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Talkback
According to KING CORN, Americans spend less than 10 percent of their disposable income on food, a smaller percentage of income than any generation in history.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of having cheap food available? Share your thoughts and your reactions to the film.
Tell us what you think >>
Submissions will be posted here regularly, so visit again to read more.
Find out how to buy the DVD >>
Filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney took part in on online chat at WashingtonPost.com on April 16, 2008. Read the transcript >>
I watched your film King Corn on PBS, Portland Oregon. I just want to tell you I LOVED IT! And no murder plot either. How refreshing. I have been telling everyone about King Corn. Great Film, very well done!!!!
If grass-fed beef is best and corn is a grass, why don't we feed the cattle the green parts of the corn plant instead of the cobs/kernels? I know the sugars in the kernels cause the cattle to grow faster, but feeding them the green parts of the corn plant eliminates the contention for land between grass grazing ranchers and corn farmers.
Great Film. thank you for the people who took the time and money to make the film. It is nice to know that some people try to see things the way they are instead of making assumptions. Using your mind is the first step to change. Making good eating choices has become a chore over the years. the fact that everything bad for you is readily available and the things that are healthy are a chore to find. i am a culinary major and have had my doubts in the past of what really is going in mass produced foods. Having general knowledge of nutrition i decided i would no longer eat processed foods back in 2000. The film really shows people how bad things have become in the sense of getting the basic nutrients out of foods. It seems making a buck is more important than human preservation in America. Think about how if your sick you worry more about a bill than getting better. If you want to recycle you have to pay for the service. if you want an electric car you are S.O.L. even though the technology is available but has been scrapped by the same corporate entity that would ironically loose money by its realease because of the big wigs in the oil industry.
And now even eating heathly has become something you have to worry about, because the corporations and the government have created a system that works, but the only flaws are human preservation and more importantly earth preservation. I wish the greedy would realize you cant take it with you when you die. All our actions will have a reaction and change can and will happen if we all speak out.
Sad that i cannot even get some of my friends to view anything on PBS. It seems to live in bliss is easier than to realize whats going on around you.
Keep up the Good work i love to be enlightened.
This film is so important, especially now. Yes Americans of all ages are malnourished and obese--eating substances far removed from wholesome and nutritious food. Yes there is a food crisis in availability, cost, food purity for health, and so much more. I have a BS in Nutrition, over 40 years ago, from Iowa State University. I could hardly believe the magnitude of today's food problems. I was shocked to realize that Iowa Farmers are no longer growing a variety of nutritious food, but instead are growing empty calories and fillers for animals and people alike. Our food supply is way out of hand in so many ways.
I want to order this film to show my children, in the hopes that they will begin to feed my grandchildren real, wholesome, nutritious food. Is it available for purchase or rental?
Editors note:
Home DVD copies of KING CORN are available from:
Wonderful and informative program. Learned a lot and recorded it to show family members and friends. Please keep making these type of shows to inform the people of what is going on in our country. I can only imagine what else is going on like this that we aren't aware of. What will it take to make our leaders see this isn't good for the people of this great country.
Thank you
Fasinating, Great Progam. Well Done!
I just viewed "King Corn" on Independent Lens. Thanks for presenting it. I have just read Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and this is a perfect companion to his marvelous book. I am a Type 2 diabetic senior and now know how I got this way! Now, how to fix it before it destroys us.Thoroughly enjoyed your "KING CORN" documentary this evening. Being raised on a farm in Indiana I was taken back down memory lane while watching.
I saw the honesty, sincerity, integrity and God fearing look on everyone in the film. Our country would be so very different if every person could grow up in a farm/country setting. The discipline, responsibility, trust and openness is written on everyone's face.
If anyone has any doubt about God and His work, just drive out to a farm. Get out of your car and smell, look, feel and listen to God. The result will be a MIRACLE. Time seems to slow and stress is gone. So many wonderful memories bring the tears as I recall such a wonderful life of growing up on the farm. Thank you very much for this program. In Christian love,
Great Show. PBS & TPT are the few chennels left worth watching these days. Ian and Curt you did a great job with this film giving us all some very serious things to think about.
It is disheartening and unfortunate that the majority of or society values money over quality or morals. This is nothing new but I do feel it is getting worse. It is at the same time very uplifting to see that there are people left in this great country of ours paying attention and trying to educate themselves about our government and the way it operates.
We are at a pivital time in this country. I'm glad to know I am not alone. Thank you to all who responed and Thank you Ian and Curt for giving us an opportunity to learn.
I was so captured by such an important topic in todays economy! It was a wonderful piece of time and effort that should be highly praised for the accuarcy of information and interesting documentaion in agriculture. I wish the current media and presidential canidates would focus closer on the importance of the current agriculture system and the United States farmers. We are nothing without out agriculture. It is our foundation and it is our responsability to care where and how our food is produced.
There needs to be more awareness brought to the forefront so that our country can learn from the mistakes the government has made and how the decisions made in capitol hill impact everyones livelyhood on so many levels. This documentry brings to light the true "dark side" to the United States agriculture system do to government control. Thank you so much for taking an interest in your family roots. I agree this film should be added to every high school institution for proper education to todays generations of agriculture ignorants.
One more thing, as far as subsidies are concerned. If we were paid a fair price at the farm gate, we wouldn't need government subsidies. That is just another government control to make sure the corporate entities make billions. On our little farm 265 acres farmed sustainably we have never gotten more than 3,000 in any one year period. The subsidies are geared to the huge farms that live off the subsidies. That is their profit off the backs of the taxpayer. Commodities are higher right now but that is because of the energy shortage, We still are not on economic par with the rest of the country. People are having a fit over food prices but you have to remember that you all have been able to live fairly affluent lives because of the cheap food policy that this country inflicted on rural America for the last 50 yrs. Why do you think that hundreds of thousands of family farmers have gone out of business since the early 60's. They weren't all bad managers. the worst thing that has happened to our country's food system has been the loss of family farm agriculture. It was good for the rural communities, good for the animals, good for the children good for the environment. Who controls the land controls the people.
pbs,sometimes the only sane thing on the tube,after seeing king korn my views on industral agg have been enforced,,they are killing us...
