Cut the Corn?

Today in class was not the first time I have seen this documentary. Watching the section on corn reminded me of a conversation I once had with a friend after we had watched it. Her reaction was basically that she hated corn and she was upset that it was in everything. She thinks that we should get off our dependency to corn. Corn is one of my favorite starches and it is in so many things I enjoy from food to corn mazes. My first thought after she brought this up was that we are in Indiana and corn is one of the main crops produced here. To me I see corn as a major staple of life here and if we were to start majorly taking it out of consumer goods it would probably greatly harm the economy. She may only be seeing the problem of corn with the feeding it to cows, that has caused there to be a rise in e. coli break outs in beef, or she could have been thinking of high fructose corn syrup. The debate over which has even sparked PSAs paid for by corn growers. These problems with corn could lead to the decline of it being used to make food and products. Though if we start down that path how would we decide on what products can and cannot? Another question we should ask ourselves is that if we take ourselves off corn will we be opening ourselves to become addicted, so to speak, to another crop? These questions are something we may have to start looking at this problem sooner then later since there was a major drought this summer and corn production is one of the crops that suffered. In some cases I agree with my friend that we should remove corn from at least the feed of cattle to reduce the risk of e. coli break outs, but in other areas it allows products to be made more cheaply and this is beneficial to the economy.