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Corn Swaggled

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Curt Ellis and Aaron Woolf, producers of the documentary King Corn, left behind their urban lives to move to Iowa, grow an acre of corn, and follow their product from seed to harvest to marketplace.


Comments

  • [1] KC from Manhattan April 15, 2008 - 10:47AM

    Nice! I saw this a few months ago; such an incredibly interesting (and interestingly-made) documentary.


  • [2] hjs from 11211 April 15, 2008 - 10:51AM

    last week you had a segment on food and gave it 10 short minutes. this week again segment too short. we need to know more info about this.


  • [3] Kevin from Brooklyn April 15, 2008 - 10:51AM

    I saw this film last fall, and I liked it...makes me feel thankful to live in an area where not only fresh produce is available, but that we also have restaurants which are less likely to use these low quality ingredients.


  • [4] Robert from NYC April 15, 2008 - 10:53AM

    Many people I know from corn production countries in SA, e.g. Peru tell me that the corn here is really inferior.

    I think corn for food should be first and should be cheaper than corn for fuel.


  • [5] Anonymous from NY April 15, 2008 - 10:53AM

    It's not sweet corn, it's BITTER corn!


  • [6] Paulo from Paterson, New Jersey April 15, 2008 - 10:55AM

    The corn makes the cows sick because they can't digest it very well. To compensate, they pump the cows full of antibiotics to keep them standing, and then we eat the antiobiotics and the circle of life continues.


  • [7] Robert from NYC April 15, 2008 - 10:58AM

    I don't really understand why grain-fed beef or any animal for that matter is so much more expensive. Grains grow naturally and, yes, need care, but the garbage-fed animals--and as we've learned these last few years it really is garbage--have that garbage "prepared" in chemical plants by chemical companies and I should think is more expensive than the naturally grown grain.


  • [8] Sue from North Salem, NY April 15, 2008 - 10:58AM

    Read "the Omnivore's Dilemma", it's all there. Never been so depressed in my life. I purged my shelves and fridge and went hardcore organic. And man does it cost a freakin' fortune...


  • [9] ab April 15, 2008 - 10:59AM

    Yeah really...so much time given to Feith, so little to this? What gives?


  • [10] Andy from Brooklyn April 15, 2008 - 10:59AM

    I haven't seen this yet, but it's interesting that the first thing that comes up when you google "king corn" is a page from the corn refiners association stating that this doc is rife with myths. I'd be interested in seeing some sort of debate on air as a follow-up once it broadcasts in NYC.


  • [11] A from Brooklyn April 15, 2008 - 11:01AM

    Did he just say he opened a "know where your food comes from" grocery store in Williamsburg? Anyone know what he was talking about and where it might be?


  • [12] ALD from west village April 15, 2008 - 11:05AM

    yes, i just tried googling that know-where-your-food-comes-from store, to no avail. can someone post a link?


  • [13] ab April 15, 2008 - 11:05AM

    #10

    Intriguing but I would be highly suspect considering that the claims,as you say, are from the corn refiners association...just saying I wouldn't necessarily take their claims at face value...vested interest and all....


  • [14] Jared H. from NYC April 15, 2008 - 11:06AM

    I love the big city views on this...so out of touch with reality...unbelievable, having grown up on a family farm (corn, beans, cattle & hogs) that is clinging to a thread...I always get a chuckle out of people that think a farm should look like rural Conn. with a few cattle some sheep and an apple grove...oh and the 5 million dollar McMansion...If New Yorkers want the sustainable alternative they had better move to the country and farm it themselves because these types of methods which they deem so pertinant to the health of their preciously sensitive colon are very labor intensive...walk the beans, detassel the corn, and harvest the crop by hand...yeah I didn't think so.......there would be such a shortage of vaseline it would make petro double in price again...jeez


  • [15] eligit April 15, 2008 - 11:08AM

    easy solution (at least on a personal level):

    no meat.

    no soda.

    minimal processed foods.

    maximal fresh green veggies.


  • [16] Constance Holperin from Larchmont April 15, 2008 - 11:15AM

    ? Is there any crop, without a lobby in DC, where the food part can be eaten, and the waste part used to make biofuel? When you eat an ear of corn there is much to throw out-cob,silk,leaves,stalk-does that all go into the fuel or is it only the kernel? 2nd,about 5 years ago on your program you had a segment on a big garbage experiment that was turning garbage into fuel. They were going to build a huge plant to test the viability.Any update?


  • [17] ParisBreakfast from NYC NY April 15, 2008 - 11:26AM

    could it be???

    Naturally Healthy Health FoodNaturally Healthy Health Food

    594 Grand St

    Brooklyn, NY 11211

    I emailed them on the King Corn site :)


  • [18] P from Brooklyn April 15, 2008 - 11:31AM

    The store is called Urban Rustic and it's in Williamsburg right by McCarren Park 236 N. 12th St. www.urbanrusticnyc.com


  • [19] Jared H. from NYC April 15, 2008 - 11:41AM

    Yes and can anyone tell me how much a cappuchino costs at Starbucks...nobody seems to mind the excess cost there...and what are the methods going into producing the oh so precious bean that makes NYC go?

    To me it's about time that a bushel of corn costs more than an ice-cream-cone...

    What more to answer the question of someone concerning what happens to the silks, the stocks and cobbs...it get ground up and goes back into the ground as compost so that the soil can maintain it's healthy rich status, otherwise more and more chemicals will be needed to add nutrients...this with rotation farming helps...I take offense from people who make claims that our product is inferior to any other country...at least it's not made in China!


  • [20] Ana Maria Quispe from Kearny NJ April 15, 2008 - 11:42AM

    The TIKSI group a member supported nonprofit org. had offered the film at our public library. Great film, an eye opener!...this wonderful American staple has been corrupted....King Corn is just what frustrated dietitians like me need to keep educating everyone. Please I need the translation in Spanish.


  • [21] RJ from NJ April 15, 2008 - 12:45PM

    i my family the thumb rule is, no corn in any form, no meat in any form, and no processed gains in any form.

    not that we all are thin and healthy, no way, but we are happy and guilt free.


  • [22] Richie from Williamsburg April 15, 2008 - 05:22PM

    Anyone get the name to that place in Williamsburg yet? I'd like to check it out.


  • [23] Heidi from Williamsburg April 16, 2008 - 03:16PM

    The grocery store is Urban Rustic on N. 12th St., right across from McCarren Park.


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