Balance of Food

I don't normally do movie reviews. I leave that to Roger Ebert and the other professionals. But I have to make an exception for "King Corn." The movie will be part of the Independent Lens series on PBS (starts tonight, check your local listings and look for the rebroadcast in case you miss it tonight). Yes, it is a documentary. Oh, don't fall asleep. It's a fun documentary, even though it is filled with important information on what we eat. If you've read Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma," a lot of this isn't new. Pollan is frequently in the movie as an expert. Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney take us through growing an acre of corn for a year. We learn all about the process of growing corn, how they can only make money by receiving money from the U.S. government, and what we do with that corn. The best part of the movie is when they try to make high-fructose corn syrup at home. HFCS is so prevalent in our society yet you can't buy it by itself in the grocery store. So they try to make it; doesn't sound appetizing, but I don't want to ruin it for you. I pestered a co-worker to let me borrow his copy, and was glad I got a chance to see it. And I am taping it off the PBS series to have a permanent copy. Ellis and Cheney do a good job of explaining the semantics of the modern-day farmer. They even interview Earl Butz, then Secretary of Agriculture under Richard Nixon, who started us off into the spiral of high-fructose corn syrup and the obesity levels we currently enjoy. So do me a favor: watch the movie and then come back (in the comments section) and let us know what you think.