"The problem isn't that there's not enough to satisfy the needs of the poor. The problem is there's never enough to satisfy the demands of the rich."

"Capitalism sparks creativity"... OOPS! ALL CORN 🌽

Cody: “crop optimization” Me:”cro-“ Cody: “croptimization” I feel completed thank you

About a decade ago I became too sick to work and as a result now live in deep poverty. I gained 200lbs rapidly, which made my doctors go from blowing me off for being "too young/pretty to be sick" to "all of your problems will go away if you just lose weight." The only thing that helped me lose weight was getting into public housing. Just having a stable place to live. If I could afford fresh food and had the stamina to cook from scratch, I wouldn't have to rely on these kinds of foods. Living in a food desert also doesn't help.

Here in Iowa only about 2% of our corn is used for human consumption. We had people complaining about using corn fields to put up large solar panel fields as it reduces food availability. It doesn't

i love the fact over the years cody's gotten calmer while speaking about how much worst life has gotten

One point he didn't bring up, but is significant to farmers in the west, is how water rights are regulated, and the fact that western farmers are financially encouraged to grow water heavy crops like alfalfa in order to maintain "use it or lose it " water rights," even as climate change ravages our farming industry...

It makes you realize how horrifying it is that we blame individuals for their poor health and eating habits. Like in the last few decades we've just shamed the shit out of people and told them how to eat better without actually changing the material realities that cause people to eat poorly. I hate how real this is, I think I have a pretty good grasp on what I should be eating but I get to the end of the day so tired and exhausted that just whatever is available is what I eat. I am constantly sad that I don't have more time and energy for cooking.

Having a corn allergy is a nightmare in this society. Thankfully mine is just mild. Still so annoying. Cant avoid it even in this show

I thought I knew about how pervasive corn is in this country, but god DAMN you went so much further than I was aware of.

I used to do a speech called 'corn, the food of evil' whenever I had to do a persuasive speech for a class. This video makes me so happy

I have said it once and ill say it again... His monologues are works of art, such complex content and no cuts.

I'm going to watch this at double speed so I can be the first person in the world to soak up all the Cody in this Showdy, leaving no Cody for anyone else 😈

I'm a small organic farm worker in Northern California but am currently out on disability due to severe gastrointestinal system issues but since I'm out of work I can't afford to eat that healthy cause most of my disability money goes to bills and rent so my health issues are just exasperated. This experience has really made me realize how the health and food system are hand in hand with perpetuating a cycle of constant struggle. It so fucked.

I love that this show takes the manual labor out of death scrolling ☺️

Thanks! I lived in the USA for some years and found the taste of fresh vegetables and many fruits very bland. I tried bio or eco or homegrown. Not much improvement. I knew that I was right, because at least once a year I went back to Europe, where I feasted on vegetables. Finally taste! Then I discovered the reason. Almost all commercially available seeds in the US will produce plants cultivated for size, appearance, shelf life, easy harvesting, etc. Never for taste. The Red Delicious apple is a good example. It’s beautiful and no longer has yellow spots. With the spots, the taste has disappeared. With the current genetic pool, it is no longer possible to produce quality food, whatever the type of farming.

Katie being super awkward about talking about bidet's while wearing a shirt asking you to ask about her butthole is just perfect

One of my friends in college was allergic to corn. It was a NIGHTMARE.

I know this video is old by UKposts standards, but I find it so incredible I haven’t found this in the comments, but corn is literally a cultural asset in Mexican culture, it has even been called Mexican Gold because of its cultural importance. Our ancestors lived on corn and there are more than 50 varieties of it here, we have all kinds of different colors and shapes of corn that are part of our heritage. I will not hear the corn slander any more. However, even farmers in Mexico are no longer producing these important corn varieties because it’s too expensive and we import corn from the USA instead, which is heartbreaking. So much culture and ancestry is being lost to capitalism. I can’t believe they didn’t mention this in the video itself.

"What does it say that America can't feed 34 million of its citizen?" Small mistake in there - as you pointed out at many other points in this video: it's not that America *can't* feed those people, it just (as a system) chooses not to. Great and incredibly important episode!

