King Corn College Essay Example

Butz when he lifted the limits off farmers and encouraged them to overproduce corn.

Ian and Curt realize prior to harvest the numbers game that is at play when one is a corn farmer. Ian explains that their one acre will produce about ten thousand pounds of corn and of that thirty-two percent will become ethanol, four hundred and ninety pounds will become high fructose corn syrup, and the remaining--more than half--will be fed to livestock. With this knowledge in hand they reach out to several corn syrup plants to see if they can visit on-site with their cameras to document the making of the product.

Quickly turned down by each plant they speak to Audrae Erickson from the Corn Refiners Association who justifies that, “It is as much about the security of the food being created as it is about your safety. ” Ian and Curt decide to create the product themselves and show that because of the harsh chemicals used to formulate high fructose corn syrup it is intensely dangerous to make. The corn syrup production developed because of the excess corn from overproduction in the fields. High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) now replaces table sugar in most sweetened products because it is so cheap to make.

As the two stroll through a grocery store aisle they find it difficult to find products that do not have HFCS listed as an ingredient. HFCS is the leading sweetener and one can find it in almost all soda. Walter Willet of Harvard University explains the sweetener has no nutritional value and that in fact it has harmful metabolic effects on the human body. He goes on to

say that one can nearly double their risk of developing Type II Diabetes by drinking only two soda beverages a day.

The men take a break at a local McDonald’s and visit with a local whom informs them that the meat on the burgers is really not meat at all but rather it is corn. This claim brings them to a cattle company where they discover that the cattle diet consists approximately of sixty percent gluten diet. Corn has replaced grass as the principal feed because of its low cost; the cattle companies need cheap feed in order to put the cattle in confinement. Ian and Curt ask about the feeding lots and are told that if the cattle eat more, move less and thus grow more quickly they move on to the packing plants just as swiftly.

In a science study being conducted on the cattle they find that corn is actually killing them by causing ulcers in their stomachs that are eating away at the lining. That is why the cattle companies must supplement their feed with antibiotics: so that the cattle can withstand the confinement long enough to make it to the packing plants. The film recognizes that seventy percent of the antibiotics in the United States are being consumed by our livestock. Needless to say, the cattle are majorly fat.

A comparison between corn-fed steak and grass-fed steak shows us that there is a much higher content of saturated fat in the corn-fed steak. Concluding, Curt states that if you were born in the past thirty years in the United States it is more than likely you have only ever eaten corn-fed beef. Ian

and Curtis came full circle when searching for answers to their immediate question, which was “Are we really what we eat? ” The film demonstrates just that fact. Michael Pollan, noted writer of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, contributes that if you eat at McDonald’s you are eating corn.

The beef is corn-fed and full of saturated fat, the soda is mainly high fructose corn syrup and the fries are cooked in corn oil. In my own experience, walking down the grocery store aisle I have found it quite difficult to find products to feed my family that do not include high fructose corn syrup, corn starch, corn gluten or corn protein in them. A product may hide behind claims of being all natural but still contain at least some sort of that processed genetically modified corn. For example, Fred Meyer states their new natural beef is minimally processed and fed a vegetarian diet.

Is corn not a vegetable? The claim itself seems like another way to mask from the public the truth behind the corn-fed beef. In the film, Loren Cordain of the University of Colorado points out that our obese cattles’ muscle tissue is fat tissue that looks like muscle; this whole idea baffles me that our USDA would allow this to happen in the first place. Aaron Woolf did a fantastic job directing Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis in this film. The intention was to open America’s eyes to an industry that is very secretive in its processing and they were able to be somewhat objective regardless of their bias.

In my mind the film was able to protect and blame the farmers for complying with the

subsidies that the government provides in turn creating the whole problem with the genetically modified corn. They did show their biased opinion indirectly and with tact. Overall success of this film will be observed over time as we watch and wait to see not only if our government and farming industry begin change, but if the American people start taking a closer look at what is going into their bodies.