Thanks so much for putting together this very informative documentary. As small family farmers we have been fighting this trend all of our farming career, since 1966. You covered all the bases. The powers that be throughout the multinational food system have one goal, to make an obscene profit off the backs of farmers. They don't care about quality of food, only quantity and what gives them the most for the least. I am from that area of Iowa and have family there also. We struggle every day to stay small and produce a quality product for the consumer. We are also very familiar with the cattle situation out West as have brother living in South east Colorado. That land was never meant to be under the plow and grazed by anything but the buffalo or small herds of cattle. Water is also a precious commodity in that area as many of the ranchers sold their water rights and it is all being diverted to Denver, the Springs, Santa Fe,etc. Anyway I am going to buy as many copies of this documetary as I can afford and give it to all of our kids and show it to all of our non farm friends who just don't understand the system. We have called this corn thing the "Systematic destruction of agriculture". It is true the only money made from corn is in the stock market and the futures trade. Again thanks for all of your work on the project. John and Jeanne Rohl Rohling Acres Farm Prescott Wi
I just want to add my voice to the others. Remarkable story on so many levels. Well done. It should be part of every school curriculum for high school and college. It is classic Americana. The film makers did such an impressive job while managing to be true to themselves and the story. Respectful, dignified, fun and informative. Thank you.
I found it interesting that the price of corn at the time you sold your crop was $1.65/bushel. Today, the average corn price per bushel in Iowa was $5.34. No wonder food prices are going up.
I enjoyed watching this film. I found it very educational.
Recently, my co-workers and I gave up certain foods such as beef, pork and soft drinks; for lenten season. During the thirteen weeks, I noticed an increase in energy and I realized that my food digestion improved. Now that I have seen this film, I understand why my health improved.
It has now been 3 months since I have had a hamburger or a regular soft drink and after watching this story, I do not have a desire to return to ingesting these items again. I have made a small step forward by cutting beef and pork out of my diet but I now know that I have to cut even more items out of my diet.
I am so grateful that I came across this film that I have told several people about this documentary.
Thank you
This is a part of a much larger issue, that is being forced on American consumers, which people in European countries do not allow... WHY DO WE? Because way too many people are sheep. We are allowing our food to be irradiated, to be genetically modified, and to let food manufacturers put the corn derivatives into everything. The most recent thing is spraying our meats and saying that they don't have to tell us what has been sprayed. NOT OKAY! Not everyone can grow their own food...
In calling my local PBS station to inquire when this King Corn program would be run again, the gal who spoke with me said “Yes, I know...” about how bad it is, but I'm sure she is just like so many my husband and I have occasion to mention to about High Fructose Corn Syrup in the grocery store aisles, who also know, but say”What can we do?” and then they go ahead and buy the product that is full of HFCS anyway!
People: we vote with our purchases, our feet, and our emails to our representatives in both our state and national legislative bodies. We vote with our complaints to the owners of the grocery stores. Lamentation does no good; action does!
High Fructose Corn Syrup is not a natural product. It is not the same as the Corn Syrup (light and dark) which we grew up with in our kitchen cupboards, and Mom occasionally cooked with. It is a chemically altered product, as you show in the program. It was invented by an Oriental man, who then saw its potential to make/save money in food manufacture.
The Orientals have done the same thing with Monosodium Glutamate, which adds flavor to food, but is very bad for us. It is an Excitotoxin, which means it (is one of many food additives) which excite the cells of our brains and bodies to death — either immediately or within two hours, depending on the dosage). See the book EXCITOTOXINS, by Dr. Russell L. Blaylock, MD. MSG gives many people immediate headaches. Even if you do not get a headache, it is still damaging you.
All one has to do is research these things on the Internet to learn the truth. The only detractor from the truth is the FDA, who are supposed to protect us, and, in fact, only protect those who line their pockets (drug companies and food manufacturers). The FDA was given the job of protecting the consumer and does nothing of the kind, as anyone knows who watches the news. It needs to be dismantled and a new, independent and honest agency put in its place. Let us hope that our best candidate for President sees and corrects this. He is relatively new on the political scene, and is not accepting PAC money.
If everyone will buy the “King Corn” DVD and share it with everyone they know, including their local communities, to play it over the Community Access Cable channel in their locale, and tell everyone they know, the word will get around, and all must be encouraged to take action.
Speak up, speak out and take action... PLEASE! We must demand the reversal of all of this nonsense.
We will only eat grass fed meats, and free-range chicken from now on. We knew it was bad, but not how bad, nor all of why until this program.
My husband and I are both type II diabetic, over weight, and I experience numerous food allergies, among the worst of which is corn and its derivatives. After watching the King Corn program last night, I found this morning an email from the assistant of Dr. Mark Hyman, MD of Functional Medicine, who includes many of the same issues in his book, “The Ultra Simple Diet”, and in the recording of his recent teleseminar sent to me in that email: http://www.ultrawellness.com/ts/allergy.php
I feel it is too important to keep from the world, as is this documentary. Please everyone, spread the word. I have had his ULTRAMETABOLISM book, but will also acquire this one. He speaks to the food allergies/sensitivities and how to get rid of them. Eliminating corn and all of its derivatives from our diets is just part of the solution.