Wanna know what's fun? Having fructose malabsorption in the US. You can't digest 70% of stuff on the shelves.

CODY SHOWDY TIME

as a professional chef and hobby gardener, I once got into a crazy argument with my boss because I was "stealing food waste for compost" instead of throwing it out. um yeah

i had a good acquaintance who was allergic to corn. i was amaized 😏 to learn how much corn goes into so many food we dont suspect and things that are not even edibles. she would have reactions on her hands and lips from holding disposable plates and eating with forks made of corn. it's a terrible and weird allergy to have.

Really really enjoy Katy reading ad copy clearly written by Cody. The genuine fight to contain laughter kept me there lol

As someone who is allergic to corn.... thanks for ruining my day. I had no idea, but this explains a lot.

The issue with eating fast is a serious problem. I ate very slowly growing up, to the point where it annoyed other people, but boot camp (Marines) pushed me to rush every single bite I took, and that habit never went away. I have a bunch of digestive problems and have a hard time gauging if I am full because I have to actively work to slow down when I eat. (It doesn't help being autistic and ADHD, which makes it harder to read my body's signals.)

I'm from Argentina and last year I went to the US and A, and as a diabetic person, I had to make sure that the stuff I was going to eat doesn't kill me. I was shocked to learn that the coca cola had twice as much sugar than the one they sell back in south America ( even though I cannot drink it) so I started to compare other beverages and the mountain dew have 3 times the sugar. And all of the "recommended portions" were bigger.

On the subject of food waste, you should do a report on the labor abuses of grocery stores and food delivery services

I just spent 10hrs today, traveling by motorcycle through land almost exclusively dedicated to corn and other livestock feed... for 10 hours-- nothing but wind noise, the drone of the bike, and internal screaming about the very things in this video. And I just watched an hour more. Thanks SMN Team! ... *stares vacantly*

Hurts me so much when you mentioned the poor can't eat healthy by not their choice. Because I am there, and have been there for a few months now. I was almost down to 100 kilos last summer. Now it's around 120 again. I hardly have the energy to cook. I can't afford the fresh ingredients anymore. And for the last 8 weeks had to deconstruct more and more of my kitchen due to a water leak that the landlord wont fix. I'm literally buying the frozen convenient food products and instant noodles, just so I still have a somewhat regular eating scedule. I feel ashamed and like I failed. Thank you for raising awareness, that this is not our choice. We know better, and we want to do better, but we can't. And it sucks. 😭

Cody's sheer contempt for AG1 never fails to make me smile.

My families favorite injoke we have about expiration dates is from a salt shaker of “2,000 year old Himalayan rock salt” that expired in 2022.

Now we need an episode where Cody connects the dots between the corn and the boars.

With the cost of everything going up, I started cooking again instead of a quick pizza or fast food on the way home and I lost 8 lbs last month. It really put that in perspective

I had to read some book back in college that was all about America's Food Problem and it went into a lot of the same issues as you did, but instead of suggesting systemic change for the systemic problems it was pointing out (such as the fact that the produce being grown currently does not have the same nutrients that it used to) the advice was all really individualistic like "only shop in the outer part of the store where they keep the Fresh Ingredience" and "don't buy anything your great-great grandma wouldn't have been able to recognize!" and it was very frustrating to me that all the Solutions could be summarized as "Have a lot of free time and disposable income as well as no mental illnesses" because yeah. That would solve a lot of my problems.

The craziest thing I found out was that the label organic is barely regulated in the US. It is one of the few labels that ARE regulated (they can write cage-free on a carton of eggs even if they're not) but there isn't really anyone/enough people going out to check. That's why you basically only find out about the gross stuff going on at farms from activist groups who break in.

As some who studied food processing and hygiene in Europe, I know this video is going to be a wild ride.

Another friend worked at a industrial chicken farm long enough to see the horrors of how these animals are raised, and became depressed and mentally ill because of it.

