Corn Commentary

King Corn–Fantasy Farming

Got an interesting email from a corn grower in Iowa. Pam Johnson lives not too far from Greene, Iowa, where the movie King Corn was shot. She tells a different story.

These are her comments:

I had the opportunity to preview the movie King Corn, the story of two young men who return to Iowa to explore the community where their great grandparents once lived. It was interesting to see their perspective as they grew an acre of corn, but they missed the mark several times by their assumptions.

A movie is fun, but this is serious, because they assume corn is the root of all evil in the food system and they intend to use their assumptions to influence food policy.

They begin with the assumption that they are “going to die,” that they will have a shorter life span than their parents and that corn is to blame. The people they interview claim corn has no nutritive value, that corn is “crap”, that corn is a poison for cattle, that corn is solely responsible for making Americans obese and the cause of diabetes. They go on to say that corn is destroying us all, that it is foul to the human palate. When they finish harvesting their acre of corn, they lament that: “we have been farmers for nine months and our crop will be eaten by real people.” As a fifth-generation corn grower who is thankful to be able to harvest and provide for an abundant food supply, I have a different story to tell. This story may not make the movies, because presenting our truths and backing them up with facts and figures is just not as entertaining as “fantasy farming.” As in our grandparents’ day, farmers continue to provide an abundant and safe food supply. We believe that providing corn fed meat to our nation’s tables and those of a hungry global population is a good and honorable task. We believe that our children and grandchildren can live long and healthy lives if they eat and drink in moderation and exercise.

I attended the World Food Prize Symposium this past week, which addresses world hunger. As Norman Borlaug, the father of the green revolution credited for saving millions of hungry people said, “It is easy to criticize when your belly is full.”

An abundance of choices in healthy food is a blessing for Americans. Teach this to your children’s children. Tell them the whole story of food and agriculture.