king corn

Recently my friend Kirin told me about her decision to start a documentary film club. The club will be similar to a book club, but instead of reading and discussing a book, guests will watch and chat about a documentary. I was excited by the idea and volunteered to create a menu for the first meeting, where King Corn will be the featured movie. Since the foodie film focuses on the lifecycle of the crop, Kirin wants the party to be as environmentally friendly as possible. Instead of wasting paper by sending hard invites, she's requested that I make a green email invite. To see how I made the one shown here, read more

"Everything on your plate is corn." That line, uttered by an interviewee in King Corn, is essentially the premise behind this new food-focused documentary. Much the way that Super Size Me uses a clever gimmick to take on the fast-food industry, King Corn follows two friends, Ian Cheney and Kurt Ellis, who move to Iowa to find out how this unassuming crop has made its way into so many grocery-store staples in the form of corn syrup, malodextrin, and other not-so-healthy ingredients.

With humor and a vagabond attitude, Cheney and Ellis establish a one-acre corn farm so that they can follow the life cycle of their crop. Along the way, they visit the Midwest's sprawling corn complexes and interview experts about how the highly subsidized crop has become an easy target in the fight against obesity. The movie opened this weekend in New York, and over the next few weeks will be showing in other cities, including LA, San Francisco, Austin, and Chicago. (Check the King Corn site to find out if it's coming to your city.) Watch the trailer and tell me what you think when you read more

Corn, it is an ingredient in just about everything. The cob is manufactured into fillers, oils and sweeteners. Many have theorized that the rise in obesity is due to the increased use of high fructose corn syrup as a sweetener. While the jury is still out on that particular connection, many see the corn subsidy as the underlying problem with American food production and agriculture.
In light of all this, two recent college graduates decided to plant an acre of corn in Iowa in an attempt to learn more about the crop that is taking over America. The tale they tell in the documentary King Corn is entertaining, enlightening and funny. Regardless if you have or haven’t read Michael Pollan’s treatise on agriculture in the U.S. - The Omnivore's Dilemma - you should see this film. If you are what you eat, then we are all corn!

King Corn will be shown in select theaters around the country this October. If you can't make it to see the film, don't fret. You can read about the film and its protagonist / antagonist, corn, on their website.