PLEASE HEAR THIS: The solution to the corn / ethanol / oil problems we experience was mentioned only in passing in the program, when the farmer held up the 'weed' he said grows naturally. If the subsidized farmers would all switch to growing industrial Hemp (a cousin, but not the same cannabis as is used for marijuana), and all of us do similar research on Hemp; get our governments (state and national) to allow (again) the growing of industrial Hemp (for food, clothing, biofuel, rope, oils, paper, and as a replacement for styrofoam) we would have a much healthier society and environment. Hemp is in many of our snack foods now, and more and more in some of the healthier cereals. It is high in Omega-3's.
I subscribe to The Hemp News Report from http://www.votehemp.com and suggest others may wish to investigate the information always available there for our edification.
I found it interesting in a video available on their site, to learn that the government, for their own purposes, had made it legal and desirable (temporarily) to grow hemp when they wanted it for the war effort, but then disallowed it again afterwards! Are we stupid? Apparently they think so. Industrial hemp, for rope and other purposes was grown as a normal crop in this country early on. Hemp makes wonderful fabric — very comfortable, highly drape-able, durable, and perhaps partly being kept out by the cotton lobby.
We need to take back our country and take charge of making sure we can get what is good/healthy for us. My husband asks that I include: “this used to be a country that was run for the people and by the people, and it no longer is; now it is a country run by big business and special interest groups. We need to get back to the grass roots of what made our country great — before we lose it completely!”
Jannette Robert Murray, RC, CCHt
www.consumeradvoaware.info (and blog soon to be added)
www.inspiredcounseling.com
Saw some of your show last night in San Francisco (but very late) -- I will be looking for it again to watch it through. Really interesting, engaging, not mocking or being flip with people and is it true about your grandfathers being in the same county? Now that's truly amazing -- you two are definitely on a mission!!! Wonderful work, thank you.
Can someone please explain to me how you can determine that the carbon in your hair came from corn?
Thanks.
I found out about the "evils" of high fructose corn syrup when I married my second wife three years ago.
I was shocked and horrified to see that it was in almost everything. I avoid it as much as possible. I noticed a few months ago that some meat loaf on sale in our local store had high fructose corn syrup listed as one of the ingredients. My question is "Why?"
If everyone would stop buying things with the HFCS in it, the bakers would stop using it. One of our local bakers proudly proclaims that they do not use HFCS in their products. They have my business. Lets see more manufacturers get rid of this unnecessary product. If more people understood how much harm they are doing to themselves by eating products with HFCS, I know they would stop. Films like this one should be aired on main tv as well as PBS.
I have a serious allergy to corn and corn products, such as Nutrasweet. It shows up in Rx medications and aspirin. The symptoms include gout, inflamation, migraine headaches, and visual halucinations, also UTI's. It is almost impossible to avoid. I think it is time for some enterprising person to develop sodas with stevia. I can make fruit juice spritzers, and even fair root beer, but I can't get ingredients to make cola I can drink. Keep up the good work.
I watched this documentary last night & I was amazed & horrified by what Ian & Curt reveal. I already knew that our government controls many more elements of our lives than we would ever wish to acknowledge, but I was still shocked & felt somewhat ill. I read through a few other reponses & I have a few points to make. #1 How much do we really spend on food since our taxes pay to subsidize the farmer? I think it would be very interesting to see study data on this. #2 US citizens may want cheap food, & nobody is completely innocent, but the government not only pushed the corn, they modified it to have terrbible nutrutional value, pushed for a surplus then developed a deadly product to create a demand for the surplus! Don't be so quick to throw your hands up & say "we get what we ask for". US citizens want cheap gas too...strange isn't it?...now the government is making our gas from corn & subsidizing this process! Which means we are subsidizing it. There is no way ethanol from corn will ever be inexpensive. It takes too much energy to create fuel from corn; this is established fact. Now, we as citizens are just going about our busy little lives & watching another chapter of this goverment driven corn disaster being written. How sad and hopeless! #3 People responding by saying eating too much & having too little activity is the real problem - not corn, does not change the fact that the corn (which was naturaly mostly protein) was modified to be mostly sugar.
Thank you PBS, Curt & Ian. I plan to purchase this video & lend it to anyone & everyone I can. I think it is important that we take time to at least acknowledge what is really going on. - Josh in St. James, MN.
INDEPENDENT LENS story KING CORN with Terrence Howard I saw on PBS, Channel 56, 12AM-1:30 AM April 21, 2008 was enlightening. The two recent college grads gave one an objective report about Iowa corn they grew on one acre. The story was good photo journalism. They indeed treated corn as king.
What I thought most interesting about the story is that cattle do not naturally feed on corn. On a corn diet, cattle will die. This doesn't do well for corn. Also, I thought it was interesting that corn as a crop is "crap". One can not eat it. To be eaten, corn has to be processed.
Lastly, the story line was to follow corn from planting, to harvest, to end product. This was a good idea.
Thanks. Your thoughtful film was a very engaging plea for all of us to reconsider what we eat. I was particularly struck by the income/food expenditure factoid and wondered how that changes if one struggles (as I do) to eat regional and organic foods. cha ching.
This was a great film and quite captivating. It was fun, informative and well played. I would like to see what you could come up with for the mass production of chickens.....Wouldn't it be fun to have some chickens?
Please keep questioning, keep searching, keep experiencing and keep documenting.
Thanks.
I grew up in Lancaster, PA... in a similar area to the town in Iowa. I currently live in Boston... I try not to watch tv but occasionally endulge in pbs, and nasa. I couldn't turn off king corn if i wanted to. I thought it was masterfully done, really wonderful and very insightful.
I have recommended king Corn to many of my friends and colleges.
Thank you PBS for showing and the fellas for making it.
I just got done watching "King Corn." I was totally amazed because I thought I knew so much about corn and high fructose corn syrup. Was I wrong!
I live in Wisconsin and my father had been a farmer but he retired in the mid 1960's and he passed away in the mid 1980's. Both my parents families had been farmers for over 100 years here in Wisconsin and back even farther in Germany. All this corn information was all new to me and really alarming. I'm glad that the majority of beef we eat here for home consumption in Wisconsin is mostly retired dairy cattle.
