- Author: Launa Herrmann
Despite summer's overbearing heat and annoying insects, I enjoy harvesting a non-stop crop of cucumbers and a scant picking of cherry tomatoes. And I relish an occasional whiff of sweet, heavy sun-drenched soil. There's just something familiar and predictable about padding outside in ones slippers to pluck fresh veggies for a salad. As far back as I can remember someone in my family always had a vegetable plot. Grandma shelled her own fresh backyard grown peas. My uncle raised corn on acres of Nebraska river bottom. Mother grew the biggest reddest tomatoes to slice atop a fried egg sandwich. If they were still alive, I can only imagine their surprise at learning that recent crop gluts have created new markets for so many vegetables.
Do you know that corn and soybeans are now added to IKEA mattresses, Danone yogurt cups and Ford Motor Company seat cushions? Even Legos is considering adding grain to its little plastic bricks. Some Adidas sneakers are made with corn. An Illinois chemical company, trying to skirt the volatility of oil prices, is developing a flexible soy-made plastic for use in an adhesive for diapers, cardboard and road-paving material. For further details, check out the May 15, 2017 article in Wall Street Journal on how crop gluts affect harvests, which can be viewed online at https://www.wsj.com/articles/sneakers-made-from-corn-seat-cushions-from-soybeans-1494813781.
And to top off the list of changes is the use of shipping containers to grow vegetables. These mobile hydroponic farms featuring LED lamps produce lettuce, strawberries, herbs and more without the risk of E.coli. Intriguing, isn't it? You can view a recent article here online at http://www.dailyrepublic.com/business/this-shipping-container-farm-could-someday-solve-the-food-desert-problem/.