Cute Cuddling Cats Kwazi and Uli and Ginger too celebrate the fourth of July/USA Independence Day, commemorating the Declaration of Independence of the United States. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress declared that the American colonies were no longer subject to the monarch of Britain and were now united and free. In very recent years, that freedom was threatened by global Big Business politics. We have also seen the threats and travesties faced by our friends in other countries. So we cherish our freedom today and pray that all people will know freedom.

Speaking of corn and Big Business, corn is the biggest crop in the USA. Corn (i.e., maize) was a domesticated plant of the Americas long before Europeans arrived. Over a period of thousands of years, Native Americans purposefully transformed maize through special cultivation techniques from a wild grass originally growing in southern Mexico 7,000 years ago. European colonists in America adopted corn agriculture from Native Americans. More at: http://www.nativetech.org/cornhusk/cornhusk.html

Here is where corn from the USA goes today:
* About a third of America’s corn crop is used for feeding cattle, hogs, and poultry in the U.S.
* Just over a third of the corn crop is used to make ethanol, which serves as a renewable fuel additive to gasoline. The Renewable Fuel Standard requires that at least 10% of gasoline be renewable fuel.
* The rest of the corn crop is used for human food, beverages, and industrial uses in the U.S. and other countries. Corn has hundreds of uses. It is used to make breakfast cereal, tortilla chips, grits, canned beer, soda, & cooking oil. America’s biggest customers are Mexico, South Korea, Japan, and Colombia.

There’s also many controversies about the corn industry in the USA, including pressure by lobbyists that push the needs of big business. More at https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-rethink-corn/

BUT, back to our corn eating cats: We rarely give Kwazi Uli and Ginger human food. However, they seemed to LOVE this corn. We hope you comment,