I don't think I'll be eating beef in a restaurant anytime soon or eating anything made of corn if I can help it.
We're killing ourselves and nobody even cares!! It's totally unreal!
Thank you so much for enlightening me and everyone who watched the program and I will spread the word to everyone I know. Keep up the great job!!
Very enjoyable film. Never lost my interest, and kept enlightening me along the way!
A brillant documentary!! Should be shown on all major TV channels to educate society about what is really happening with the food chain. And the Government is totally backing all this. Not surprised.
I knew of the issue, but these two gentlemen really shown it in its magnatuide. Thank you so much, for all your efforts to help educate people,maybe now some will change and NOT buy those food products. Being a vegetarin for over 35 years, and raising my daughter now 31yrs. vegetarin. I kinda knew of the cattle issue,,,which has gotten so much worse. Thanks again, Katherine
Organic farmers do receive susidies, that is not why that product is so much higher. The practices they use, no chemicals, no pesticides reduce the yield that they can produce. If you remember from the documentary todays farmer can produce 4 times the yield that they could 30-40 years ago! Different practices enhance production. A true Certified Organic farm has an extensive certification process. It does not happen overnight. If a non-organic farmer can yield (using WI statistics), an average 40 bushels per acre on soybeans, an organic farmer may yield 18-20. Subsidies will not solve any of the rising food prices. Transportation is the biggest conributer to rising prices, just ask any trucking company, or independant truck driver. You may choose organic products, that is up to you, just as you may choose a vehicle that has a better safety rating, it is more expensive but you feel safer, that is also your choice, we don't expect the government to kick in so we can have a cheaper car do we? Visit an organic & non organic farm producing the same crop and then you will understand the difference!!!!!
Very Powerful! In part because it starts out so benignly :-) ... just two fellas who have a bit of shared history and want to plant an acre of corn - brilliant! Certainly something that should be shown in as many educational & other venues as possible.
What I found most shocking was how the uses of corn have become so distorted, with most consumers be totally clueless - including me. Now that I know, there certainly will be *lot* of changes to our food purchasing habits. Perhaps if enough people did that - and let it be known - change would occur. I recall the Colorado feedlot operator remarking that if the consumer wanted grass-fed cattle, that's what they would get ... so maybe we should put it to the test through consumer power. :-)
Something else that caught my ear: One interviewee commented about the lack of nutritional value in most of today's produce - and I would add the decreased value re feedlot cattle.
That has me seriously wondering whether that might account (in part) for the constant overeating of such a large percentage of the population ... it's the body's only way of attempting to acquire necessary nutrients it expects to receive from food but which are no longer there. I'd be interested if anyone else has a view on that. :-)
Cheers to All
J
Dear Ian and Curt,
What an amazing and special movie by two brilliant young film makers! As someone who has been eating only organically grown foods for many years, done tons of my own research, and a person who has attended many Northeast Organic Farmers Association conferences (held every August up in Ma.), I was very aware of the issues raised in your film. But I'm truly hoping that your wonderful film will totally raise the conciousness, not just of the American people, but of all peoples throughout the world who love and care about our beautiful Earth. Since our politicians either are totally naive, or at worse are in the pockets of special interests (it seems lately both once great political parties are), the continuing degradation of our food supply will continue unless we the people just start saying no to the situation, and start voting wtih our purchases of real high quality locally organically grown foods. I'm sure that the usually higher prices of organic foods could discourage many people from purchaing it on a regular basis, if you are in that situation, consider joinning a local coop, a C.S.A. (community supported agricultural farm), or maybe even planting a small organic garden on your property if possible. You'll be amazed how much high quality food can be grown in a small area.
Once again thank you so much Ian and Curt. You have both put many issues out there, now it is up to all of us who care about the health of the Human race to take whatever actions we can, to make our food supply healthy and truly nutritious again!
Naturalexplorer
As native Iowans and having been raised around Iowa farms all of our lives, my husband and I were extremely impressed and thrilled to see our home state being highlighted. Our daughter and son-in-law are farmers in Iowa also. Iowa holds a special place in our hearts. My husband grew up in Floyd County and his grandfather lived in Greene at one time. He remembers the tractor plant in Charles City...was White Farm Tractor Company during his day. I know farming is big business now but, the farmer still takes a great personal risk financially. No matter how large the farm it is still a "family" affair and hard, unpredictable work. Hats off to all the farmers. Helping a farmer is better than bailing out a bank who's CEO still walks away with millions...if a farmer fails he looses it all. Thank You...hope there is more of this!!
King corn was a funny ,brilliant examination of the unintended consequences of a policy the provides us with cheap food.
Is true that corn syrup has about half the sweetening power - calorie for calorie - as table sugar? If it is, that means that soda, fruit-drink and other food manufacturing companies are adding twice as many calories to sweeten their food products with corn syrup as they would with sugar. Do you think that might have something to do with the obesity epidemic? Thanks for the great documentary.
I viewed King Corn on KCET (Los Angeles). It was superb! The truths contained in the film are just as vital as Al Gore's contribution! I sincerely hope there will be serious attempts to screen this in an ever-increasingly wide distribution. I loved the final scenes of playing catch on that precious, grass -covered acre!
Could it be ADM who is paying the politicians to support farm subsidies, cane sugar tariffs and ethanol requirements for gasoline? Could it be ADM who is making the big money from this entire tax subsidized scam?
Great film! Thanks for making it!
This is one of the best documentary's yet. It just reinforces my justification for spending more for "whole" foods. A great follow-up to the book The Omnivore's Dilemma. Thanks to Ian and Curt and thanks to PBS for another fine program.
Great documentary - both entertaining and educational. Keep up the good work.
