King Corn

“King Corn” is a documentary made by mosaic films incorporated. This film is about two men – Ian Cheney and Kurt Ellis – and their journey to find out where their food comes from. They move from the east coast to the town of Greene, Iowa to plant an acre of corn and see where it takes them.

I learned many interesting and somewhat shocking things from this film that I had never known before. Like I said in a previous post, I’ve become more and more interested in corn and its uses, and obviously this is what the film was all about – corn.

Some things I learned that you may not know:

1.       Most of the corn found in corn fields surrounding us is not meant to be picked and eaten – it is used as feed corn, and corn that will be changed into high fructose corn syrup and other processed corn materials.

2.       Cows are not supposed to be corn-fed; rather, they are supposed to be grass-fed! Grass-fed beef is healthier to eat than corn-fed, too, “corn-fed beef contains much more saturated fat than those raised on grass” (King Corn)

3.       You can make high-fructose corn syrup in your own kitchen – though I’m not sure why you’d want to! Although, according to the men of King Corn, “it’s not really possible to make an exact homemade replica of high-fructose corn syrup. Three enzymes are required to make HFCS, and the third one, glucose-isomerase, is so expensive that it is not readily available to consumers” (King Corn).

4.       We generally have an enormous excess of corn every year.

5.       Grading for our meat is voluntary. Gross. Here’s what I found out about this from the USDA, “Inspection for wholesomeness is mandatory and is paid for out of tax dollars. Grading for quality is voluntary, and the service is requested and paid for by meat and poultry producers/processors” (USDA). So while there is a mandatory inspection for wholesomeness of meat, there is not grade for quality that is mandatory – what are we eating?! More information can be found at the USDA site about different grading techniques and the mandatory/voluntary issues.  

I thought the facts that King Corn portrayed were very real, and I was surprised to learn about the aspects of corn that they showed. I think their story is interesting, but most people wouldn’t leave their homes to go and plant an acre of corn to see what’s going to happen with it – though I guess I can say the same for the Kingsolver family or for the No Impact Project.

I think that all of these people are incredibly remarkable to go and see what’s in our food and to also try to live sustainably – their experiences have really shown me that there’s more to our food than meets the eye and we should be more concerned.

Take care,

Julia