The documentary, King Corn opened my eyes and made my think about the changes in the food I am eating today. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis decided to check their hair to see what it was made up of and got corn. Their hair analysis resulted in high levels of corn creating curiosity as to why that would be. Both men went to the supermarket and started looking at the ingredients and also noticed that most foods that Americans consume have corn in it. Day to day, most Americans buy food and consume it without thinking of the ingredients, where it was grown and how it will affect them. They conducted a experiment in which they went to Iowa and grew hybrid corn from scratch to see the process and what happened after.
They both decided to return to their hometown in Iowa, known as “the tall corn state.” If they wanted to inform everyone about high fructose syrup and other corn addictives in food, they had to start at the source. Growing the corn from scratch was a great idea because a lot of people have never seen the steps, how long it takes, or the methods used to get rid of weeds. They learned that the famers were paid to grow the corn by the government and not by the amount that I sold. When it came time to taste the corn, Ian and Curt were disappointed to find out that it wasn’t tasty. They visited couple farms and found out that the corn didn’t need to be tasty, as a majority of it was being fed to cows.
Why would someone feed a cow corn if it is unable to digest it? Simple, the cows are fed corn so that they can grow faster and they are injected with Amino Acid so that they can digest it. A cow that is expected to grow over the years is given grass to eat, but they have no hormones and this process is too long. These cows are only expected to live for 15 months a time because their stomach is unable to handle the corn. The process is saddening to watch and even worse to think about. Ian and Curt, showed us that cheap corn produces cheap food that results in unhealthy people. The effects of the corn is shown though the obesity rates that are gradually increasing, diabetes in adults, children, e coli and other diseases that can be prevented.
Corn is an addictive that was discovered by our parents generation and gradually became a problem. This persuasive documentary showed the influence that corn has had on our society and how uneducated the public has been. The insight has made a lot of people open their eyes and ponder on the reasons why corn is the only problem solving solution that scientist have developed. Why did scientists stop at corn? If we continue to find a solution to several problems and immediately institute it into our lifestyle without testing it, people will continue to plummet and die from new diseases. The complexity of food has increased over the decades because of all the different ingredients included to make the food taste good to consumers. This has also caused the reasons for certain diseases, solutions and intensity to vary. If man continues to use a solution to treat many more without the proper testing and analysis, we have failed ourselves. As our generation continues, man needs to also grow and start thinking of quality food instead of quantity by properly incorporating the necessary problem solving techniques into science.