messageI recently watched the King Corn documentary (they have it on Netflix on demand for easy viewing) This is a really great documentary on a very serious and interesting topic. The corn industry is effecting everything from our life span to unemployment.
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Paul F replied on Nov 17, 2008Maggie, so I watched King Corn this weekend on Netflix on demand. Wow. Growing up in the farming suburbs of Chicago, I’d just sort of naively assumed corn is corn. And I kind of wondered how we ate so much corn in our daily diets given how much corn was growing around me in the midwest.
The documentary brings up so many issues from the diversity of the corn seeds, the government subsidies for farmers to grow corn in the first place, and how such a large percentage of corn is for either animal feed or for production of high fructose corn syrup. Anyways, thanks for the movie recommendation.
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Paul F replied on Nov 17, 2008
The King Corn web site has a link to Take Action. One of their more interesting suggestions was to avoid high fructose corn syrup for a week. That will be an interesting experiment. I copied their full text below if others are interested:
1. Write to your congressperson. A new bill is drafted every five to seven years, so your ongoing input helps inform your rep about the changes you’d like to see in the future. If you don’t know who your reps are, you can visit the U.S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate, enter your ZIP, and look them up! Then draft a letter or call their offices to tell them how you think they should vote.
2. The farm bill has an enormous impact on what we grow and eat. Click here to learn more about how this national legislation affects you.
3. Ask where your food comes from, and buy local. Fresher, more healthful foods can be part of everyone’s future, but only if we create the demand for them. Asking for local food helps build a food culture that is based less on processing and commodities and more on nutritious food from small, sustainable farms. Visit Food Routes to find farms near you.
4. Try grass-fed beef. Changing our foodscape will mean occasionally going out of our way to try something new. Raised on wild pasture rather than in confinement, grass-fed cattle are less fatty and need fewer antibiotics than their feedlot brethren. Visit Eat Wild to begin finding grass-fed options near you!
5. Try avoiding high fructose corn syrup for a week. Our food system has a lot of extra sugars in it, and you can learn a lot about what you’re made of just by reading labels and avoiding the most common processed ingredients.
6. Get educated. For up-to-date government resources about the farm bill, visit the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture farm bill website here.
7. For information about how farm subsidies work in the U.S., visit the Environmental Working Group’s Farm Subsidy Database. If you’re concerned about community access to local, healthfyl foods, visit the Community Food Security Coalition.
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Kathy Farrey replied on Nov 18, 2008
Better idea, don’t drink sugary soft drinks at all. Sugar feeds cancer, no matter what it’s made from. Yes corn sugar spikes your sugar levels faster, but the real reason for the rise in obesity is that we consume more sugar than ever before. 40 years ago, people drank 1 or 2 cans of soda a week, now it’s more like 1 or 2 a day.
Try drinking water, or lime flavored seltzer. It’s rather refreshing.
What would they do with all that corn if we all just quit drinking soda?
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Paul F replied on Nov 18, 2008
Fair point, Kathy. But when I watch students or friends reach for the large soft drink each day, it would be nice to know that it’s “slightly” better for them. For many it’s a daily drink like a coffee.
Actually when you ask what would they do with all of that corn if we all just quit drinking soda, that’s an interesting question because from the king corn documentary, it sounds like they couldn’t do much with it as the quality of that corn either allows it to go to feed for animals or to making corn syrup. I’m guessing a lot of it would get thrown away or added to cattle feed supplies, which that market probably couldn’t absorb such a bounce in supply. Eventually I’m guessing farmers would have to re-plant their fields for something other than that quality of corn. Wish there was an agricultural specialist here who could explain market forces better.
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Joey Graboff replied on Jun 19, 2009
I dont know why it needs to be in soda. Can work with many other methods.