In addition to healthy food taking more time to prepare, it also takes more energy. And the steps needed to prepare the food such as chopping, boiling, pan frying, oven roasting etc... can be extremely difficult for disabled people with mobility issues, cognitive problems, chronic pain, and chronic fatigue. A lot of us rely on frozen meals because it's easy to prepare and doesn't hurt as much as cooking. I was able to sign up for a program that provides me cooked meals, but the process took over a year. And I imagine a lot of disabled people don't have access to the same services. It's a mess.

Katie is an absolute champ for making it through that ad without losing it. I was dying. 😂

I've been lucky enough to travel abroad a handful of times, and when it gets brought up in conversations with people, they inevitably ask "so what's the biggest difference between America and (wherever)" and my answer is always instantly without thought: "food". It's so bad here, even the "good" things like raw fruits and vegetables are noticeably worse. I used to think that I felt better when traveling because it was vacation time, holidays, etc. But I've begun to believe it is in large part the food. I will be feeling great; having a good appetite, my body feeling healthy, eating things that taste great and feel nutrient dense; and then within a week of being back I feel like cardboard and I won't have an appetite for anything. I don't think it can be overstated how big of a problem our food is. I think it directly leads to a lot of other health problems we have (obesity obviously, but also mental health and other issues).

When I was a single mom, working poor and raising kids was a food nightmare!

I just started watching this channel and for a while I honestly couldn’t tell if the ads were for real products

I have to watch this later. I'm sure it will make me feel very good, and not at all complicit in the terrible food system we have.

Respect for AG1 for sponsoring an episode that indirectly dunks on them.

The whole dual income and still not having enough money thing is totally insane and exploitative. That’s the basic issue.

Back in the day, I thought that those focusing on profits harmed other people as a side effect of avarice. For example, that corners would be cut to increase profits and it just so happened that this hurt people. But it seems that often the harm is part of the goal. We could, for example, have a healthy, robust, and affordable food system that is also profitable but instead a system has been built that appears designed to hurt people.

I was visiting my brother, who had settled in America, from the UK about a month ago and I can still distinguish the difference between American and EU food. It wasn't just the overly large portion sizes, the food was so processed and saturated that I told my brother that you could literally taste the chemicals that are usually regulated in EU countries

Easy solution to all of this Cody, just eat 100 raw eggs, on camera.

I don't live in the US, however I did for about 6 months 2 years ago. Despite getting paid twice what I was earning back home I couldn't afford an apartment. I had a "30 min lunch break", which I put in quotes because we were understaffed so I still had to get up every few minutes to deal with customers. The food quality was abysmal, I could barely find any fresh veggies and I was in a mayor city, where I used to assume everything was easy to get. I would get to my aunts place, and crash. Even when I wanted to cook I was so tired and had no ingredients I just wouldn't. (I was also a student at the time, my grades dropped under 80s for the first time in my life) In those 6 months I ate fast food more times than I think I have over my entire life combined. I gained nearly 30 kg (66 lbs) and entirely lost my love of food. All the prepackaged shit I had to get for the price and convenience honestly tasted so bad it made me sad, but I just couldn't figure a way out of it (microwave pasta is my nemesis, yes that includes Mac&cheese, I don't understand americans obsession with pre-made mac and cheese every brand i tried was like some goopy chemical sludge). After about 2 months my "me time" was driving out to a Trader Joe's on my day off and getting nice cheese and fruit that didn't taste like the animal/plant that produced it was depressed (still wasn't great tbh), then spending the day at a book store or library. I had to go to so much effort just to recreate a normal after work/class activity. 2 years later I am still facing the health problems being there caused me. While in the US I was at seen as though I was an "average size", the second I came back home I was warned about being obese and at risk for diabetes. I was 21 then, an adult with life experiences, and I was swamped despite having a good relationship with food going in. I can't possibly begin to imagine what it's like for a child raised in that environment, a teen learning to be independent, nor an adult who doesn't know any other way of being. Finally, in just the two months of being back home I lost a ton of the weight just from eating like I normally would and walking to places instead of driving (which wasn't a choice I had to make it was just what was easier). Although I'm doing better, the damage that rapid weight gain left me with is permanent. I don't even know what I would do, unless you're well off or have very dedicated foreign parents (food is culture and all that)... I just don't know.

