Continuing with my coverage of King Corn (which Entertainment Weekly stamped an absolutely worthy "A-" on), here are some mind-blowing figures presented in the d0cumentary:* The average farmer in Iowa owns 1,000 acres of crops (corn being the overwhelming majority).
* Each acre of corn contains 31,000 kernels.
* Each acre of corn produces 5 TONS of food.
* With today's modern technology, it takes just eighteen minutes to spray those 31,000 kernels with herbicides and pesticides.
* By the way, these sprayers have a ninety foot span!
* Thirty-two percent of the United States' corn production is exported to other countries or used to make ethanol.
* Approximately fifty percent is fed to livestock.
* The remaining eighteen percent is used to make high fructose corn syrup, used in sodas, breads, cookies, and pastries.
* Zero percent -- that's right, none -- of industrialized corn can be eaten off the cob. Due to its genetically modified properties, commodity corn must first be processed before it can be consumed.
* Sixty percent of cows' diet in the United States consists of corn. The other forty percent? A variety of grains, including wheat.
* Seventy percent of all antibiotics in the United States are consumed by cattle.
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