Des Moines Register
10-21-07
Brasher: Film makes statement about corn a few years late
2004 film misses ethanol boom's effect on prices
WASHINGTON FARM REPORT
By PHILIP BRASHER
REGISTER WASHINGTON BUREAU
Washington, D.C. - You have to sympathize with a couple of guys who decide to
make a movie about growing corn. Their real problem is when they made their
film.
Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, two friends at Yale University, set out to make their
documentary, "King Corn," about how the nation's food system and farm policy
worked. So, they decided in 2004 to try growing their own corn on one acre of
land in Greene, Ia. Coincidentally, both of them had great-grandparents in the
Greene area.
With relatively little work, thanks to genetically modified seeds, herbicide and a
neighbor's paid expertise, they produced a fine crop of 180 bushels on that acre
and reaped some government subsidies to go along with it.
They reached the conclusion that government policy encouraged farmers to grow
so much corn that was worth so little that they couldn't cover their costs of
producing that 180 bushels without subsidies. That cheap corn in turn makes for
cheap food, cheap soda and - according to "King Corn" - fat, diabetic Americans.
"We spend less of our income on food than any generation in history. Fewer of
us are needed to produce that food than ever before," Cheney concludes toward
the end of the film.
"But we also might be the first generation to live in a time when abundance
brings too much."
The trouble for Cheney, Ellis and other would-be reformers is that it's no longer
2004.
Corn sold for $1.65 in Greene that year. Now, thanks to the ethanol boom, corn
is worth about twice that. One of the nation's newest ethanol distilleries is a
VeraSun plant just down the road from Greene in Charles City. Prices for almost
every other crop, at least those subsidized by the government, also have risen
dramatically in part because of the ethanol-driven expansion in corn acreage.
Food prices, in turn, have been going up. That cheap food isn't quite so cheap
anymore, and that makes it harder to argue that farm programs are reducing
commodity prices or busting the budget.
"Currently the issue is not overproduction as much as it is in meeting the
demands not only for the food sector but the energy sector. That's changed the
dynamics of what farmers have to deal with today," says Ron Litterer, president
of the National Corn Growers Association, who as it happens is from Greene.
Litterer wasn't aware that Cheney and Ellis were making the film and hasn't yet
seen it, but he thinks it was a missed opportunity to show what's happening to
the farm economy.
That said, the film is a warm, playful portrayal of Greene as its well its residents
and farmers. At one point the woman behind the counter at a local bakery
comments on the speed at which farmers can get their planting done with
modern machinery: "Then they're back twiddling their thumbs until it's time to
spray something."
And to make a graphic point about the productivity of the local farms, Cheney
(pronounced Cheen-ee) and Ellis are filmed playing on top of the mountain of
corn piled at the local elevator after the harvest. (No, they didn't ask for
permission.)
Ellis, who was in Washington last week with Cheney for a Capitol Hill screening,
says they stayed away from the ethanol issue because they wanted to focus on
the role of corn in the food supply.
"I wish we had done it this year," he said. "We might have made a profit."
And they could have made a more timely case about government policy.
'King Corn'
FILM RELEASE: "King Corn" opened in New York Oct. 12 and in Washington
and Boston this weekend. Go to kingcorn.net and click on the box "In Theaters."
IN IOWA:
- The film will be shown at Iowa State University Nov. 7 at 6:30 p.m. in
LeBaron Hall, Room 1210 auditorium and Nov. 30 at Iowa City's Bijou Theater.
A panel discussion with filmmakers follows at 8. A tour of Iowa communities is
planned in December, according to the filmmakers.
- A showing in the Des Moines area had not been scheduled as of last week.