KING CORN

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

King Corn, a documentary released to the public this fall, follows an acre of corn from seed to feed (feed for animals and high fructose corn syrup).

If you were not aware of how cattle can only survive a few months on corn without dying, or of the effects of high fructose corn syrup, the movie is worth seeing. It's not a loud "exposé" but an evenly paced story where two friends move from Boston to Iowa to understand corn in the USA. By the end, it seems clear how initially good intentioned farm policy led us to our current state--where, at the molecular level, most of us are made of corn--and life expectancy in the US is beginning to decline.