This weekend brings us the second installment in the “Food for Thought” film series presented by San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project, Slow Food San Diego, and the Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Co-op.  King Corn will show this Saturday (9/27/08) at the Serra Mesa/Kearny Mesa Public Library on Aero Drive.

I first saw King Corn as part of the Independent Lens Series on PBS, and it left a lasting impression on me.  The documentary follows two college friends as they move from Boston to Iowa, grow an acre of corn, and attempt to trace their crop as it enters the food system. 
Along the way they learn a bit about farming, government subsidies, and the effects of our current corn production on both the health of the American people and the quality of our food supply. While the film clearly has an agenda and the filmmakers are not subtle in articulating their viewpoint, it presents an extremely compelling story.

King Corn begins with a visit to Steve Macko at the University of Virginia, who performs a hair test on both of our would-be farmers.  Ian and Curt present themselves as typical American college boys with typical American diets of soda, burgers, and fast food.  According to Macko, “hair is a continuous recorder of diet.”  The hair tests on both Ian and Curt reveal that most of the carbon in their bodies originates from corn.  Essentially they eat so much corn that it has affected their body’s chemical composition.  This is not due to consuming mass quantities of sweet corn, but rather from corn that has entered their diet through less obvious ways including corn syrups, cornstarch, and even from the corn that is fed to livestock.

It sounded like the premise of some horrible science fiction movie (Invasion of the Corn People?) – and I am not terribly keen on the idea of becoming a walking corn cob. I am also prone to latching on to new information with such ferocity that it borders on obsession.  I found myself turning into a private investigator, looking for hidden corn in the food I eat, and fighting small waves of panic at the thought of my family slowly turning into kernels of Yellow Dent.  It wasn’t until I started slipping into conspiracy theories that I realized I needed to calm down and take a more organized approach.  Phil and I had already cut back on our high fructose corn syrup intake when we stopped drinking most soda at the beginning of 2008.  I took a quick inventory of the foods in my house and removed the last few remaining traces of HFCS from my pantry.  Since I was already steering clear of most processed foods on general principal, the only obvious sources of superfluous corn in my diet were chicken, eggs, butter and anything I consumed away from home.

Although my sister “A” mocks me for it, I have taken to traveling with my own ingredients when I visit her house for dinner.  Generally I am the main cook for our “sister night” meals regardless of whose house we are gathering at.  Since I am so picky about food quality, it only seems fair that I provide any ingredients that would be a burden on her food budget.  She may think I am snooty for frowning at her conventionally grown or processed foods, but she never complains about eating the fresh organic meals.

Until I can find a viable source of pasture-raised poultry, I will have to accept that the “natural” and “organic” chickens I have access to are primarily fed corn and soy products (proudly labeled “vegetarian-fed” although chickens are natural omnivores.)  For now grass-fed birds are either too hard to come by, or too expensive to purchase.  I hope that someday the Farm Bill will provide adequate compensation for truly sustainable agriculture, but until then I just make the best choices I can.  The more I cook from whole foods, the less opportunity there is for sneak attacks from renegade corn products.  Using only fresh ingredients allows me to look my corn in the eye and consciously choose to consume it.

Despite the negative slant, King Corn is not an anti-corn movie and does not imply that corn is inherently evil.  Rather, it is an alarming look at our flawed agricultural system.  In watching it I became aware of the complexity of our food system, and more convinced that sustainable agriculture is the only path to a healthy future.  Although the film leaves some questions unanswered, it is well worth making the effort to see.