ON A cloudless day on a five-hour flight from Philadelphia to Des Moines, the capital of Iowa in the US Corn Belt, the view is breathtaking. Thousands of farms stretch to the horizon on either side, broken up only by the odd small rural town. In the seat next to me, Jerry, from Philadelphia, laughs at my amazement. "Welcome to the Midwest," he drawls.The fabled American Midwest can lay a bigger claim than any other region to being the breadbasket of the world. Here, 35% of the world’s maize is produced, as well as vast amounts of soya beans, wheat, sunflower, canola, alfalfa and many other crops.The vast region covering most of the "I states" — Illinois, Indiana and Iowa — is a testament to the corporatised farming of the US, and the machinery is now being put in place to spread this out across the globe.About 50 agricultural journalists from every corner of the world were recently invited to Des Moines. It is the home of the World Food Prize, awarded annually since 1987 to individu...
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