Popcorn Barely Scratches Surface
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