King Corn Documentary

Raising animals and growing crops for local food consumption is hard work. Or, at least it used to be. As a kid, I helped out my parents with a huge strawberry field, a couple pig pens, a bunch of chickens coups and a football field size garden.

But tonight, I watched a documentary that sheds light on the dangerous practices of big industrial farming and modified corn growing. The movie is called "King Corn" and it's truly disturbing. It shows how pervasive modified corn is in our everyday diet like high fructose corn syrup and meat consumption. It shows the effect that modified corn is having on our health, environment and cattle supply. It raises questions about farm subsidy programs and why our government would help contribute to a growing epidemic of obesity by helping farmers profit (just barely) from this cheap alternative to grass and wheat.

Worse yet is the treatment of the penned up animals. The biggest agri-business farms are guilty of force feeding animals with modified corn to fatten them up quicker. Cows are also kept in crowded conditions and given a genetically engineered growth hormone called rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone) to force cows to increase milk production by 15%. While the FDA approves of it here the European Union and Canada have banned it. Studies show it has detrimental side effects like painful udder infections, lesions of the knee and hoof problems.

Corn is also used in paint, paper, cosmetics, tires, fuel, plastics, textiles, explosives, and wallboard.

To find alternatives and help support the little organic farms, check out a site called "Sustainable Table" and the award-winning Meatrix movies.