Corn? In MY bread?

While out grocery shopping yesterday, I decided to buy a different kind of bread than I usually do. Why? Simple, unlike the bread I was previously consuming, this particular brand of whole wheat bread has no corn product at all.

Over the last week or so, I've become somewhat mortified at the idea that pretty much everything I eat can be traced back to corn in some way. I can't explain why it bothers me so, it's not like corn murdered my pet cats or anything, nor do I have any political/philosophical beliefs that would deter me from consuming the stuff.

However, while thinking about the role corn plays in our diets, I was reminded quite strongly of concepts I came across in George Ritzer's book, "The McDonaldization of Soceity" (a book I highly recommend, by the way). According to Ritzer, the term "McDonaldization" is used to describe the act of industrializing something, applying a model to it so that it becomes as efficient a process as possible. I believe that the way corn has found its way into every facet of our diet is itself a form of mcdonaldization.

Perhaps that's why when I discovered, to my horror, that even the bread I used to make my precious ham and cheese sandwiches (meat and milk undoubtedly procured from corn-fed animals) contained no small amount of corn product, my first reaction was to switch to a bread that contains no corn.

It's a type of food decision that has very little logic behind it. I have nothing against corn, but I detest the idea of consuming almost nothing else. And if you are what you eat, I'd rather be a gentle amber stalk of wheat than a pale yellow ear of corn.