Last night after finding it available in the Netflix Streaming stuff, Danielle and I watched King Corn. This documentary was very similar to the first part of Michael Pollan‘s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and even included Mr. Pollan and thanked him for the inspiration for the film.
In this film two guys decide that they want to grow an acre of corn and figure out many of the things that industrial corn is used for in the US. They spend most of their time in the farming town of Greene, IA, with side trips to NYC, feed lots in Colorado, and a few other places. For those who are already familiar with how industrial corn is used to make the vast majority of processed foods in the state it’s nothing too new, but it’s well put together and fairly entertaining.
I think the film could have spent more time going into a few areas which were hinted at, such as how the determination is made which shows that most of the carbon in most USians is originally from corn or what happens to cause a particular farmer to auction off all his belongings and move, but that might have made the film a bit drawn out. As it stands, I definitely recommend seeing this.
Here’s some more info about it:
Leave a Comment· King Corn – Official Site
· Independent Lens: King Corn (PBS)
· King Corn at Apple Trailers
