Didn't read all replies but just wanted to note that we as humans don't have a gizzard. Is the gizzard a grain crushing organ? Just wondering aloud. :Dunno:

Earl, you're such a city boy!!! :rolleyes:

In these parts they feed the cows silage, which is the entire stalk, including the ears of corn. (Where's B2Y -- bet she knows more than I do about this).

They grind it up and let it set in a large concrete container with no top, so it is partially fermented when the cows eat it. Stinks like crazy in the heat of summer!

Cows love it! I imagine chickens & pigs eat a variation of this kind of corn.

Silage is put in a "silo" and most have a top on them otherwise you are going to have snow in there. The corn is chopped in the fall and blown into the silo from the side. This is fed to cattle in the winter along with other forms of grain and hay. In the summer the cows are out in the pasture. At least that's how we did it.

There are also trench silos (on the ground) and they have plastic over them.

A gizzard is a thick walled muscular pouch in the lower stomach. It grinds the food with the aid of stones and grits that are in it. Many birds and reptiles also have one.

Aren't farm raised fish fed corn?

and this is why I like and understand the paleo diet :wink:. The human body has't evolved to eat grains like birds and reptiles. we don't have the stomach for it!

Hmmmmm, I never thought of it that way..:confused:

If any of you ever watch a dvd about factory farming you will be horrified :eek:. I have forced.myself.to read and watch a lot of thing on the subject.

It is unbelievably cruel to see if you're an animal lover. It's so difficult and expensive to find meat and poultry products that treated in a humane way. Ugh.

The short answser is that although cows cannot digest corn (it turns acidic in their stomachs, necessitating antibiotics), chickens CAN digest corn (and so can pigs).

The way animals are raised for food in this country is deplorable. But that's another story... sounds like many of you are aware of this. The question begs to be asked, how does it impact what you consume?

As for corn and people? The way this country overproduces massive quantities of corn at the expense of other crops (read: losing biodiversity) and because every bushel enjoys a 50 cent subsidy by the U.S. government - it's now a fact that "more than a quarter of the 45,000 items in an average American supermarket contain corn" (from the book Omnivores Dilemna).

We are the corn people.