King Corn is marketed as entertainment. I'm sure it will hold your attention, but it didn't make me laugh. Instead, I think many people can expect to feel outraged while watching this documentary.Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis (pictured) are just trying to learn how to grow an acre of corn in Iowa. Along the way they also visit a variety of experts on food and agribusiness. If they are outraged themselves, Cheney and Ellis themselves never let on. Instead, they behave like good apprentice farmers, or student-journalists, depending on the situation.
But it is hard for me to imagine that our two heroes didn't come away from their experiment shaking their heads at the absurdity of modern American agribusiness and hoping that things will soon change. Let me tell you what I'm talking about:1. All of the Iowa farmers seemed to agree that they're only able to make a living growing corn because it is heavily subsidized by the federal government.
2. The government, however, is not subsidizing the delicious, healthy sweet corn that you might grow in your backyard, instead they're growing varieties of corn that cannot be consumed until they are thoroughly processed.
3. The pesticides used by today's corn farmers will kill every possible plant, even every possible type of corn - except the one that particular pesticide was made to be used on. (Could that possibly be good for the land?)
Okay, so I'm outraged, or at least sad, how about you?
2 comments:
Well, I am an Iowa farm girl. I do not take it lightly when it is stated that pesticides used on corn in Iowa kills other plants. Some plants do need to be killed whether it be pesticides or pulling or discing up the offending plant. Many farmers in Iowa do not use pesticides. Some do...still...let's get the facts straight.
I have not seen this movie; but most farmers are not getting rich from government subsidies. In fact, they might sell a bushel of corn for $1.25 and by the time we buy a product, we pay much more. The same goes for meat, vegetables, and other things farmers grow. And I strongly disagree that corn is the "only" crop grown in Iowa--what about beans, maize, wheat, alfalfa? Some farmers forget the crops and raise cattle.
Guess I better watch the movie to see what it is all about!
I talked to "Iowa farm girl" (by the way, she is no longer a girl and doesn't live in Iowa anymore) and made it clear that it isn't about Iowa. The federal government and the chemical companies are doing the same thing with farmers across our land. I never claimed that farmers were making too much money, only that they agree they could wouldn't be "able to make a living" [I'm quoting myself there] without the subsidies.
Let me make this clear to all readers: Since food is so essential at such a basic level, it would not bother me at all to know that my tax dollars are being used to help farmers build the soil and grow delicious and healthy crops. But instead (according to King Corn), the government is using my tax dollars to bribe farmers into putting out a product that is not even edible until it is processed in a large factory.
I challenge everybody to watch the movie and if you disagree with my take on it, let me know with a comment here.
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