That AG1 ad intro was brilliant 😂 Sigh. I burned myself out hardcore by trying to feed my family healthy meals & snacks every day for the first 13ish years of my son's life while working full time (40-70 hours/wk). Then i had a solid 2 years of severe burnout during which we ate frozen meals & take out, and my house went so long without being cleaned that when i finally started to come out of my funk (thanks covid layoffs!?) it literally took weeks to deep clean everything. My eating habits haven't been much better though and now 3 years later (& 20 lbs heavier) I've finally tried to get back into the habit of meal planning and cooking. Living in this country is depressing. Edit: i wrote this comment before he got to the part about burnout from cooking and working and damn, spot on. Edit 2: I'm going to make my husband watch this because AHHG he fights with me ALL THE TIME about how expiration dates are bullshit and you can literally just look at/smell it to see if it's bad or not. Wanted me to throw out two full packages of perfectly good tortillas the other day and now won't eat anything i cook with them. More tacos for me i guess 😑😒 Final edit: ooh boy i picked a great moment to get into my car, turn the stereo up and roll down my windows so my coworker just trying to go home had to hear "the chum stands for Cheetah cum". They already think I'm weird 😭😅 love you Katy & Cody & writers 💜

Always excited to see Cody chug green sludge for dollars. Best part of my day.

Leave the spinach bag open it won't get soggy and lasts longer (top layer gets a little wilty BUT-still edible and protects the rest)

I've worked in the graphic design industry for close to 10 years now and I've noticed some interesting things when it comes to Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG). When it comes to the nutrition labeling, it's pretty much all a load of bull. Everything that's processed and manufactured has gone through some level of food science enhancement and alteration to make it more palatable and more marketable. If it's going to be Low Fat, it needs to make up for the flavor somewhere else, usually in salt and/or sugar. Visa-versa, if you want low salt sugar, the fat content gets pumped up. Meanwhile the FDA and other health organizations around the world recommend as much as 50g of "added" sugar a day, and half for children (under 12). This "added" sugar seems to be an unnecessary distinction on US food labeling. Also, think about that number. Half of 50g of added sugar is 25g. A 16oz can of soda has an average of 38g of sugar, yet american children are regularly given soda to consume, rapidly surpassing even the generous recommended daily added sugar amount.

Each episode I watch, i do so with some trepidation. I keep thinking that this crew cant keep putting up hard hitting truths that also feed my dark humor. Yet each video I watch is a delight. A dark and twisted delight in truth of how dystopian our world is but at least we are entertained. Thank you. You guys are wonderful. P.S. i miss seeing Warmbos cameos.

"...forget about it, the corn has it now" is the most horrific thing I've heard in awhile.

As someone not in the US, your food advertising is 100 times more hellscape than you think

I love Cody’s seething sarcasm as he reads the ads, take that sellout money as long as they’re willing to pay, king.

I need no corn, I get all the nourishment I need from picking Cody's beard while he sleeps

I saw the title, knew what the video was going to be about, and made myself popcorn and watched it anyway. The corn segment just hits different when you're literally consuming it as you watch in horror.

Curiously a perfectly sealed bag is not the answer to spinach. The REAL key is to stick some paper towels in there to soak up the extra water, but to also not make things too dry, they give back a little as well.

God, how depressing and demoralizing. Thank you! I've known each of these elements of our food supply and industrial approach to "food" in this country are against all nature for years but presenting it in this brilliant package was the best. I've maintained for most of my adult life that we Americans have issues with three things: Sex, food and death. We're so damaged. Sigh. . .

I just got back from my first trip to France (married into a French family), and as great as it was, I very much was looking forward to coming home. Which I did, two days ago. When I got here, I was thirsty, so I grabbed some water from my filtered water pitcher (after filling it up) and... it tasted like burnt plastic. Basically, the water we drink here is horrific by comparison to what I got used to in under two weeks overseas. I knew at the time what I was drinking felt somehow better, but I wasn't understanding how gross the water back home would taste when I stopped having access to that sweet, sweet French water. The fact that even our water is utter garbage (even after filtering) alone, is giving me a new understanding of just how rotten America's relationship is with the things we consume.

