“King Corn -
Movies - Review.” Accessed January 16, 2013.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/movies/12corn.html.
The NY Times wrote an article on the movie “King Corn” and I
have to say that the writer missed the main point of the movie. The writer
talked about how in the movie, most of the corn will be used for cow feed and
the rest are basically used for high fructose corn syrup. This would cause an
increase in obesity because of the amount of corn that is in our foods and the
animals that we eat. Although this is an important topic of the movie, I
believe there is a more important topic the writer missed. The movie talks
about how the corn industry has in a way taken over everything because
everything has or holds corn in a way. Yes the rise in obesity is important but
that is not the main point of the movie. The point of the movie was to see
where all this corn was going to and how it would be used. The author does
mention the results of the corn by stating that the corn will become high fructose
corn syrup but does not mention or describe the process of it. We can’t just
shrug this off by saying that it will become corn syrup but we need to question
the process. There are two ways that the corn will go, one is that it will
become corn syrup but the chemicals that are used to make it are extremely
hazardous. The second is that it will be used to feed the cow. When the cow
eats the corn, the cow forms a certain acid in its acid which will later be
deadly and kill the cow. The farmers are using corn because it gets the cows
fat and bigger faster when they feed on corn.
The whole process is very painful for the cows. The process is inhumane
and therefore we need to rethink it through. Although I do agree with how the
information was presented in the movie. The author says how Cheney and Ellis
are nondescript when giving out the facts, which I can agree with. If they
seemed more interested and was more specific about the information then the
documentary could have been stronger. After watching the movie I was really
shocked. I did not know that there was so much corn in the everyday food that
we ate. To be truthful I really didn’t know what to do. Let’s take the
documentary “Supersize Me”, after watching the movie; I knew that the fast
foods were bad for you and that we needed to avoid it. After watching the
movie, I didn’t know what to do because corn was in so many of our products. It
literally is in so much of our foods that I was kind of scared. Have I been
really this ignorant and oblivious to the harm and threat without noticing and
even know that the threat existed. Then I had to think what I could do to
answer to this movie. It’s not like I can boycott all products that have corn
in it but what I can do is raise awareness.
The first place that I would start is my family, the church, and then
friends. I can’t persuade those around me to stop eating all the food that has
corn but I can raise awareness and tell them about what is happening. Also I
was afraid of the corn industry after I saw the movie. Corn has become such a
cheap ingredient in making the different food products for the other companies
and has come to rely on the corn so much. If the corn company decided to use
this as a persuasion tool then it made me wonder what they were possible of achieving.
It made me realize that we really need to question and be curious or we will ignorant
to what is happening.
I appreciate you pointing out the corn processing part of the movie which the NY Times reviewer didn't mention. I would have never been informed about the inhumane acts of the farmers which I agree is a major issue. I haven't watched the film yet but by reading your post and the way you've emphasized how much corn we were consuming and how it lead to obesity makes me curious and want to watch the film.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post. It grabbed my emotions and made me empathize with some of the feelings that you struggled with. It's sad to think that animals are being mistreated to satisfy consumer needs. I don't think people are doing a very good job in taking care of the creation God placed in our responsibility. However if the cows aren't fed corn-based feed, then they won't have much meat and the price of beef will go up. I guess in the end, we all have to lose something in order to gain another.
ReplyDeleteAs i read through your post I thought a lot about consumerism. All the corn is a direct result of the highly consumerist culture. Then a question came up: How do we stop this mad desire in human beings to consume so much? I wish there were a simple answer, but such a desire is so deeply ingrained in the culture, something radical would have to happen for such a problem to even start being uprooted.
Good overview of the film, Isaac. There are certainly a lot of systemic issues that need to be addressed if we are to change America's overproduction of corn and all of its unintended consequences. When looking to make changes personally, it's good to start with Michael Pollan's advice: shop the outer walls of the grocery store (where most of the produce and fresh products are) to avoid processed food. Eating more fresh, local vegetables and pasture raised meat also sidesteps corn hegemony.
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