Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis are recent
Yale graduates who feel like they have their whole lives ahead of them. "But we had just heard some rather disconcerting news," they say, "Someday we were going to die."
So begins King Corn, a subtly powerful, subtly tongue-in-cheek documentary about, in short, Ian and Curtis's move from Boston to rural Greene, Iowa, to grow an acre of corn. Though neither of them have had any farming experience, they are motivated by their shared desire to reconnect with their roots (both had great-grandfathers from Greene) and—after discovering that "people who grew up the way we did are basically made of corn"—their desire to understand where their food really comes from.
The documentary follows Ian and Curtis for a year, in which they experience every aspect of food production, from growing their acre of corn on farmer Chuck Pyatt's land to the stark realization that their corn will not end up on a dinner table, but in ethanol, sweeteners and animal feed.
What this amounts to is a stark contrast between the past, present, and future. Greene was once a collection of small farms that raised corn for human consumption and grass-fed beef. Now, though, as crop advisor Al Martin says in the film, "The irony is that an Iowa farmer can no longer feed himself." The farmers in the movie agree. Featured farmer Don Clikeman says, "We aren't growing quality. We're growing crap."
Bob Bledsoe, of Bledsoe Cattle Co., sums up the entire industry – "America wants and demands cheap food." And as long as that's what America demands, that's what will be produced. It all amounts to a grim picture illustrated well when the boys visit a McDonald's to see Ronald McDonald riding a tractor. The industry their great-grandparents built, they say, is "now growing fast food."
There is an apparent sadness in the older farmers when they reflect on how things have changed. When Ian and Curtis toast their harvest at the end of the season, one farmer comments, "I'm not happy with the direction we're going in, but…" and trails off.
While the documentary lacks the in-your-face bias of Michael Moore's films, it allows industry to expose itself. It is a successful and enlightening film that should be required viewing for anyone who grows corn, or even eats it.
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