“King Corn” (2007) is an independent American film about corn. Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis return to their great grandfathers’s town of Greene, Iowa to grow an acre of corn (0.4 hectares of maize, mealie, Zea mays). They find out that corn is not quite what you think it is. Aaron Woolf directs.
Corn was pretty much how people imagine it to be until the 1970s: family farmers growing ordinary corn and selling it. The government sometimes paid farmers not to plant corn to keep prices at a level so that family farmers would not go broke in huge numbers.
Then in the 1970s all that changed. Instead of limiting the amount of corn grown, the government poured money into corn so that huge amounts of it would be grown. It became big business – all those family farms have been going under one by one ever since.
Corn is now so plentiful and cheap that Americans spend way less on food than they used to – because now most of what they eat is corn in one form or other.
For example:
- Meat: Most corn is turned into meat. Cows used to be grass-fed. Now they mainly eat corn even though it makes them sick. So sick that without antibiotics they would die before they were ready for market.
- Sugar: Half the sugar Americans consume comes from corn in the form of high fructose corn syrup. It is so cheap that Americans consume way more sugar than they used to. For many it is more than their body needs or can even handle, making them fat, even diabetic.
- Even French fries: half the calories comes from the oil, which is made from corn.
Ellis and Cheney had their hair analysed: over half of it came from corn!
The corn itself has changed. When Cheney and Ellis tried to eat some of their corn, they spat it out: it tasted like chalk or sawdust. It is not meant to be eaten. It is meant to be a raw material that is processed into other things: animals feed, ethanol, high fructose corn syrup, etc.
It has been genetically engineered not just to grow closer together but to withstand chemicals that kill insects, weeds and other living things.
With the machines they have now, it took them just 18 minutes to plant their acre with 31,000 seeds. With the present-day fertilizers, their acre produced 5 tons of corn, four times more than the same piece of land did in their great grandfathers’s time. By early summer the corn was already way over their heads.
Yet without government payments they would have gone broke.
Things I liked about the film:
- They talked to Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, a book I have. Cool.
- Professors talking in measured tones about terrible things.
- The public relations woman for a high fructose corn syrup plant was suitably reptilian.
- They put on safety glasses and made their own high fructose corn syrup, sulfuric acid and all.
Its opening weekend made $6,753.
See also:
Man, this is a real corny issue.
**crickets chirping**
Okay. So, it wasn’t funny.
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Then in the 1970s all that changed. Instead of limiting the amount of corn grown, the government poured money into corn so that huge amounts of it would be grown. It became big business – all those family farms have been going under one by one ever since.
It also put a lot of Mexican corn farmers out of business. That’s one of the reasons so many started migrating to the US looking for work.
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Alright. This is genuinely terrifying.
Is there any way to shift this?
Industry seems to have decided this is what we want to eat.
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That’s horrible about the cows.
How’s your high fructose corn syrup-free diet going?
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Seen this. This is terrible. Good documentary though. There is another one too about the food industry in USA and that is even scarier. Forgot the name now.
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Does this apply only or mostly to the USA?
I guess to the extent that USA food products are exported overseas, corn would make up at least a portion of their overall diet as well.
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Gorbachev
Industry seems to have decided this is what we want to eat.
If people weren’t buying it they wouldn’t sell it.
Is there any way to shift this?
Yeah. Stop eating it. I don’t eat it. But you can’t control what the other 300 million people do.
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Here are a few more articles that go a bit deeper and really show the terrifying extent of the American food industry and how it affects people. They’re very informative, but if you’ve never read anything like this before it might make you extremely angry and / or paranoid:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/dumbing-down-society-part-i-foods-beverages-and-meds/
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/dumbing-down-society-pt-2-mercury-in-foods-and-vaccines/
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/dumbing-down-society-part-3-how-to-reverse-its-effects/
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/irrational-consumerism-or-the-few-companies-who-feed-the-world/
http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/the-age-of-treason-1958-book-exposes-chemical-enslavement-of-humanity/
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I doubt that would matter much. The type of political lobbying that goes on in your country would effectively protect any industry that would threatened by a grassroots movement. Not to mention that this new type of capitalism puts the emphasis on demand creation, for a good or service that is created beforehand, not on the traditional interaction f demand and supply.
So if you all stop eating corn, they’ll just move back to bio-fuels.
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this new type of capitalism puts the emphasis on demand creation
I kind of agree with that. I only eat whole, unprocessed foods. But when they pass laws mandating you have to use ethanol there’s not a lot you can do.
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can you say “MONSANTO” ?
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No. But I can say, “Monsanto sucks.”
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Ha, good one, Destructur
Monsanto , who gave us agent orange, is trying to take over the corn seeds so no farmers can produce seeds of their own. They use strong arm tactics to make sure farmers dont introduce independant seeds into the market…so they all have to buy from Monsanto
And, they push insecticides that are really bad for the health and through gigantic lobbying have got crony government on their side to support pushing this insecticide on the market and suppresing information of damage of health.
