King Corn
January 10, 2009 – 1:41 pmA few days ago Hubs and I watched this documentary. There are a lot of interesting things to learn in it, and I recommend renting it or checking it out at the library. It starts out with these two guys having the carbons in their hair analyzed for origin, and it turns out they all come from corn (I’m pretty sure these two eat a pretty standard SAD diet, and they definitely eat cow-burgers several times in the film), so they decide to figure out why. So they grow some corn and follow it around to places corn ends up, like in high fructose corn syrup.
At one point in the film their journey takes them to a feedlot. They discuss the feedlot, the animals, the grain diet fed to the animals, and how it affects their health and that of folks who ultimately eat the animals. When we saw the shots of the cows in the feedlot, standing on top of each other ankle deep in their own shit, being force-fed food that makes them sick, we were sad all over again. And I said to Hubs: Aren’t you glad you’re a vegetarian. And Hubs said: Yes, I am. And I said: Me too, hold my hand for this part.