Chadzilla has an intriguing post up wondering what professional chefs should do about the evils of the hyper-industrialization of corn. Read it here.
Should chefs steer away from corn? I don't think so. Instead, it's much better to see chefs work with unique growers to promote rarely seen corn varieties.
Gourmet has an on-line discussion going about this topic here. Here are three great comments on the subject:
The Corn Is Evil Viewpoint
"I tend not to eat corn. I hear so much bad news about corn that I don’t see why I should eat it, and I’m positive it’s getting into my diet in other ways that I don’t know about. I think of corn as an unnecessary vegetable that doesn’t have a lot of nutritional value. Maybe I’m just angry."
-Azon Juan
The Genetically Modified Organism Fear
"I have other friends who talk about having “corn guilt” . . . To some extent it really is guilt by association . . . there is plenty of genetically modified sweet corn around . . . and you can’t just assume that your local farmer doesn’t use GMO seed, because some small-scale farmers do."
-Christy Harrison
The Baby With The Bathwater Paradigm
"There’s nothing wrong with good corn. Maybe some people are reading a little too much into (and sometimes even misreading) the Food Inc., Omnivore’s Dilemma, etc. hysteria. But it’s probably a small population of people who are really into food. Now I just think more about the corn in my soft drink than delicious farm-stand corn."
-Jacqueline Terrebonne
All in all, I have to agree with Ms. Terrebone's thoughts on this. Organically grown, farmer's market fresh corn, what's not to like?
Nancy Reagan inspires me to "just say no" to corn guilt.