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Monsanto is also the company that came up with Bovine Growth Hormone.
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Interesting…I may check this doc flick out. In the USA, you’d think gas prices wouldn’t be as high with some of this corn going toward fuel production. Unless you grow your/refine own foods or buy natural/organic (which isn’t cheap), it’s pretty hard to avoid it.
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Dear God, not my Sunchips!!!!!! noooooooooo!!!!!
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Guys,
Don’t think that this isn’t a conspiracy between Big Pharma, FDA and the insurance companies.
Think about it:
We eat foods to make us sick, we need more doctor’s visits, More visits mean higher premiums for insurance policies…then we’re diabetic, hypertensive and hyperlipidemic…need continuous drugs to prevent heart attacks, cerebrovascular attacks, gangrene, etc, our kids get fatter and now the cycle is neverending.
We lose. They win.
I’ve said it before, America isn’t free, fair and this isn’t a democracy.
This country is the same as any communist/dictatorship country.
America is just better at hiding, spinning the truth and lying.
For now…
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Oh, and one more thing…
Are any of you surprised that all these fast food joints are mostly located in poor, underdeveloped, urban areas?
Coincidence?
I think not.
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….”I’ve said it before, America isn’t free, fair and this isn’t a democracy.
This country is the same as any communist/dictatorship country.
America is just better at hiding, spinning the truth and lying.
For now…”(truthbetold)
I agree. That’s why ‘others’ go ballistic when ‘we’ call them out on inconsistencies ‘we’ notice in the system; it supports their role/place in the hierarchy, and they fear that revelation and perhaps challenge to the status quo, because it suggests, a change is gonna come.
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This is corporate and FDA corruption and 90 percent of corn is genetically modified with no labeling! We have no choice.
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I agree with a couple of the posters here that WE HAVE NO CHOICE in buying the foods that have corn added. Who buys bread, applesauce, or condiments expecting it to contain HFCS? Most consumers are just uninformed about what goes into their foods. If the majority knew, I bet there’d be a serious backlash.
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@ Felicia
Then what do we do?
Die off?
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You raise excellent points, Truthbetold. They make these things cheaper so that they can sell more, and, they really dont care about health issues.
Ethanol is much cheaper and funtions better with sugar cane than corn. Brazil has great sugar cane ethanol, and there were subsidy taxes put on them because of lobbies on the government in the USA.I think they have been somewhat lifted but Im not sure, but, these corporations can lobby and make crazy things happen in their favor.
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Don’t want to sound unsympathetic but cancer is big business.
Just ask Big Tabacco. Certain foods are chemical poisions, and believe me, they know that. Have you thought about why the obesity rate for kids is now through the roof?
Kids are getting “big people” diseases from age 10 onward. That never happened when I was a kid. I remember maybe 2 kids in primary school having diabetes, and it was type 1, not 2.
Now girls are developing breasts, hips and menstrual cycles at 9 instead of 12-15 years of age. Boys have full beards and developed privates from 13.
I remember working in Mobile, AL at a outpatient medi-center. The doctors there refused to give diabetes education to the locals. When I began to notice that nearly ALL of them were morbidly obese, with celluitis and gangrene, I asked him if I could write a simple plan for them, about carbs, proteins, etc.
He flipped.
He reminded me of my “place” and told me I’m not a local here, my accent pissed him off, I guess, and threatened to call my supervisor at the main office to give me a write-up.
I knew then and there that there was absolutely a plan of attack against poor folks. They’ll never see it coming.
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If only the government would subsidize (organic) vegetables.
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Thanks for telling us that, Truthbetold….how absolutly frustrating and an insight into a certain type mentality and how they are dealing with this.
I dont think there is any question that the corn fructose crammed into everything along with super size me is directly increasing diabetes
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@B.R. and Destructure, these are those nuances of capitalism that create so many problems. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe in capitalism, but in cases of the monsantos, and standard oils of the world, we quickly see that Capitalism needs be sometimes corraled, and restrained.
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@Abagond
Now they mainly eat corn even though it makes them sick. So sick that without antibiotics they would die before they were ready for market.
This doesn’t pass the smell test. Why would dairy farmers or ranchers feed their cows/cattle something that made them sick?? Since it’s their livelihood, I trust they know what they’re doing.
If the corn made them sick, that’s probably because they had problems digesting it, or had a corn only diet. I don’t think the farmers/ranchers would allow this to continue.
Antibiotics kill infections. Why would farmers/ranchers give the cattle antibiotics if they had digestion problems?
Something is rotten in Iowa.
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@ commentarybyvalentina
The government wants the “undesirables” to perish. Poor, uneducated, rural(me and my family), inner-city folks are the thorn in rich elistist sides.
By keeping certain folks at bay meaning: hungry, obese, poverty stricken ,jobless and sick with no healthcare, they have no choice BUT to die off.
In the UK, we lived briefly in a small village called Surrey.
