I had been meaning to watch this documentary for a while, but I didn't get around to it until I stumbled upon its screening at the Media Center's Dawg Daze's film festival in Allen Auditorium.
It's a nice little film depicting the history and lifecycle of corn, sometimes with the use of cute animations. The film follows two friends as they return to their roots and explore the significance of corn in their lives. It addresses the following questions:
- How long will it take to plant 30,000 seeds of corn?
- How can I make my own high fructose corn syrup?
- Should cows be fed corn or grass?
- What is the relationship between Iowa farms and fast food restaurants?
I've been wary of high fructose corn syrup in beverages for a while, but I didn't realize how many other food products corn gets into. While almost anything is fine in moderation, it does seem that Americans tend to overdo it with the corn. I just came back from the Netherlands where colas were made with sugar instead of corn syrup. I'm not sure if that's actually better or not ... but it does make me wonder if there's a correlation between corn syrup and height/weight proportions. The film doesn't address how corn is used in other countries, though.
Immediately after watching King Corn, my co-worker pointed out the following
commercials that were just put out by the Corn Refiners Association. There are some pretty good spoofs on YouTube.
Reviewed by Cecilia
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