Out of all the information I picked up at Ottawa's 2007 Feast of Fields event, one flyer really caught my eye:
This poster, which I later learned was custom designed for this event, informed me that my local chapter of Just Food was putting on a screening of the new documentary, King Corn, on October 16th.
I think it's particularly appropriate to review King Corn in a Vegetables of Mass Destruction diary, since the current corn production system in America is truly turning corn into a vegetable of mass destruction. Follow me over the jump to find out what I thought of the film, and the far-reaching effects of one particular set of agribusiness subidy.
First off, don't just take my word for it... check out this review or this one or the trailer:
In the words of the official website for this documentary,
King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation.
In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s mostproductive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.
It will come as no surprise to many readers here that the agricultural subsidy system - sorry for the extreme understatement - grossly distorts the food system in the United States. How that translates into societal effects is shocking. Towns being emptied across the "food belt" states, or if the town remains, it is unable to feed itself without shipping in food from a great distance. The obesity epidemic which has such a huge impact on both quality of life and the economy as health care costs skyrocket. Cheney (pronouned Chee-neey... helps distinguish him from a not-so-distinguished person with the same name) and Ellis convey this downright scary information in both a straightforward and amusing tone.
Who could have predicted that the first weed they had to worry about infecting their acre of corn would be... weed!
The thrust of the film, however, is quite sobering. It's one thing to read about CAFO's and the disgusting conditions they produce, it's another thing entirely to see it on a big screen. Especially when you get to the closeup shot of the ulcers a diet of corn will produce in a cow. Watching hardworking folks look wearily into a camera and tell you how all their neighbours and relatives have been forced to sell out to corporations one by one, as the town empties out - seeing the grim expressions on their faces as they arrive at yet another auction where a farming family is selling off their farm equipment and household goods so they can afford to move away in hopes of a better shot in life. The demonstration of how a fiercely independent group of people are being systematically ground down like so much .... corn ... by industrial takeover of a way of life, well, the only word I can come up with is grim.
I considered myself relatively well-educated when it comes to farming, agricultural issues, and the societal and economic impacts they can have. I grew up on a farm, I do my reading. But I learned a lot watching this film, and I had a great time doing it.
I heartily recommend you go see it for yourself (go to the website and click on the "Theaters" button on the top left to find showtimes near you). If you've already seen King Corn, please comment and let us all know what you thought. Please. I've never written a movie review before, so I'd love to have other people weigh in on this and share their impressions.