Omnivore's Dilemma No. 2

Previously I read Michael's chapter on fast food and how corn plays a major role in producing fast food. This week, I decided to back track and learn more about corn itself. I've always known how widely produced corn is, but I never understood why. Michael proceeds to explain that in 1850, consumers cared immensely about quality. When purchasing corn, the corn is sold in bags that has the farm's name written on it, sort of like advertisement for the farm. If the corn is good, consumers will buy more from that farm. However in 1856, the Chicago Board of Trade instituted a grading system with No. 2 being high quality. Now consumers didn't care about the farm itself, but only cared about how much corn they could buy. This led farmers to favor the "quality of sheer quantity" which created the corn surplus that we have today. And according to Michael, whenever there is an excess of biomass in nature, creatures will step forward and consume it. These 'creatures' led to corn-fed cows and the production of ethanol and high-fructose corn syrup with humans being the consumers and etc. This new food chain, so to speak, created the high percentage of corn in the (fast) food that we eat today.