I’m going to cook a nice factory made hot pocket and watch this fascinating episode of the only news show on the internet.

Katie's delivery of that Hello Tushie ad was immaculate. Like I dislike being sold stuff but that was just great work.

My first thought about food waste and that ugly vegetable problem came from a Spitting Image sketch. "Thirds Reich Frozen Vegetables" where only the most pure vegetables would be sold. Then I found an actual ad from the 80s where there were fun gorgeous vegetables flaunting their happiness to the dejected ugly vegetables. I forgot the brand but yes, ads have in fact always been like this.

I've never seen Katy have SO MUCH trouble keep it together during an ad, amazing :)

Funniest AG1 ads on the internet, they make it abundantly clear that it tastes absolutely REVOLTING 😂

I was talking to my wife about exactly this at the grocery store this morning. This means I can only assume Cody is reading my mind and has made this News to mess with my mind.

Something that separates SMN ad breaks from all other channels is how each read is (seemingly) done in one take, including all flubs and potential cracking up, that just makes things feel so much more human. I love seeing Katy break character and awkwardly grin her way through a read, legit keeps me from skipping.

Can always count on the Showdy to make me feel frustrated and powerless 😟

If you didn't say "croptimization" i was going to lose my mind. That was a solid catch.

Thank you Cody!!! I'm studying to be a dietitian right now and the state of the US food system is HORRIFYING, full stop. There's so much to cover, curious to see what you focus on in this episode. Edit: great job Cody. One more terrifying fact about ultra processed foods: in the US, the FDA allows manufacturers to "self-certify" the additives that go into our food. There is very little actual oversight. In the EU, there are about 2,000 additives certified for use in food. In the US, that number is about 10,000, and nobody is exactly sure because there's no master list of approved additives anywhere. It's terrifying. I highly recommend the new book Ultra Processed People for anyone who wants to learn more.

Did a report on how Butz was a key player in the downturn of our entire food supply and agricultural models, so I was stoked to hear you bring him up early in the video. He was the devil incarnate!

Katie trying not to lose her shit while reading an ad for a bidet company has been the highlight of my week 😂

"On the best days I feel like a fleshy laundry chute." Best line I've heard in a looong time. Thank you.

I was so relieved and thrilled when Cody followed up crop optimization with croptimization.

I love that Katy’s ad perfectly captures the feel of interdimensional cable.

Katy Stoll my heart 😉 and it might be my imagination, but someone went wild putting all caps emphasis in the closed captioning. SO MUCH EMPHASIS in every OTHER STATEMENT. Also also, thank y'all for submitting prepared captions. I'm not great with auditory processing, so it helps me a ton to be able to keep up with all the erotic tickling and pear analogies. Platonically co-parenting News Dad and Laugh Mom never fail to make my day!

Loved Coke’s advertising saying that because technically anything you drink hydrates you, coke counts as hydrating yourself.

Katy struggling through the bidet ad was incredible.

I'm surprised they didn't mention that consumers needed a regulatory body (FDA) to enacte laws to prevent these companies from feeding us saw dust etc. Great episode all said.

According to a 2020 case at the Irish Supreme Court, the bread Subway use should be legally considered confectionery. It's cake! The sandwiches are made from cake!

We are born of the corn, made men by the corn, undone by the corn, Our mouths have yet to open. Fear the old corned cream.

