Review: King Corn- You Are What You Eat
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 07. 8.08
Blame Earl Butz. That is how we started our post on Peak Corn, noting that Richard Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture told farmers to "get big or get out," and to plant crops like corn "from fence row to fence row." Almost forty years later, Director Aaron Woolf interviews an unrepentant Butz (just prior to his death), but unlike a Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, does it with grace, dignity and humor.
That's what separates King Corn (now out on DVD, previously covered by Jasmin for its theatrical opening) from so many other documentaries; It is warm, funny and treats its subjects with respect.
The story: after being inspired by Michael Pollan, who said famously " If you take a McDonald’s meal, you don’t realize it when you eat it, but you’re eating corn.", Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney drive to Iowa to plant an acre of corn. Not tasty eating corn, but the typical American industrial corn that doesn't taste like anything but makes great corn syrup. They don't exactly plant it either, but follow their friendly and cooperative neighbours as they use the equipment, fertilizers, seeds and pesticides that Iowa farmers use; the harvest at the end of the season takes exactly eighteen minutes.
They wanted to follow their corn from start to finish, much like Michael Pollan did with his cow; they were not able to do this as their corn just disappeared into the North American industrial food machine. However they were able to demonstrate how the system works (often with very cute Fisher-Price farm toys in stop-motion animation) how hard the farmers work, how the entire system is distorted by subsidies, and how it really isn't even food. Great fun and a lot of learning on ::King Corn
On King Corn
Opening Today in Theaters: King Corn
Where Corn is King
George Monbiot on the Pleasures of the Flesh
On Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan on What Sustainability is Really About
Book Review: The Omnivore's Dilemma
The Silence of the Yams
The Silence of the Yams
Michael Pollan : The Government Makes You Fat
Neat, I've got a long trip coming up and I think this is just the thing to keep me occupied :)
Part of the "fence row to fence row" idea was to integrate grain exports into foreign policy - make it a tool of the cold war. Countries without adequate food were promised to get some if they kept out of the communist block, etc.
The environmental costs of the policy (soil losses) were horrendous and were reversed once made apparent.
This is great to watch if you don't realize that corn is a very serious problem.
Around here (Willamette Valley) you do see a lot of corn, but grass seed (!!) has been the mainstay for decades -- hey, somebody's gotta grow your suburban lawn for you, right? But now there is a subtle shift back to wheat, as the bigger farmers begin to sense the price point of food shortages.
The smaller operations, though, are doing what they've pretty much always done: truck farming, most recently in the form of CSAs.
I watched this at Chico, CA's Greendance Film Festival.
I was very affected by it. I highly recommend it.
I changed my eating habits and found renewed motivation for advocating change for agricultural practices and government subsidy programs.
Watch it.
So be sure to eat a lot of popcorn and a two-liter bottle of HFCS sweetend soda when you watch the DVD.
The most surprising thing about the movie was that they interviewed Earl Butz (who has since passed away).
I always thought that Spurlock's take on documentary was very respectful. While it is in your face, I have yet to see him openly insult any of his subjects. He just does the whole ordinary guy thing, and is good at getting people to break out of their comfort zones - no matter which side of the spectrum you find yourself on.
Moore on the other hand is a different story. However, Sicko was very well done and not as confrontational as Fahrenheit 911 or Bowling for Columbine (although I enjoyed both).