Sometimes only outsiders can teach insiders. Just as 60's Northerners raised awareness of race issues in the South, Easterners might teach Midwesterners a thing or two about agriculture. Whether we like it or not.

Three Easterners set out to do just that in King Corn, a feature-length documentary on Iowa's cash crop. Aaron Woolf directed Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis in this entertaining yet educational film. I watched it as an Iowan who has lived around corn for decades, eaten the sweet version, admired it growing, been amazed by its abundance both before and after harvest, and surprised by its recently upgraded value to around $8.00 a bushel.

Yet truth be told, I knew almost nothing about it.

Like a sea captain who never got swimming, I'm an Iowan who never got farming. So I've learned from these young Easterners, just out of college, who literally moved into Greene, fifty miles from Cedar Falls.

They rented one acre, then planted, cultivated, fertilized, harvested, and sold their corn from it during the 2004 growing season. What a great idea, eh?

Since it took only 18 minutes to plant 31,000 seeds on their acre and hardly more than that to harvest their 160-plus bushels, these Easterners took time to ponder what corn has become in our diet, livestock, and fuel.

Now this is not a perfect documentary by any means. Some of their facts are skewed or partial, a la Michael Moore. And it's a bit dated, since they planted and harvested when corn sold for less then two bucks a bushel. They did break even and then some, but only because of government subsidies.

Since corn prices have since quadrupled, they would have made a tidy profit this year, even without a subsidy. But profit was not their chief concern.

These guys wanted to find out why a chemical analysis of their hair follicles showed corn as a chief ingredient. They wanted to discover why their bodies had become basically corn-based.

In their good-natured, respectful way, they discovered that corn has become a major ingredient in practically everything. And that Iowa's massive corn crop began with Earl Butz (whom they interview) in the 1970s when the government began paying farmers to plant corn fencerow to fencerow. Prior to that, farmers were paid to NOT grow corn, since crop surpluses meant depressed markets.

That new policy brought millions more bushels into the market, hence farm subsidies and the search for new uses for corn. This led to both ethanol and corn sweeteners. Oh, yes, and animal confinement lots, where corn is fed to non-moving cattle to fatten them faster.

The result? Corn-based fuel additives, high-fructose corn syrup, and cheaper meat, but not necessarily better food.

That's the problem we now face: Corn we grow in Iowa isn't really food.

It's a raw material for ethanol, livestock, and sweetener industries. It has little to do with nutrition or a high quality diet.

We now have a two-foods system, it seems. There's good food out there for those who can afford it-- organic produce, free-range chicken and cattle, Alaskan wild salmon. But most people can't afford to feed their families such fare. Instead, we have corn-sweetened mass-produced fast food, both at stores and restaurants, and that's causing an array of health problems from obesity to diabetes.

The film details all this with unpretentious voice-overs, good humor, and a surprisingly memorable final image of their response to corn.

King Corn is a must see for Iowans, especially those who know nothing about corn. Gratitude to those meddling young Easterners.

More Political Limericks

Here's a sip of wry from Lynn Nielsen in Cedar Falls:

The Democrats' choosing Obama,

Gave Hillary quite a large trauma.

They're appearing together,

Like birds of a feather,

But maybe it's really just drama.

And from Jerry Nissen, also a Cedar Fallsian:

The conservative pundits all cry,

That we need an experienced guy.

After eight years of fun

With a President's son,

I say, "Give the rookie a try."

The winners will appear here next month. Send them my way C/O the Courier, P.O. Box 540, Waterloo, 50702.