I noted yesterday that the USDA predicts big growth in acres planted to corn. My tomato-minded friend Matt asked about the outlook for his garden (always thinking about tomatoes, perhaps to toss at me during the candidates' forum tonight!).
The USDA probably doesn't consider our gardens statistically significant, but its National Agricultural Statistics Service does issue Vegetables, a quarterly assessment of fresh market and processed vegetables and melons around the country. It turns out corn is king in this market, too: sweet corn makes up the largest single portion of the acres planted for the spring harvest, just over 42,000 acres out of 262,000 planted for fresh produce this season. Sweet corn is also champ in the processed vegetable market, with 313,000 acres intended for corn bound for freezing or canning. The next biggest vegetable on the processed market: tomatoes, taking up 287,000 acres.
Keep in mind, that 313,000 acres of corn we will actually eat as corn is less than half of the 850,000 acres that will be newly planted to corn in South Dakota alone this year (assuming Lake Kampeska and Lake Poinsett don't merge and swamp a quarter of East River). Sweet corn acres are hardly one third of one percent of the 92.2 million acres that will be planted to corn this year.
The total spring crop acreage of fresh market veggies and melons is staying just about the same as last year. Melons and cucumbers are down, but carrots and cabbage are up. Spring and summer onion acres are up 2.3%, from 155,270 to 158,860. (Onions do keep away mosquitoes, Dad says.)
And of course almost none of the fresh or processed produce listed above will receive farm subsidies. The majority of those subsidies in 2009 went to three crops: corn, cotton, and wheat. Given these numbers, might Rep. Kristi Noem be ready to give up her subsidies and take up Dr. Weiland's call for a farm bill that focuses on healthy food? Or do healthy food and healthy family farms require a greater economic restructuring than simply refocusing subsidies?
I am a farmwife, but I am all for getting rid of subsidies, in the hope that farmers will produce more real food.
A side note, if you are growing sweetcorn, be careful of it's proximity to GMO corn so they will not cross breed, or else plant it at a different time, or a kind w/a different maturity timeline. You can't be too careful regarding this. When buying sweet corn at a stand, question the seller carefully about this.