Last night on the recommendation of Michael Straus I saw King Corn at the Red Vic Movie House in the Haight. The movie tells the story of two young filmmakers from Boston that move to Iowa to where their great grandparents were from - and grow an acre of corn. Well the movie’s not just watching corn grow, but far more interesting because they entertainingly expose the industrialized system of food production that has been taking over the midwest of our country for the last 30 years and ruining our nation’s diets.
“We’re not growing quality - we’re growing crap!” - a corn farmer.
Following the trail of high fructose corn syrup, Ian and Curt hop attempt to make a home-cooked batch of the sweetener in their kitchen. But their investigation of America’s most ubiquitous ingredient turns serious when they follow soda to its consumption in Brooklyn. Here, Type A diabetes is ravaging the community, and America’s addiction to corny sweets is to blame.
“If there had been reason to suspect that over-production of sorghum or rice lay behind our national health crisis, I don’t think I would have been as excited about making this film or as somehow conflicted about bringing it out into America. But the thought that corn could be implicated—this hit where it hurts. ” - Aaron Wolf, Director
The breadth of the problem is now clear: the American food system is built on the abundance of corn, an abundance perpetuated by a subsidy system that pays farmers to maximize production.
In a nursing home in the Indiana suburbs, Ian and Curt come face-to-face with Earl Butz, the Nixon-era Agriculture Secretary who invented subsidies. The elderly Butz champions the modern food system as an “Age of plenty” Ian and Curt’s great-grandfathers only dreamed of.
After the movie was over there was a short speech by the California Food and Justice Coalition about the Dorgan and Grassley amendment, which is currently our best chance at making a change in this system. Call your senator right now.
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