Key Message

As the documentary begins you are instantly hit with a unfortunate yet powerful truth; “For the first time in American history, our generation was at risk of having a shorter lifespan than our parents and it was because of what we ate.” (1:33) It becomes evident as the documentary progresses that corn is seemingly in everything we consume and is not positively contributing to our health. The documentary touches on the negative impacts our agricultural practices and reliance of corn on our health. By raising crops and tracking them through the food system, the documentarians show the true extent or corn in our diets and show via professional scientists the effects that these corn products have on our bodies and what these changes entail. It is clear right off the bat that the filmmakers were not fond of the idea of corn in everything they eat and drink and thus their aim was to show the forlorn future of our health due to the immense amount of processed maize in our diets. Not only do they graze over the issue of processed corn in our diets, but they also enlighten the audience of the strenuous work corn farmers have to go through to provide the enormous yields of corn demanded. With that they also show how the corn indirectly reaches us through the animals which are corn fed rather than grass fed. Loren Cordain states “The meat that we eat in this day and age is produced in a feedlot. It’s grain-fed meat, and we produce a characteristically obese animal, animals whose muscle tissue looks more like fat tissue than it does lean meat in wild animals. And if you look at a T-bone steak from a grain-fed cow, it may have as much as 9 grams of saturated fat. Whereas a comparable steak from a grass-fed animal would have 1.3 grams of saturated fat.” (49:19) This brings up the main and final point that perhaps the bulk of our health concerns such as obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol are due to the immense impact of corn in our food systems and ultimately our diets.

(Photo From: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/businesses-upbeat-prospects-wary-economy-61457564)

Ideologies Uncovered

In the beginning of the film, a scientist claims that the large amount of carbon in our hair is due to the amount of corn is placed into our day-to-day diets and that these high levels were going to eventually shorten our life spans (02:04). This is a very little known fact which causes one to question why this has not been brought to light and why this claim has been kept a secret. It is possible that this is due to the beliefs of big agricultural and government agencies assuming that if this news gets out to the public, they will ultimately lose demand of one of their biggest sources of income; corn farming. However that puts into speculation the ethics behind modern day agriculture; although it is known that these crops and the way they are being used is harmful, big companies are still promoting their use in the face of public oblivion. I believe that this documentary aimed to reveal the lack of morality in day-to-day processing and use of corn by big government agricultural agencies, as well as to divulge the truth about the effects of processed corn on our bodies and health. The documentary also pokes holes in the policy that the government has placed on today’s farmers. At the time of the documentary, the government was paying farmers $28 per acre of corn and the documentary stated that farming corn without government assistance would result in losing money (13:44). This portion of the film shows the massive control that the government has placed over farmers in order to profit from widespread corn consumption. The documentary, although mainly centered over the impact of corn on our health, had also greatly brought to the surface the unacceptable underlying ideologies believed by those in charge of these large farming operations.

(Photo from https://thecomeback.com/food/1000-dollars-mcdonalds-food-36-hours.html)

Connections to Class

One of the first things that stuck out to me in this film was the use of corn as a staple. Corn is the basis for most things we eat, whether we are aware of it or not. Our fast-food burger is made of corn-fed beef and our sodas are sweetened with high fructose corn syrup. When we were discussing the use of corn as a staple in class, it was stated that this frequent use relied on the use of technology. The advances in technology categorization of the sociocultural environment in the biocultural framework for diet and nutrition have changed the way that farmers work. In the documentary, Ian and Curt credit their ability to grow four times as much corn as their great grandparents to the anhydrous ammonia injections they utilized (21:33). Additionally, they said “planting 31,000 seeds was not necessarily a hands on experience.. But then again, it only took us 18 minutes” (27:30). The development of tractors, planters, sprayers, pesticides, and other agricultural tools have allowed farmers to plant more and to plant more efficiently. However, the “homegrown” corn is now being sprayed with pesticides and being genetically modified to allow the plants to grow closer together and to resist weeds. Additionally, the majority of the corn yielded is not edible without processing. The corn that is grown on these Iowa farms is exported to be used as ethanol, becomes high fructose corn syrup, or is dispersed to feed animals. One of the interviewed farmers said, “the irony is that an Iowa farmer can no longer feed himself” (38:30). The use of chemicals to increase yield, erosion of topsoil due to the heavy agricultural machinery, and genetic modification, and food processing are four of the current nutritional challenges that we discussed in class and were extremely relevant in this documentary.

(Photo from http://www.sdcorn.org/2012/12/south-dakotas-1-commodity-2/)

Informed Opinions

Abby: 

This documentary enlightened me to how present corn is in our regular diets. I don’t frequently think about high fructose corn syrup or what the animals I consume had eaten previously, so it is shocking to hear how corn impacts nearly everything we eat. I found it interesting that most cattle are corn-fed due to the fact that it is cheaper than grass-feeding. It makes sense that this is common due to the demand from Americans for cheap food, but I was surprised that it was cheaper to feed cattle corn rather than grass. I was also unaware that the digestive systems of cattle are not prepared to maintain long-term corn-based diets. Many cows are treated with antibiotics to prevent the acidosis that often results from too much corn in their diets. Despite this diet being unnatural for cows, corn has replaced grass as the main feed for cattle (45:00). Explanations like this of little-known food production practices are one of the strengths of this documentary. Many of the topics that Ian and Curt elaborated on were interesting points that aren’t frequently thought about. The only weakness I noticed in the film was that it seemed too relaxed. There were scenes that were probably added solely to increase the aesthetic, but I didn’t feel that they added significant value to the film.

 

Carime:

Rather than simply spitting and issue out to my face, this documentary exhibited the true extent of the problem with corn in our diets and visually demonstrated how much of an effect even the smallest acre of maize can have on our health. As a person who casually eats meat I had never really thought about the underlying things I was feeding to my body whether it was animal products or animal meat itself. I was always bombarded by the high fructose corn syrup debates about how it would negatively affect my health, but I never really considered it in a more serious and morbid fashion. However, after watching the documentary, It has revealed a more obscene view of our agricultural and farming practices, specifically in how we raise most of our meat. Loren Cordain says “America’s favorite meat is ground beef, hamburger meat… And uh.. Hamburger meat is really not meat, but it’s rather fat disguised as a meat. It contains 65% of its calories by energy as fat.” (50:02) That expression alone really opened me to the fact that many of the things I considered to be not all that damaging for my body were perhaps some of the most harmful. I believe that although the documentary was perhaps all over the place and not all that factual most of the time, they did an amazing job at collecting testimonial from the many people whose lives are surrounded by corn and affected by its footprint on the U.S.