Great enjoy watching all about corn, would love to see you do the same with the current rise in trend of soy production.
What needs to happen is the subsidies need to be redirected. With a family of four, it is incredibly difficult to afford organic foods and grass-fed beef. Since the price of growing organic food is high, it is passed on to the consumer. If subsidies assisted the organic farmer, organic can be more affordable, and the small family farmer returns to prominence over the factory-style farms.
Thank you for this enlightening documentary, and I hope that this helps raise awareness, not only for American consumers but for policymakers.
It was my great good fortune to grow up in a community surrounded by Amish and Mennonite farms producing organic foods and meats. It was not until I moved away in my 20s that I understood what had been taken for granted: organic foods are superior because nature has not been compromised. (It was particularly interesting to note in "King Korn" how seed corn has been "scientifically" mutated from the time of the early settlers.)
We honor our bodies when we keep them healthy. We choose to either pay now with higher prices for organic food, or pay later for medical intervention. If we listen to the body's signals, we learn that we actually require less food and receive superior nutrition from organically produced foods; and the bonus is that we have more energy to expend - awarenesses that are slowly creeping into our culture. Productions like "King Korn" advance our overall food awareness. Many thanks.
WOW!!! Finally a film that I can really appreciate!! Thank you for making such an informative, educational, impressive film on the family farm and the lack of family farms. We need part two, to explore this continual cycle of our food indstry and the government (FSA) involvment of supporting big business and not the little family farms. Request through FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) and you can have all the matial you need to know that the industry is running the govt subsides. Please take this one step futher...it really is stealing from our grandchildren generation. I know of one family farm who never took one subsides in the fourty years of farming in Macon, Missouri off Hwy KK and it so impressed me...I will never forget it. I was invited to there home and I been employeed by FSA for over eighteens years at the time..They where so generous and kind, they survived the up and downs for farming for so many years, if you would like there names, please e-mail.
Sincerely,
Pam O'Brien
Hello all! I have yet to see the film, but a friend of mine has and informed me of it and I plan to watch the reairing on Friday. My daughter is 5 years old and has a disease called Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis and suffers from an allergy to corn which causes her to have acid reflux and diarrhea. We have had to remove every source of corn from her diet in order to relieve her symptoms and let me tell you...somehow we have managed to get corn into just about everything we eat. I think we all need to pay more attention to the foods that we eat, where they are grown and how the animals are fed. More and more children are developing food allergies and this disease and I firmly believe it is because our government allows for the pesticides and hormones and antibiotics to be used in the treatment of pests, increasing size and production of foods and treatment of diseases. I am becoming, more and more, an advocate for organic and free range foods. Thanks! Thanks to all of you producing the organic foods!!!
In reading the comments I feel people still don't get it. The American farmer has provided a product to represent consumer demand. Food the that is abundant and cheap. And now people want to blame the product for obesity and diabetes. If you don't like it don't buy it. The farmers will change the product to reflect customer demand. Farming is a very flexible industry and is constantly changing it's products due to customer demand.
Beautifully paced film, very entertaining, however I think that it was poorly researched and perpetuates several myths. Harvey A. Levenstein,in his book 'Revolution at the table: the transformation of the American diet' carefully documents changes reformers, scientists and large corporations have wrought on our foods from 1880 to 1930. The goals haven't changed toward cheaper, labor-saving foods. It does perpetuate the myth that farmers prior to the 1970's were self-sufficient and nutritiously fed from the products of their farms. We have this idealized vision that farming in our grandfathers time was healthy and happy; like the Ozzie and Harriet nuclear families of the 1950's. Many farmers of previous generations were undernourished and died early due to lack of quality food which is ironic because we assume farmers have the easiest access to good food.
Obesity and the increase of diabetes is a complex issue and while HFCS clearly plays a role, it is not the only problem.
I hope future films these talented film makers produce will be properly researched so as to avoid perpetuating myths. Over simplification of cause and effect for complex issues such as obesity and diabetes diminishes the quality of the film leading viewers to wonder what other statements are being made that are only half truths or falsehoods.
Is there any way this DVD could be shared with every school in the country; PTA, health classes, etc.? One comment that especially caught my attention was the young people living now will be the first generation that will not outlive their parents. The life span expectancy is going in reverse.
I first went to Europe in 1984 and I've lived abroad in Asia. Middle-east etc for much of my adult life. One thing I've watched with alarm is Americans becoming the kind of fat growing up in rural America I associated with sows on the way to the market. And yet I observed in other countries people actually ate better and often more. Real butter, real cream and as in Switzerland restaurants actually serve 2nd helpings. And yet not the same obesity. I've long suspected it was SOMETHING about what's in our food plus our cars that mean we do not need to walk even to the train station. Those supporting the ag industries on here have to work for them. There is no other explanation for your smug blindness.
I hope everyone who watched the show remembers the comment many of the interviewed farmers made, consumers want cheap food. Even if "cheap food" has been a government policy, consumers always had a choice between making it themselves, or buying processed foods. I'm one of a fews farmers still producing a diversity of crops on my farm in Pennsylvania. In the last 20 years, I've converted more and more acres to corn production because that's the predominate market for commodities in my area. My grandfather's major crops were wheat and potatoes. I stopped growing wheat because it was too unprofitable. I still grow potatoes, but only 10% of what I grew 20 years ago. The reason, no demand for fresh market potatoes. Consumers determine what the market wants, farmers will grow what the market wants.
Overall, this was an excellent documentary; I really enjoyed it. However, you did not cover several important facets of the corn story:
* You did not address the ethanol component of the range of corn products. I realize the thrust of your story was food, but ethanol production dramatically affects corn planting decisions, production and price and therefore is relevant to the food story. Ethanol production and use (highly controversial in its own right) is one of the reasons corn is king, so this facet should have been included.