Away from the dirt and grime of London proper, we grew fresh veggies and ate simply yet heartily every day!
We were poor, yes, but healthy as cows. Once you got closer to London the sights changed. Fast food, fried fish and chips galore!
Fatter people became the norm and us peasants were the skinnier “sickly looking” ones.
How surprising when we traveled to inner-city, poor areas in the States and found the same thing, no matter what race the locals were.
I guess my point is, money allows the elite to control the underprivileged. Food is life. Good food nourishes, bad food kills.
Ever wonder why in all poor areas there is ALWAYS a:
1. Fast food fried chicken resturant.
2. Liquor/Spirits store.
3. Check cashing place.
It all adds up.
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@truthbetold
I guess my point is, money allows the elite to control the underprivileged.
Good summary of the fatalistic mentality of Black America. “I’m helpless, I’m hopeless, I need some white person to come save me, so I can then blame them for slavery”.
Since I am white and outside of the Black Community, it’s clear as day to me. I see it, you guys don’t. Like Abagond’s idea of how whites are racist, but we just don’t/can’t/don’t want to see it.
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@ Bliff
Farmers are given “hush” money to continue this practice.
To grow good, organic corn, tomatoes, etc, takes time and a LOT of care fussing over earthworms, compost and Ph balance.
You can easily grow a mountain of corn and other vegetables with illegal substances, “veggie food” aka oxytocin, a chemical we need to have babies. Farmers know that it’s bad for your health but the lure of green supercedes morals.
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@ Bliff
You know why you’re dumb?
Because this epidemic has NOT ONE SINGLE THING to do with race!
It has to do with money!!!!!
Poor, uneducated, underprivileged folks, of ANY colour are victims to this. I don’t know why I even bother to talk with you.
Stupidly, I thought that food could be the one area we could debate on. I was wrong.
I won’t respond to you further on this post.
Jacka$$.
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@truthbetold
You can easily grow a mountain of corn and other vegetables with illegal substances, “veggie food” aka oxytocin, a chemical we need to have babies.
Please explain how a mammalian hormone like oxytocin, is used with vegetables. This sounds like one of your wacko ideas.
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correction on antibiotics. most livestock are NOT given antibiotics to treat illness, they are given antibiotics to promote growth. the fewer calories an organism has to spend maintaining an immune or defense system, the more calories can be converted into body mass. Same goes for feeding cows grain rather than grass. Grass is very difficult to digest, this is why they have four stomachs with many many types of bacteria, the energy required to digest grass is what keeps beef cattle lean, feed them corn, they get fatter faster.
I’m not saying that these practices are right. the overuse of antibiotics for non medicinal purposes leads to the evolution of drug resistant bacteria. A huge problem. The way cattle are kept, is also inhumane. However, corn syrup is not poison, not is is a unique contributor to obesity, look up the obesity rates in Australia, a country that gets nearly all of its sugar from sugar cane, and you will see similar obesity numbers.
I’m also not saying a high sugar diet, no matter the source is good for you.
oh and lastly sweet corn is just one variety of corn, starchy corn for flours and meals have been around and those types are more suitable for baking. Thats the major reason why the filmakers corn didn’t live up to their expectations. They may have grown the wrong kind.
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@ student
Thanks. Good to know.
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Truthbetold,
Don’t waste your time on Bliff. It’s obvious that he has a problem with anyone who disagrees with him.
Also, you’ve brought up a lot of good points:
1. Fast food fried chicken resturant.
2. Liquor/Spirits store.
3. Check cashing place.
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@ Brothawolf
Thanks. Hunger, poverty and intoxication make for a miserable, short-lived life.
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I havent watched the film, but a few weeks ago I came across the issue on Bloomberg. Interesting read in my opinion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-08/food-bubble-is-expanding-u-s-waistlines-vikram-mansharamani.html
@ student
And thanks for ur insight, u raised raised some good points.
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@ kittyem
Excellent link. Thanks.
As food prices dropped since 1980 Americans ate more, but not better:
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@ Student
1. It seems they were growing field corn not sweet corn.
2. According to the film cows eating corn creates too much acid in their stomach leading to acidosis. Curt Ellis:
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That is a good movie. Don’t know if anyone’s mentioned it, but “Food, Inc.” is great too. So is “Fat, sick, and nearly dead.” Fast-food Nation” is an awesome book.
I’m lucky to have a good co-op nearby so i don’t eat processed foods and easily avoid HFC.
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@truthbetold
I totally agree with you. And not only will you find liquor stores etc. but you will also find food deserts in poor communities as well. There are no true food markets anywhere in those neighborhoods. Which means people end-up eating fast food or processed food most of the time.
Then, as you noted, the people who live in these areas get sick but there is no healthcare in those communities either. So they end-up eating themselves to death.
It does seem like a plan doesn’t it. And a very efficient one.
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This is really scary. I want to research this more.
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[…] https://abagond.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/king-corn/ […]
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