Cody, thank you from the bottom of my heart for VALIDATING ME about how hard it is to eat healthy in America!! A weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel like society has gaslit me into believing that eating healthy is totally easy, not expensive, not time consuming, and not at all frustrating in the slightest. I feel so fucking happy to hear that I'm not the only one struggling out here to feed myself without relying on fast food. Knowing that only 10% of Americans LIKE cooking, and a whopping 28% of us don't even know how to cook because our schools never taught us how, was VERY cathardic to hear. And people will say "well that's the parents job to teach kids how to cook, not the school's job." Ok well most of the people in my generation had broken ass families that never had the time to teach us, or were straight up abusive pieces of shit that a kid would never ask to learn how to cook from. It only took one Thanksgiving helping my mom cook to never want to do it again. Not only is cooking time consuming, it's fucking stressful because if you fuck it up you end up with food you don't want to eat and it's expensive to go out and buy more ingredients to try again. Cooking takes a lot of practice that I literally can't afford or have the patience to do. I'm autistic, so I have a very hard time eating anything that I don't already like. I hardly ever take chances with trying new food because if I don't like it I will just not eat it. If I'm going to eat, I want to enjoy what I'm eating. Forcing myself to eat food I don't like is actually really difficult for me, and I developed a borderline eating disorder in high school trying to eat healthy. I recognize my appetite could potentially be a privilege thing, I grew up with parents that made decent food at home and took me out to restaurants a lot. I won't deny that could be a part of it, but it's mostly the autism giving me sensory issues with food taste and texture. I fucking hate it that every time I try to eat healthy food I end up hating it and it makes eating feel miserable. Maybe I'm not trying the best dishes, or maybe Americans suck at making healthy food taste good. Also, that bit about HelloFresh normalizing a world where no one has time, energy, money, or the basic knowledge to cook food was genuinely shocking to me. I had to pause the episode and put my head in my hands and just contemplate how fucking DYSTOPIAN that is!! America is a deeply, deeply, DEEPLY FUCKED country, and sometimes all these systemic problems feel like they can't be solved. It's so exhausting living in America... Thank you again for making this episode. My soul needed it.

I've switched from mainly takeaway and quick meals from supermarkets to prepared meals from a reputable (Australian) company. The Kgs are just falling off. Yes I'm having a lot less calories but I've been amazes at how things like my skin has improved as well and I'm just feeling better in and of myself. I knew I was living in a bit of a green desert and not making my own meals was a problem but this video brought it sharply in focus. Also I'm actually saving money somehow.

The more of these shows I watch, the more I realize that all these problems should have been handled decades ago, and at this point we're just trying to stop the out of control collapse of, well everything in this country

Working at a grocery store deli and prepared foods, I've experienced a lot more waste from ordering so much product to appear like a full cornucopia, that by the time somebody buys it they've got maybe two days to use it before the food turns into a puddle of rot. There's a massive culture of relabeling products over and over during the transport, receiving, opening, preparing, and sometimes second or third preparing processes that ridiculously increase their shelf life. Still though, a lot of waste.

You can really tell how Katy is constantly on the verge of losing it during that second ad. How many takes were required there?

I love it when some more news can sneak some Hardcorn videos on to UKposts.

I often skip add reads in videos but the hilarious off the cuff dialogue along with snl like breaks in character makes them absolutely worth it

I'm a Hoosier🌽. And I use the Internet to distract from the CORN 🌽 surrounding me. But thanks to you, I'm gonna be aware that it's infested every fiber of my living.

Good evening, I just want to compliment on the slick editing between 43:30 and 43:33. Dr. Cody misspoke and said pounds instead of tons and they corrected it seamlessly! Well done! Oh yes we're watching your mouth closely!😂 I hope everyone is well and take care Edit: there are a ton of great books on this subject thank you for covering it also. You all did a great job!

Thank you for that hello tushy ad haha and everything else. Despite being a job, it's clear you guys enjoy making the videos as much as we enjoy watching, and to convey the ads as pure necessity is appreciated

The Corn bit got me. This channel is a hidden gem.

31:42 i really appreciate this section because i often feel guilty about not eating well. i was already aware of most of it but it’s nice to hear someone else say it and to be reminded that it’s not just a personal failure

As someone with a corn allergy the idea of trying to eat in the US is fucking terrifying.

Relate to how having been poor, no access to healthy food, has affected my health. And when I was a vegetarian, IRONICALLY 😅, there were no places near the hospital, where I worked, that provided nothing but fast food restaurants (where I've also worked) with unhealthy choices.

I grew up in rural upstate NY in the 80's. Family farms were still a thing then and we had our own subsistence pig farm. I've been concerned about the commercial farming industry since i was in grade school. Commercial farms don't rotate their crops.....this leaves the soil deprived....especially of micronutrients. I think this accounts for some of the nutrient loss in our produce today.