* You did not address the role that corn exports play in the corn economy...it is easy to paint corn as a trivial food soruce ("empty calories")...but I wonder if its role in less developed countries is more significant ? Also, are there tariffs that the US places on imported corn?
* You were only a few hundred miles from Chicago but you failed to visit the Chicago Board of Trade - the center of the corn financial economy and the place where prices are set (thus requiring the government to prop up the corn economy.) I think a visit to the CBOT would have been enlightening to most viewers (the trip instead to Brooklyn was a waste, I thought).
I look forward to part II. Most Americans are clueless about where their food and Ag products come from and the economic, environmental and nutritional trade-offs involved. You did a good thing here....take it further.
Blaise Arena, Chicago
Thank you for making this movie. It was very educational. It really opened my eyes in seeing how unhealthy meat and soda is to take into our systems.
Thanks for educating the American Public. I am going to show this movie to family and friends so that they can see the health risks especially with diabetes. My mother-in-law has diabetes and I am going to make sure my wife stops drinking soda so her health isn't as risk.
Again thank you for the amazing insights and for the hard work you did in the research and all the different perspectives you took into account.
Wesley Walsman
Washington, DC
I watched and was very disappointed with how little you told of the miracle modern agriculture. It is easy to complain and find fault when your stomach is full of very available and very affordable food. Agriculture today provides the safest diet in history to a growing and more affluent world population. Not to mention that it provides an assortment of non-food products and bio-fuels. Let's do another documentary and tell the truth. The U.S. is very fortunate to have its ag industry.
LWC's post sums it up fairly well. I also found this an amazing and fascinating program, told with charm and wit as well as insight, a kids-on-the-road film which included thoughtful acknowledgment of our farm heritage, animated graphs consisting of marching corn kernels, risky kitchen chemistry, and respectfully conducted interviews which mostly elicited incredibly candid and sincere replies.
I saw those clips of Butz when they were the evening's news, and was astonished when just after seeing them repeated, I watched those kids knock on his door to obtain what may have been his last televised interview.
The frank tone of the diverse subjects made this film highly intriguing as well as informative (their rapport with the farmers was fantastic), presenting a work of film art as well as a fine documentary. They didn't have to hammer any points home a la Moore; it's all there to hear in everyone's own freely offered words.
The obesity epidemic in America has more to do with eating habits. We eat larger portions and are less active physically. You can not blame all the obesity on corn. Being a 4th generation farmer I thought the film was accurate. It was not too biased towards either side. From reading some of the previous comments the message of the film is being taken the wrong why. The obesity problem would be fixed easier by educating the every day American about what to and how much to eat. The scene at the auction reminds me of going to the local auctions around our area. Those auctions are depressing to go to. Seeing hard working people having to sell most of what they have worked so hard for for so any years is heart breaking. This film is only the tip of the iceberg. The agriculture industry is so much more in depth. Most of its decisions are based on consumer demands. They want cheap, readily availably food.
How is this junk science? To John Q Public, there are many types of corn. The corn that is being grown on such a wide scale in America has low nutritional value; it is high in starch and low in protein. Corn is a grain, just like wheat. As we see with our bread, high consumption of processed grain leads to higher fat gain. In any case if you consume too much of any food it causes adverse effects. We are consuming way too much corn products, and scarcely any of it is "good" corn.
I currently avoid high fructose corn syrup as much as I can. My body just doesn't like it.
Thank you so much for an outstanding documentary. I learned so much and I think the best part of it is that it made me want to go back to may roots; some of which are from Iowa. It gave me a greater appreciation for farmers (including family members) as well as sympathy for today's small farmer. It also made me sad for the state of over-consumption in the U.S. but also gave me a good historical perspective of the past. Thank you. Thank you. And THANK YOU for not only a great education but a connection to my roots. Kudos again to Independent Lens.
Wow! Thank You! I've known for years that high fructose corn syrup is a huge cause of obesity in American diets, but I had no idea the extent to which the problem soars. When more people can embrace this rationale, industry just might have to rethink their cost-cutting tactics.
In the film they were showing corn selling for $1.65 per bushel. Corn has not sold for that in several years. There has also been some changes in farm policy, and due to higher grain prices, NOT government programs, some midwest farmers are doing real well for themselves. Due to globle trading and the weak US Dollar, and high oil prices, it has made corn and many other grains a big item to buy and sell on the open markets. This has driven corn price today to $6.25 per bushel. The globle warming scare has also had an effect on the price of grain and the food you buy, because of the mandates from our federal lawmakers to make more biofuels, driving up the demand for more corn and feedstock for biofuel production and less for food production. There has been a rapid change in the past year and a half, in some of the information these two fellows put in their film. They did manage to leave out the fact that there are a lot of things made from corn that does not go into our bodies, such as some environmentaly friendly plastics. Someone needs to put a disclaimer at the beginning and the ending of this film letting people know that the information in this film is outdated.
Dear Ian and Curt,
I spend way more on my weekly food bill than the average was in your story but I do buy only grass feed meat which is more expensive. I do not buy products made with high fructose corn syrup, which involves reading every label every time, very time consuming in the least. All labels should be label for corn products it would be very helpful. Maybe it could be printed on the front of the product. O Well I Still Have Hope For Mankind. Walk in Peace. Kirsten Kjelgaard RN
My daughter has a high allergy to corn. She can put a hamburger to her lips and her lips immediately begin burning and turning red. She has to carry an epi pen with her. She cannot have anything with corn. Corn starch is in almost everything, including ibprophen (sic). She is 45 years old now and found this out after allerygy test and trial and error. Born in 1962, she grew up when the cuban crisis caused sugar prices in the U.S. skyrocketed. Corn syrup was the U.S. answer to not depending on Cuban sugar. The fast food industry went through the roof when Moms in U.S. started working and needed a fast dinner. Little did we know what we were doing to our children. I buy very few products that have corn in them because of her. My husband and I decided it couldn't be good for us either. Her allergies are really life threatening and corn causes 99 percent of her problems. She has to stay away from it. The documentary was absolutely wonderful and informative. By our research into our daughter's severe allergy, we already knew of the many products that have corn. We are LABEL readers!
