Great Lakes Bioneers

Great Lakes Bioneers presents King Corn, from Mosaic Films Inc., at the State Theatre in downtown Traverse City, March 31, 7:30pm. This is a feature documentary film about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. Follow the journey as they purchase, grow and sell an acre of commodity corn in Iowa. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll definitely read your ingredient labels differently.

Before the film, join our special guests at a Locavore Hors d’Oeuvres Challenge hosted by Serenity Tea Bar and Café, located across Front St. from the theater from 5:30-7:00PM. Please bring finger-food that features ingredients grown and produced within our local foodshed! A dish is not required and the pre-film reception is free.

Also showing, Talkin’ Bout Making Culture, a documentary about Michigan Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, produced and starring 2007 keynote speaker, Marty Heller, will be shown at the pre-film reception.

For more information, visit www.glbconference.org or email: info@glbconference.org.
Tickets for the film can be bought online at: www.Statetheatretc.org

Thanks to Oryana Natural Foods for sponsoring our special guest speaker, King Corn producer and star Ian Cheney! Also thanks to Serenity Tea Bar & Café, MLUI and Edible Grande Traverse for support.

Saturday, MARCH 15, 2008 Earth Day Parade Fundraiser….

The annual “Bring in the Spring” kick-off event to mark the beginning of the Earth Day parade-building workshops is set. Join the community to CELEBRATE the arrival of Spring!

It will be a marvelous evening of family fun, with a Puppet Fashion Show, featuring fantastic Garbage Art Creations- Light refreshments will be served, followed with a dance-dance-to the Earth Day Revolution-Party!

This is a “Swanky” event—so haul out your fancy duds and let’s have some high-class, crazy puppet fun!

$10 each/ $25 per family

6-9 PM at the ArtCenter of Traverse City corner of Elmwood and 11th St.

for more information: www.littleartshram.org
Dede 231-276-2328 or, 231-510-3491

Institute for Sustainable Living, Art & Natural Design (ISLAND) is brewing up a lot of action in Antrim county. Visit their Web site for more details for these events:

• Your Green Home: The Design and Construction of Environmentally Sound Homes for Everyone
  Thursday, March 6, from 9:30am to 3:30pm, at Helena Township Community Center
  in Alden.
• Calling all Teachers! The Second Annual Skill Swap call for teachers is now open! The Skill Swap will
  be held Saturday, May 10 at Wagbo Peace Center in East Jordan.
• Art, Film, Philosophy with author Stephanie Mills: Tuesday, March 11, from 6 to 8 pm at Moka in Bellaire.

And, another event that Antrim County Bioneeros may be interested in: MSU Cooperative Extension and the Antrim County Farmers Market are showing Sioux City Sue, a documentary by Chris Bedford, on Thursday, March 6th at 7pm at the Bellaire Senior Center. The film will be followed by a short discussion about the local food system.

Full Press Release & Film Description: King Corn (PDF)

This March 31st, follow the journey of two college friends as they purchase, grow and sell an acre of commodity corn in Iowa. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll definitely read your ingredient labels differently.

Mon., March 31 > Pre-Film Reception 5:30-7 > Film 7:30

Great Lakes BIONEERS presents the documentary film, King Corn from Mosaic Films Inc., at the Traverse City State Theatre on Monday, March 31 at 7:30 PM. Before the film, join our special guests at a Locavore Hors d’Oeuvres Challenge hosted by Serenity Tea Bar and Café, located across Front St. from the theater from 5:30-7:00PM. The community is welcome to participate in the Locavore Hors d’Oeuvres Challenge by bringing a finger-food that features ingredients grown and produced within our local foodshed. A dish is not required and the pre-film reception is free.

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the East coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat—and how we farm.

“If you take a McDonald’s meal, you don’t realize it when you eat it, but you’re eating corn. Beef has been corn-fed. Soda is corn. Even the French fries. Half the calories in the French fries come from the fat they’re fried in, which is liable to be either corn oil or soy oil. So when you’re at McDonald’s, you’re eating Iowa food. Everything on your plate is corn,” says author and UC Berkeley professor, Michael Pollan.
How did the tyranny of corn come to be? Is it possible Americans eat nearly 75 pounds of high fructose corn syrup annually? Why do we spend billions per year subsidizing a single crop?

Great Lakes BIONEERS and Oryana Natural Foods Market have teamed up to bring co-Producer, Ian Cheney, to Traverse City for the event. Meet Ian before the film at the Serenity Tea Bar and Café and stay after the film for a quick Q&A. Talkin’ Bout Making Culture, a locally produced documentary about Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, in Michigan will also be shown at the pre-film reception. .

Great Lakes BIONEERS would also like to thank Edible Grande Traverse and the Michigan Land Use Institute for additional contributions.

For ticket information: www.statetheatretc.org