Even Captain Cornelius appeared at the RFS rally on Capitol Hill.

There’s some really good reading on corn, GMOs and the Renewable Fuel Standard in major media outlets today. Here is a summary of each story, along with links so you can read the entire piece:

• Tamar Haspel, a food and science writer who won the 2015 James Beard Foundation award for best food column, has a 1,300 word opus about corn in Thursday’s Washington Post. She writes:

There’s a strong case (which I’m going to make) that field corn, used as a grain, is the single most important food crop on the planet. That case is based on what I’ll contend is the most underappreciated metric in agriculture…That metric is — drumroll, please — calories per acre…In the calorie department, corn is king. In 2014, average yield in the United States was 171 bushels per acre…Each bushel weighs 56 pounds and each pound of corn yields about 1,566 calories. That means corn averages roughly 15 million calories per acre.

She goes on to cover how corn plays the most important role of any crop in helping to safely and securely feed a growing world population.

Too often, we see national food writers and major media outlets recycle the same tired talking points about corn and modern agriculture. Hats off to Hapel for providing meaningful insight and real-world context in her piece about corn.

• Over at Slate, William Saletan, argues that genetically modified foods (GMOs) are safe, but the argument against them is full of fraud and errors. Here’s the money paragraph:

I’ve spent much of the past year digging into the evidence. Here’s what I’ve learned. First, it’s true that the issue is complicated. But the deeper you dig, the more fraud you find in the case against GMOs. It’s full of errors, fallacies, misconceptions, misrepresentations, and lies. The people who tell you that Monsanto is hiding the truth are themselves hiding evidence that their own allegations about GMOs are false. They’re counting on you to feel overwhelmed by the science and to accept, as a gut presumption, their message of distrust.

Be sure to read the entire piece. It’s that good.

On a side note, Congress passed a bill on Tuesday that would eliminate confusing state-by-state food labeling laws and create a uniform, science-based federal labeling standard. The National Corn Growers Association supports this legislation.

• The drive to tell the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to not mess with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) continues. Over 300 corn farmers and legislators rallied on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. on Wednesday to show their support for the piece of legislation that has helped clean our air, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and provided consumers with choices at the pump.

Have you made your voice heard on the RFS yet? Click here to tell EPA that the RFS is working for all Americans and to not slash it.