28 January 2009

King Corn

Most likely I should have posted this before we showed the movie, but better late than never.

King Corn

A definite watch for anyone interested in how our food system truly functions (ie, poorly). It's on netflix, as well, though if you buy it these nice fellows will get some money out of it. They based their work on Michael Pollan's investigation of the corn economy in Omnivore's Dilemma, though they actually went out to grow an acre of corn and try to find out what happened to it. Watching the reactions of everyone last night, most people are disgusted to find out all the problems with corn: how hard it is on the farmers, most especially, how it, along with other commodity crops, has destroyed the family farm, how cheap corn has lead to confinement lots for cattle (and cheap, fatty grain fed beef), how cheap corn has lead to the availability of cheap sweeteners, including high fructose corn syrup, which provide empty calories, little to no nutritional value, and are proving to be more and more deleterious to our health... well, we've talked about all these things on this blog before. Watch the movie!

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