Polenta and the Corn Conundrum

Food Merchant's pre-made polenta, is admittedly a cheap and easy quick meal. While it is delicious on its own, plain, we love it with some fresh flavors. Last week, we chopped some sun-dried tomatoes (from Le Pain Quotidien soaked in olive oil), yellow pepper, and olives and dumped them on top of the circles of sliced prepared polenta, drizzled it with olive oil and lightly baked it. All I can say is this type of meal is a nice break from the excessive chopping and preparing that goes on here!

Polenta is a nourishing, fat-free, low calorie alternative to other grain products which tend to be heavy and filling. But, of course, our society has issues with corn, and rightfully so. There are two main issues. First, we eat way to much corn in inferior quality foods (tortilla chips, Fritos, corn oil in other fried packaged foods or in restaurant food). So, do we really need it as an entree as well? Second, are we risking eating a genetically modified food because so much of the corn supply is GMO?

As for the percentage of the diet made up of corn, the Three Sisters (corn, beans and squash) provided sustenance to many Native American cultures including the Lenape Nation, which my daughter, Perry, happened to study in depth this fall. I am trying to grow the Three Sisters but I started with a bean sprout and I am quite sure this is not the way to go.

Good quality polenta (corn grits / hominy), whether prepared or dried, should always be organic. This ensures that the corn used is not genetically modified. However, there can be cross contamination of crops and at this point little is being done to protect large organic agribusiness corn fields from neighboring GMO corn fields. However, small growers generally use old fashioned varieties and have less exposure to GMO cross contamination. I have noticed an unnecessary shying away from corn on the cob which in regular farmer's markets is surely not GMO. In fact, I asked in New York, Maryland and Florida, and all three growers that I approached said they do not sell genetically modified corn. The genetically modified corn is primarily used in animal feed which is odd because cows cannot digest corn, thus the antibiotics. The other big-time use of it is in the chip industry so if it it does not say non-GMO, then call the company to check. Many fast food Tex-Mex or California style burrito chains do use genetically modified corn in their tortillas, chips and corn salsa as does Frito-Lay in most of its products (except for its natural Tostitos line but that comes from huge agribusiness corn fields). So, I say, if it is organic and from a smaller company, go for it. And, if you are looking for a good laugh, see the Frito-Lay website's "Straight Talk on Snacking" page. It is no wonder families face a nutrition crisis when they are told junk is healthy and they do not know whom to believe. http://www.fritolay.com/your-health/feature-answers.html