for lacquers, dyes and resins. Even the toothpaste you use every day contains corn in the form of Sorbitol, which is a derivative of the corn sugar dextrose.
You would probably be amazed at the amount of products in your home that would not be there without a corn product as an ingredient. Things like instant coffee and tea benefit from corn products by keeping the granules free flowing and non-sticking. Cosmetics and hair care products also contain corn derivatives, as do pesticides and fertilizers. The uses for corn outside of the food chain seem almost endless, with rubber tires and even paper cups being part of the mix.
With a horrible drought that plagued most of North America in 2012, we can expect food prices to rise sharply in response to a decimated crop, but you probably weren’t thinking about all the other products that use corn in their production as being affected by the drought too.