My kids and I are allergic to corn; the web sites on corn allergies list PAGES of foods that often/always have corn in them. Corn is one of the more common allergies, BUT it was not included in the allergens which need to be labeled (new law that went into effect at the start of 2007). I wonder if Cargill and other mega-corporations that profit from having corn in everything (directly or indirectly) lobbied to keep corn off the list?
Also corn AS NOW GROWN is a triple whammy for global warming: 1) all the farm machinery, trucks and trains used to grow, dry and transport corn are releasing CO2 from burning fuel; 2) the plowing, fertilization and cultivation releases CO2 from the soil PLUS NO2 (a gas that holds 270 times more heat than C02) and 3) all those critters being force-fed corn that they are not designed to digest are "passing" methane from both ends (methane is merely 21 times "better" than CO2 at holding heat in the atmosphere). Yuck!
My kids and I are also allergic to rice, wheat, soy, etc (I joke that we are allergic to commodity crops). We can't be vegan, but we only eat meat and eggs that have been grown and harvested the way Nature intended. They taste better, too. Good thing I live where there are too many hills for industrial agriculture to totally dominate.
Excellent documentary on corn from Independent Lens. I am type 2 diabetic and have a better understanding of how I came to be so. Thanks for a real eye-opener!
I was very excited about this documentary. Within the past week I have been doing a lot of reading and research about food and what is healthy and what is not. What I learned went hand in hand with this show and I am thankful that these men took the time to do this program. It was loaded with information and I hope it moves people to action. Thank you, Thank you for airing this program. In response to this new information I am "lightlY" researching what it would take to buy and sustain a small family farm where my family and I can grow and produce meat and crops free from atibiotics pesticides (organic) and grain meal.
My wife and I saw King Korn tonight. We thought it was a superb program that carried several important, and disturbing, messages. Americans are spending less on food than any generation in our country's history, but--as one of the Iowa farmers said!--"we're growing crap." As usual, the people with the least income have the least choice in terms of the food they purchase.
However, we would like to recommend a follow-up investigation . . . although the cost of food has declined greatly, the health costs--which are, in part, the result of the food we produce--have increased. Why not try to link the two: lower cost food with higher health expenses that are food related?
I started around about 2 years ago trying to remove HFCS from my diet, and the corn by-products. Some people i am in school with, and also work with think I am crazy for doing so, and watching what I am eating by reading food labels and the like, considering i'm in the medical field amazes me. I was diagnosed with being ADD, and knowing HFCS is a trigger eliminated it. This has reduced my inattention, and also made me more able to be focused and able to concentrate more. I feel like more people need to be educated on this abuse of power by agri-business, and also by removing this poison from our foods. It will like a previous comment stated reduce health insurance, as the thing being called Syndrome X will be eliminated. I believe this is caused by the HFCS in everything, even the healthy food.
King Corn!
Fantastic. Just the premise, growing, raising and selling and following the corn was brilliant. That you can't follow your corn, save, in the end, into a bottle, and that in turn into our fat, is tragic and disgusting. The interview with Butz, and the owner of the farm, your acre, lost, great. But, I loved that field amidst the corn at the end, playing ball. Your own version of Costner's if you build it they will come. If you dig it up, they won't plant it!
This is the antithesis of the Italian "slow food" movement. I think you've done an exceedingly important piece of documentary with illuminating entertainment.
Thank you!
Larry
P.S. Watching the anhydrous ammonia and the Liberty herbicide along with all the other "goodies" just added to the show. The only thing you left out is the amount of water from the Ogalla Aquifer that goes into corn, and coupled with the ridiculous move to ethanol, will break the bank. ADM sure has it made, until the likes of King Corn comes along!
I've got to tell you, I am allergic to corn. After a long process of elimination, about 20 years ago, I discovered that corn cause me to have a "migraine headache" syndrome. I wonder how many other people suffer from this stuff that's almost literally shoved down our throats. It is in almost every food requiring sugar because it's been cheap. The trashier the food the more poison, sorry...corn. I could go on about the genetic modifications, chemical imbalances, etc. but let's leave it at that for now. Something is rotten in the world of corn.
The same company who developed geneticly altered Liberty LinkA Corn is ready to release their genetically altered Safflower. The protien is altered to create a cheaper insulin & Apol1. How will this effect birds and insects in the open feilds? Who cares... the money to be made by SemBioSys. Inc , Dr Maurice Moloney & U of Calgary is well worth Syngenta & Dow Agroscience LLC investments into owning that University.We have a perfect circular income by a pharmacutical Corporation involed in Agriculture. Help create the problem (Diabieties) & make people pay for the solution(insulin) at a profit. This sort of Geneticly altered applications I'm sure will be used again to increase Corporate profit margins. The public is so nieve.
Thank you for this film! In our house, we have started referring to corn-based foods as FEED. It really helps you stop shoveling cereal and tortilla chips. That stuff should be served up in a trough. Thanks for raising awareness! I want to eat food, not FEED.
Thank you for another eye-opening film. Hey, Big Food companies, listen to voice the people who are aware of your doings. We want real food. We don't want Frankenstein laboratory imitations. Sure, you can sell more because it tastes good to us. But you're killing us. Sacrifice some of your income and make better food for your consumers, PLEASE!!
I hope the presidential candidates address this issue of corn-grain fed animals and synthetic fertilizers and additives in our food. I feel this is causing the serious health issues in our country. Other countries don't have such health problems. We can eliminate the high health insurance rates if these health conditions diminish and more people would be able to afford the health insurance.
