'King Corn' opened my eyes to high fructose corn syrup

"King Corn" is an independent film based in Iowa. It follows two east coast college students, who figure out that they have family roots in the same small Iowa town. They spend a summer growing one acre of corn, to better understand the impact and the inner workings.

What they learn is pretty shocking, regarding the government subsidies that are provided to farmers. Most farmers make very little money, since the cost of a bushel of corn is kept so low. The subsidies allow the farmer to make just enough money to survive. You would think this would be a good thing, but it drives them to produce the wrong kind of corn, not the edible kind.

They also explore where a typical acre of corn goes (not as corn-on-the-cob, as you might think), along with the environmental impact of that corn. You would think that corn has to be good for us, and growing more would be a good thing, but this film clearly shows how bad things have gotten. The amount that goes to overfeed cows for meat is also shocking!

However, the biggest shocker for me was the amount of corn going to create high fructose corn syrup. This product has basically no nutritional value, and has replaced sugar in almost every food we eat nowadays. It drives our obesity problem, and since it is so inexpensive (government funded), it is now less expensive to buy food that is bad for you (cupcakes, soda, chips, etc) than buying healthy fruits and vegetables!

They also recently released a supplemental short film called "Big River", which explores the impact of farming (pesticides and runoff) on the water streams, which all eventually flow down into the mouth of the Mississippi River (the "dead zone").

This movie was exactly what I needed to see, in order to finally convince me to cut back even more on eating meat, and now I'm severly reducing my consumption of products with high fructose corn syrup!

Food, Inc. Movie Review

This movie did not play in my area, so I was glad to get it on DVD this week.

The movie explored the business behind the food we eat, and how the veil over how our food is processed is slowly (and luckily) being uncovered.

My biggest concern going into the movie was that it would be a shock movie, that would show you grotesque video of animals being killed inhumanely, and try and scare you into not eating meat again. They did a good job of showing some of the realities of the industry, without making you sick or grossed out. It is an ugly business, and most people don't want to know where their food comes from. However, unless we understand that companies are not looking out for your best interest, we will always be in the dark. The movie clearly explains that we need to start to question where your food is coming from, and start putting your money into food that is healthy and grown correctly, even if it costs more.

There were two main things I learned:

1) Wal-Mart started to carry organic food products because their customers asked for it. If enough people ask for these products, you can change ANY company, even one as large as Wal-Mart.

2) The government subsidies (gives money to) farmers to grow corn. That makes corn much cheaper than other food, which is why potato chips (for example) are so much cheaper than vegetables. So when you look at prices, you will always be choosing a food that is probably worse for you than what you should be eating. As you can see, this has serious consequences (obesity, diabetes, etc). I was shocked at the amount of food made from corn. It is also why corn is used to feed cattle (instead of grass, which is what they should be eating). You can add antibiotic, chemicals and other garbage into the feed, which is easier to do than with grass. Corn-fed cattle can be raised in smaller areas, since they don't need to roam, which means more profit for the meat industry. It's amazing what you find when you "follow the money"!

I highly recommend you watch this movie, if you haven't seen it yet!