The pervasive peril of high corn is a "seasonal road hazard"?

It's bad enough that the media enjoys encouraging people to panic in advance of the possibility of a few inches of snow each winter in the Midwest, where several inches of snow on the ground is not an uncommon occurrence. Sometimes I can't help but wonder if the media doesn't actually enjoy fostering - and fomenting - mass hysteria.

The Midwest isn't alone in the weather-related fear-mongering. In Hawaii, the media encourage people to buy every loaf of bread and gallon of milk in advance of a possible tropical storm, the possible coming of which is known for several days beforehand.

Now, however, it seems the media is not content in its fear-mongering about the weather, and has turned a new leaf this year by warning us of the "seasonal road hazard" posed by tall corn (with my comments), never mind the fact that the harvest was well underway when the article was published four days ago:

The broad leaves and thick stalks can stand up to 12 feet high [I've lived in a corn state all my life and I've never seen corn so high], forming a wall of foliage that turns rural roads into long, narrow corridors of nothing but corn. 

For drivers navigating the gravel roads that crisscross Midwestern farm country, the plants go by in a noiseless [the author has clearly never driven between cornfields] blur of green, yellow and brown. But the annual crop brings an often-ignored danger: Some roads are so sheltered by the towering corn that motorists can't see each other until just before they collide, with potentially deadly results.

"There are so few people out driving, if you're a gambling person, the odds are it's not going to happen. But it only takes one time," said Dave Struthers, who grows corn and raises hogs near the small central Iowa city of Collins.

The article goes on to say that "the peril is especially pervasive in Iowa where five people died this year in automobile accidents, apparently caused by the corn.

  

I can't help but wonder what the next stop will be on the fear-mongering track.