|
Classroom Education >>
Corn Is All
Around Us: Presentation Script
Ask this
question to the children: Why is corn important to us?
You may
receive several answers, most of which include: “we eat it,
and animals eat it.”
Those are
all very important ways that corn is important to us, but
I’m going to tell you how corn touches your lives every
single day!
HISTORY
OF CORN
First of
all, corn was very important in the civilization of this
continent and country. Do you know who were the first people
to grow and use corn? That’s right, Native Americans. Corn
was first grown in what is now Mexico more than 7,000 years
ago. Corn was a primary staple of food for Indians. Most
often, the Indians harvested the corn when the kernels were
dried, and then ground them into corn meal for breads. Every
part of the corn plant was used—toys, decorations, materials
for building things, etc. Corn even became very important in
their spiritual lives.
PRODUCTION OF CORN
Now, corn
is grown on every single continent except one, Antarctica.
The United States is the largest producer of corn, growing
nearly 10 billion bushels of corn each year. The kind of
corn that I am referring to is known as FIELD or DENT CORN
like I have here. It is different from the sweet corn that
we eat because it has been dried in the field until the
kernels are hard. The kernels of corn you see are actually
the seeds of the corn plant. We could plant one of these
kernels and grow a corn plant.
Farmers
plant their corn in the spring of the year, hope for just
enough rain to make it grow, and then harvest it in the
fall. Farmers are harvesting corn right now with large
machines called combines. The combine pulls the ears off the
corn plant and then removes the kernels from the cob. The
kernels are then emptied into a grain wagon and taken to the
farmers’ grain bins for storage.
USES OF
CORN
A farmer
may do one of two things with his corn: sell it to a company
that will use it or feed it to his livestock.
About 60
percent of all corn grown in the U.S. is fed to livestock
such as cows, pigs and poultry. A very small part of that is
fed to horses and other animals. Corn is fed to these
animals because it is a very high-energy food, helping the
animals to gain weight.
Another 20
percent is exported to foreign countries. They may either
feed their livestock with the corn or use it for human food.
While corn
can be used in many HUMAN FOOD PRODUCTS such as cereals,
breads, chips, tortillas, etc., the largest use for corn in
human food comes in the form of HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.
This sugary substance can be found in hundreds of food and
beverage items such as non-diet sodas, fruit juices, salad
dressings, candies, jams and jellies and more. Next time you
are at home, look through you kitchen cabinets to find all
items that contain corn syrup. You will be surprised.
There are
many INDUSTRIAL and NON-FOOD uses for corn as well. Corn can
be found in more than 3,500 different products. Examples of
everyday items are:
Toothpaste Batteries Cosmetics Medicines
Paper Products Paints & Dyes
Inks Glues
Detergents Cleaners
Fireworks Lubricants
Rubber Tires Plastics Body
Lotions Shoe Polish
NOTE: Try
to include as many of the above items as visuals in your
presentation… you can more than likely find most of them in
your home or school.
One of the
most important ways that corn is being used today is in the
production of ETHANOL. Ethanol can be used as a fuel in
motorized engines. It is much safer for the environment than
petroleum-based gasoline because it does not produce the
harmful greenhouse gases when burned. Ethanol is also good
for the environment because it is made from RENEWABLE
RESOURCES where petroleum is a LIMITED RESOURCE. Since
ethanol can be made from corn or other starchy/sugary
sources, the supply will never run out. Most vehicles in
this country cannot run on ethanol alone, but ethanol can be
blended with gasoline to make a cleaner-burning fuel. Next
time you are at a gas station with your parents, ask the
staff if they use ethanol in their fuel. If not, encourage
them to do so.
Speaking of
corn as a RENEWABLE RESOURCE, scientists are now able to use
corn to make a number of more EARTH-FRIENDLY PRODUCTS. Corn
can be used to make BIODEGRADABLE PLASTICS AND PACKING
MATERIALS. Biodegradable means something is able to break
down with natural elements such as the water, soil
organisms, etc. By using these RENEWABLE, BIODEGRADABLE CORN
PRODUCTS, we would be able to cut down on the amount of
trash that fills up our land.
CONCLUSION
So there
you have it. Corn is all around us and it touches our lives
every day. We can eat corn, our livestock and pets eat corn,
and we find it in thousands of important products that help
make our world SWEETER, STRONGER, CLEANER, TASTIER,
HEALTHIER, FRIENDLIER, SMOOTHER and SOFTER.
Are there
any questions?
Copyright
©
2002. Kentucky Corn Growers Association.
Document may be used and
distributed for educational purposes only. Please call
1-800-326-0906 for more information. |
