The love affair between corn growers and fast-food chains -- long asserted, but never proven, by food activists and writers such as Michael Pollan, the bestselling writer who has slammed North America's obsession with fast food in his books In Defense of Food and The Omnivore's Dilemma -- was given scientific backing with the publication of a paper that showed that corn is implicated in the production of nearly everything sold at fast-food counters in America.

"Corn occupies a really special role in what I've been calling American agro-economics," says Jahren, who is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.