UNIT
8: FEEDING THE WORLD
FACT: 18 PERCENT OF
CORN RAISED IN THE U.S. IS EXPORTED TO OTHER COUNTRIES
LESSON
1: It's a Small World (Multidisciplinary)*
LESSON 2: Export
Math! (Math)*
CLAIRE
HAS A DREAM
Claire stood in
front of her third grade classroom telling her story.
"I was born in Korea,"
she began. "My name was Hye Yung. Hye means wisdom and Yung means glory.
I came to Minnesota when I was three months old."
She told them she
had never seen her birth mother. But her foster mother, who had cared
for her those three months, had sent her a hanbok for her first birthday.
A hanbok is a centuries-old style of Korean dress. Claire's was made
of red silk, and covered with beautiful designs.
She told them how
her hair grew straight up into a spike when she was little, so the first
words Elizabeth ever said to her as she was carried off the airplane
were, "Look at my sister's hair!"
She told her class
that in Korea the people eat lots of rice. She showed them some Korean
writing, and she taught them to sing the "Hokey Pokey" in Korean.
Then she laid several
items on a table: a pencil, a dollar bill, and some thread. She said
that in Korea, a child on their first birthday is asked to choose one
of those three things, and whichever one they choose will predict their
future. If they pick up the pencil, they will become a scholar. If they
pick up the money, they will become a businessperson. If they choose
the thread they'll have a long, long life. If the 1-year old picks up
two items at the same time, they will double their good fortune!
Then she told her
class how it felt to be an American born in another country. She said
that sometimes people made fun of the way her eyes slanted. Sometimes
kids in school talked funny, making fun of the way they thought people
talked in Korea. One time when Claire was shopping for a pair of cowboy
boots, the owner of the store told her she didn't belong in this country,
and wouldn't wait on her...
That day in school
was special for Claire. Her class loved hearing about Korea, and they
asked lots of questions. After school turned out to be special too.
When she got off the bus, Dave was just starting to harvest the cornfield.
Riding in the combine was one of her favorite things to do!
She climbed a ladder
into the cab, then sat on the little seat next to Dave's. He always
had a bag of candy ready for her.
The combine was
Huge! When she was in it, high above the corn, she felt majestic and
grand. She could see all the fields around. She could look down the
rows of corn and watch them bend into the combine's path.
The front of the
combine looked like a giant comb laying flat on the ground, one row
of corn fitting between each of the fingers. As the "comb" pushed forward,
the stalks of corn were bent and pulled into the machine. Once inside,
the kernels were separated from the cob, and the leaves were sent back
to the field.
The kernels were
the treasure! Claire could see them pouring into the combine bin behind
her seat, and could watch it filling as they drove. There were thousands
and thousands of kernels, flowing like golden water! When the combine
was full, the kernels were loaded into trucks that carried them away
from the farm. She asked Dave where the corn went after it left the
farm. He smiled and said, "Korea." Claire thought he was kidding, but
that night she asked her mom, just to be sure.
"Most of the corn
we raise is used to feed animals," her mom said. "Some of it is used
to make ethanol gas for cars. Some is used in foods we eat every day.
The rest, about 18% of the corn raised in the United States, is sent
to other countries around the world."
"And yes, a lot
of corn grown here is sold to Korea. Your home country is one of the
United State's best customers! From our farm the corn is taken to the
Mississippi River, where it's carried on barges to the Gulf of Mexico.
Sometimes it travels by train to the West Coast. At the ocean ports,
it's loaded into the ships that carry it to other countries. The corn
from this farm will travel inside a truck, train, barge, and ship on
its way around the world!"
That night Claire
couldn't fall asleep. All she could think of was the corn she had helped
harvest that afternoon. She wondered if it was on its way to Korea.
She wished she had painted one of the kernels purple. Maybe a little
girl in Korea would find it, and wonder who had painted it.
When she finally
did sleep, she had a dream.
She dreamed about
a great, gigantic ship crossing the ocean. On the side was written its
name, the "Hye Yung." The ship was filled with corn from her farm and
other farms in the United States. There was corn everywhere, filled
to the top of the cargo area. The captain and crew had to sleep and
eat in the engine room.Everything else was full of golden corn.
A storm came. First,
it was a gentle wind, then it became wild and fierce. The Hye Yung was
rocking up and down on the waves. She was creaking and groaning as she
tossed on the waves.
The customers in
Korea were standing on the shore, praying she would arrive safely. They
needed the corn for food. The farmers in the United States were praying
too. Everything depended on the strength of that ship. Could she make
it through the storm?
Claire woke up
then. She was scared.
But she was wiser
too. She realized that everyone in the world was connected. She knew
that people in Korea depended on people in the United States, and people
in the United States depended on people in Korea. She felt lucky to
be connected to both countries, even if sometimes it felt like she was
in a storm.
And she liked the
idea that corn from her farm might end up in the country where she was
born.
