Animal Farm

I heard on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday (June 15) that 55 percent of the corn and 88 percent of the soy beans grown in Iowa are used for animal feed. This was said during an interview with the head of an Iowa farmers' organization (he was talking about the recent flooding there, of course).

Isn't it amazing that such a large percentage of what Iowa farmers grow is used to feed animals, so that we, in turn, can eat the animals? It doesn't make much sense, really.

Using over half the productive acres in a state -- which could grow food directly for humans -- to instead grow feed for animals that will be eaten by humans seems like the hard way to go about it.

I think most people (myself included, for the most part) have no idea how our food systems work.