I really don't have to see your film, but I will. I grew up in Iowa the great granddaughter of the sod busters who broke the soul of the prairie. When I was growing up in the late 50's and 60's it drastically changed. I remember the plow matches and the introduction of hybrid corn by Garst and Thomas. As a child I remember working in the pantry with my grandmother and aunt preparing huge amounts of food for the men in the fields, snapping peas in a huge garden and canning the bounty. Gradually it disappeared. The apple orchards were cleared for a elementary school, the trackers grew larger, manure was no longer recyced onto the fields and crops were no longer rotated.
I live in Arizona and eat differently and better than the people I grew up with who still live in Iowa; a vegetarian no less and consumer of organics. I return always with sadness.
To everyone that believe corn causes people to gain weight. Corn is and always has been a good carb. Corn helps the body to burn fat, as well as dried beans, yams, rice and bananas.
I just wanted to comment that our cat was VERY over weight, and the vet said it was because we fed him primarily dry food (thought it was better), and dry cat (and dog) food is predominently ground CORN! Yes, it sure is. So that brings it all together to make sense out what I am seeing in this article -- that CORN is the culprit for may of us in our diets! I now avoid HFC* like the plague. By the way, now that our cat eats mostly canned, low cal food (more protein) he has lost 6 pounds! And I have lost 12 pounds paying more attention to less corn (and other junk) in my diet!
*high fructose corn syrup.
My husband and 5 of my 6 children are allergic to corn, corn syrup, corn starch, etc. It has been very hard trying to police lunches at schools, when they were younger. It seems, unless you have a peanut allergy, no one takes you seriously. Corn is in everything. Going out to eat is Russian Roulette. My second child was also allergic to breast milk, so we had to try one formula after another. By the time we found one she could tolerate she was 8 months old, and still 8 lbs. I hope someday manufacturers go back to using sugar.
In the area I grew up in upstate NY, we always referred to any overweight person as "corn fed". I guess we already knew, lol.
HOORAY HOORAY SOMEONE IS FINALLY TRYING TO INFORM PEOPLE ABOUT THIS EPIDEMIC OF OBESITY AND ITS RELATION TO HFCS
I HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THIS PROBLEM FOR SEVERAL YEARS BUT IT SEEMED LIKE MOST PEOPLE HAD NO CLUE,ESPECIALLY MANUFACTURERS.
EVEN ANTS DON'T WANT TO EAT IT AS THE BODY DOES NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY ENZYMES ETC TO DIGEST IT LIKE A SUGAR AND IT IS JUST CAUSING FAT TO BE DEPOSITED IN OUR BODIES.
PLEASE CONTINUE ON YOUR CRUSADE,EVEN BREAD AND ALMOST EVERYTHING YOU BUY,LIKE CATSUP EVEN CORN SYRUP IS NOW HFCS. I KNOW YOU ARE AWARE OF THIS BUT OTHERS AREN'T
THANK YOU ,THANK YOU AND THANKS Again.
COLLEEN HARES
Yet again, more junk science from the anti-rational nut buckets in our culture. Corn is NOT the culprit in American obesity, any more than any other single food source. Our essential problem is too many calories in and too few out, regardless of their source. We need to start eating less of EVERYTHING and start moving more--and stop demonizing the agricultural industries that keep us all fed better than any other country in the world.
FINALLY!!!! SOMEONE HAS AWAKENED TO THE OBESITY NIGHTMARE AND CORN..
I have been denouncing corn for at least 15 years....people thought I was a nutcase. I, for one, became greatly concerned when it was added to every product, including foods that were suppose to be healthy like cereals...everything full of corn syrup, corn syrup solids, modified corn starch, on and on ad nauseam...added to every product that is processed, which of course, is another horrendous thing being forced on the American population.
I remember when chicken was eaten every Sunday night because it was cheap. The minute it became a good food prices soared and continues to do so, another source of corn fed meat products...reigning them in from free range and stuffing food down their gullets for profit on two fronts. This is the way the Dept of Agriculture has lined us all up and shoved corn down our thoats, and our wallets, through the bed wetting politics of pork barreling.
I wonder if you know the connection between Senator McGovern and his pack of lawyers/lobbyists from the midwest three decades ago...that they developed the food pyramid and from day one the population grew fatter and fatter as more and more corn products were added to every conceivable product that could hold the additive.
The two protagonists of the documentary “King Corn” (Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis), queried Mr Butz, former Secretary of Agriculture, about the major change in the Department of Agriculture crop subsidy program, to compensate farmers for producing more rather than less .his justification was quite compelling and include reason that hint at national security considerations.
After all, the major change in the crop subsidy policy occurred during the 1970s. This was the heart of the Cold War. We were more concerned with the short-term concern of insuring that we could always feed ourselves. Long-term considerations, like nutrition and health, usually came last during the Cold War. Furthermore, we had to make sure that food would be cheap allowing us to spend more on the acquisition of weapons.
Now that our national and social priorities have changed, we are still stuck with a Cold Wars-inspired system/machine that now undermines our current nutritional and health needs. We are feeding the Yellow Dent #2 corn to our cattle. Use of This corn undermines our long-term health and the health of the cattle to which it's fed. Those cattle are, in turn, also part of our diet.
From the same corn, we manufacture thousands of gallons of high-fructose corn syrup/sugar, whose long-term use will eventually lead to epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes or both.
Now that we have created and used this dys-optimal nutritional machine for in excess of 40 years, it is well entrenched within our lives, without an easy place for us to dismount from it. The pain we will have to endure to leave the system of corn dependency may be greater than the pain of staying on it.
What is the best decision ? Do we pay the price to kick the habit in order to leave this system ? Or, do we accept the reality that this is the system we got, stay with it, and accept its consequences.
L W Calhoun, Atlanta
