Canned food gets a bad rap. But canned veggies can be the superstar of a last-minute weeknight dinner. Have you ever reached for a can of peas for a 15-minute stir-fry? If you follow a vegetarian diet, there's probably a good chance that you already have a variety of canned beans hanging out in the pantry. Luckily, "The Green Giant wants to bring his tasty vegetable goodness to everybody" (per Al Reef, L.L.C.), so whether you're a green beans fan or a mushroom head, the jolly green man himself has it all. However, one particular canned vegetable has captured the spotlight for Green Giant and has retained the number one spot as its most-heralded product.

For Green Giant, it's all about canned corn. The company itself professes, "Sweet corn is at the heart of the Green Giant, and one of his favorite vegetables to grow." The 1936 iteration of the Jolly Green Giant mascot is depicted holding a massive ear of corn. Today, though, sweet corn remains just as important to the vegetable giant (pun intended). Plus, from cans to jars to even the labels — including the shrink wraps — 100% of sweet corn's packaging is recyclable. (The jars are even made from 60% recycled glass, and the cans are made from 56% recycled steel. Talk about green) (via Green Giant). Here's why this canned food is the most special for the Green Giant company.

It's all about location, location, location. It turns out that location is just as important for canned corn as it is for buying real estate. Green Giant states that it grows its sweet corn on a farming co-op in the "perfect growing conditions of Southwest France" — and, indeed, it seems like France just might be the perfect place to do it. 

Per Reference.com, corn is one of the main crops grown in France; particularly in the fertile soil and climate conditions of the Paris Basin region. In fact, it states, roughly 3.5% of the total French labor force works in the agricultural industry. According to World Atlas, France is the third largest exporter of corn in the world, cranking out over 17 million metric tons of the stuff every year on average, making France corn's ninth-largest global producer. The Aquitaine region in the southwest region of the country accounts for 21% of France's total corn production, and the southwestern French state Midi-Pyrenees accounts for 13% (via Britannica). Every time consumers open a can of Green Giant sweet corn, states the veggie company, those kernels are grown within 170 km of the factory to minimize transportation distance and that all of the used corn husks are reused as cattle feed. Perhaps the Green Giant should be called Le Géant Vert, instead.