King Corn

916 Words2 Pages

A Kernel Powered Fortune
King Corn begins with a transparent idea of finding the source of our food. After the initial finding that corn is present in almost all food available to an average American, two curious men, Ian and Curt, decide to follow the journey of the crop as a seed to its prevalence in every American plate. The idea that corn is part of their sweet morning beverage to their favorite choice of protein-- meat, at dinner comes as a surprise to them in the beginning. Their journey begins in the grain belt—Iowa, where “fertile soil and humid summers” make the yellow crop the dominant choice for farming.
With the support of the farming community in Greene, Iowa, the two young men sow their genetically modified seeds and use powerful …show more content…

The only crop they harvest is corn, which is inedible due the demand of the specific strain, which efficiently used in processed food as high fructose corn syrup and as animal feed. Similarly, another farmer states, “[their corn as] the poorest quality crop worlds ever seen..don’t care what’s done with it”. Has agriculture stopped defining our food? As the movie continues, it is argued that this has been the case for two generations now. The first disengagement of production and consumption was seen with the increasing use of sugar, which corresponded with rise of rapid capitalism …show more content…

Corn is found in jam, beef, beer, and it also ends up fueling vehicles as ethanol. This further use of corn has been made possible by 1970’s farm policies that subsidized expanded production. One of farmers shows Ian and Curt a town symbol of “love of family farm”, the corn palace. The contrast is striking as we continue to watch the farmers state the loss of their family farms as supply and demand for corn continues to grow in with substantial amount. As a result, large subsidies has redefined farming as production of corn or “the urban creatures” growing in a tightly knit environment to meet and surpass the demand.
The two storytellers allow the audience to view an issue from the roots up and let the audience define the problem as it relates to them. An average American may not know the perils with the industrial food system as they sit at the end of the commodity chain, where they receive food from behind the counter. But, the health effects of such covered facts can be seen in public health epidemics like obesity, increasing presence of food deserts especially in urban areas, and large inequalities in food access across socioeconomic status (Beaulac and

Open Document