Doing an internet search, I found that one ear of corn has just 1g of fat. I’m imagining it takes a heck of a lot of corn to make a litre of corn oil. Yet corn oil is surprisingly inexpensive and abundant.
On the other hand, four large olives have 2.5 g of fat. Presumably then, it takes very few olives to make a liter of olive oil, yet, it costs so much more and is rather limited in availability.
I’m similarly confused about the high cost of walnut or peanut oil versus sunflower or canola.
When making corn oil, you use alot of corn versus olives, but the rest of the corn is being used as well, so it’s not like you are wasting a bunch of corn just for oil. Much of the corn has a purpose.
Oilve oil is pressed from olives, and I believe the olive is pretty much done after that. Maybe something is used, but considering that much of the corn is not wasted and that olives are not used as thoroughly, and considering corn is domestic and olive oil is imported, the price should not be surprising.
One reason for the high price of olive oil (and olives in general) is the yield. Olive trees have to be pretty old before they start giving fruit. (Several hundred years old olive trees are not uncommon, and some are believed to be more than 2000 years old.) Compare this to maize, which grows in a single season, and gives several ears.
According to this an average olive tree takes 25-50 years to mature, and will give about 20 pounds of olives per year, which results in 2-4 pints of oil.
According to a quick google search average corn yield is about 140 bushels / acre (12 M[sup]3[/sup]/hectare)!
Another factor to consider is the amount to which the process can be automated. I believe that olives are still handpicked (by maidens in full moon), whereas I think that corn can be harvested with huge combine harvester-like machines.
So what is it used for? Feed?
Corn Wiskey?
Ever hear of high fructose corn syrup? It’s in everything from wheat bread to juices.
Corn syrup, corn starch and corn oil. Corn syrup is huge biz.
Anyway, back to the OP
Is that 1g ear of corn that you’re talking about sweet corn? There are so many different varieties of corn grown for different purposes. It’s possible that the corn that is used to make corn oil has be bred (or engineered :eek: ) to have a higher fat content.
Green Bean makes a good point. Corn is a-plenty, and it is likely their is a high fat variety.
I’m exit 2 off the NJ turnpike, GB, and we have corn as far as the eye can see come summer. It’s all feed corn destined for cattle in the south, and my understanding is it’s higher in calories and lower quality than market corn.
So, 20 pounds of olives per year, yielding 2 to 4 pints of oil. How many olive trees could you have on an acre?
Average corn yield is about 140 bushels / acre. I didn’t figure out yet how much oil you can get out of a bushel of corn, but I’m still looking.
Popup, the discrepancy between the price of olive oil and corn oil is much greater than the discrepancy between olives and corn, so I’m sure there’s another factor other than yield.
Olives are plentiful in Eastern Europe, and a jar of olives doesn’t cost much more than a jar of corn, but the olive oil still costs about 4 times what corn oil does. Either it’s difficult somehow to extract the oil from olives, or I’ll go with Philster’s theory that the oil is simply one small part of what you can do with the corn, whereas it’s the olive’s only mission.
I think you’re right Green Bean, maybe the corn they make oil from has more fat than what I found.
Hmmm…found it. http://www.nwicc.cc.ia.us/Module3.htm
An acre of corn (125 bushels) produces 313 gallons of ethanol, 1,362 pounds of
21% distillers grains, 325 pounds of 60% gluten meal, and 189 pounds of corn oil.
Now I just have to get converting.