Director Aaron Woolf’s entertaining feature-length documentary about the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation raises troubling questions about how we eat and how we farm. Complimentary organic popcorn and corn-free sodas for all.

Co-sponsored by Honest Weight Food Co-Op as well as Roots and Wisdom.

King Corn is a feature film documentary about the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. Almost everything Americans eat contains corn: high fructose corn syrup, corn-fed meat, and corn-based processed foods are the staples of the modern diet. Ready for an adventure and alarmed by signs of their generation’s bulging waistlines, college friends Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis know where to go to investigate.

Eighty years ago, Ian and Curt’s great-grandfathers lived just a few miles apart, in the same rural county in northern Iowa. Now their great-grandsons are returning with a mission: they will plant an acre of corn, follow their harvest into the world, and attempt to understand what they—and all of us—are really made of.

They 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.

“Genetically engineered corn can be ‘hidden’ in everyday grocery items ranging from bread, to soda, to the ramen noodles you had for lunch,” Karisa Centanni, Education Coordinator at the Honest Weight Food Co-op, comments. “The same genes that comprise this ‘corn’ are showing up in our hair and skin, believe it or not, yet we have no idea about the kind of biological and environmental changes this may cause over a long period of time.” Immediately following the screening a panel comprised of two local, organic farmers—Leslie Herd and Chris Kemnah—and Louise Maher-Johnson, a non-GMO activist who has coordinated two statewide lobby days (2005 and 2006) to inform legislators about transgenic food, will be available as part of a panel discussion and to answer audience questions and concerns.

Youth gardeners from Roots and Wisdom will serve corn-free, New-England-made sodas and organic popcorn during a pre-screening reception, beginning at 6 PM, and following the film. They will talk with attendees about the important role they are playing to recover the local foods system through farming themselves. All sales of concessions will go directly to programming for Roots and Wisdom.

Roots and Wisdom is a youth agriculture and community service program bringing together Schenectady County residents to grow organic vegetables for donation to local food pantries and for sale locally. Participants learn about sustainable agriculture, nutrition, hunger, and diversity. Roots and Wisdom creates genuine change by helping county residents in need and providing youth with opportunities to work hard and grow.

The Honest Weight Food Co-op, founded in 1976, is open to the public seven days a week. A member-owned and -operated organization, Honest Weight Food Co-op is committed to providing the community with affordable, high quality natural foods and products for healthy and ecologically sustainable living. The store offers a full line of brand-name grocery products, more than 500 domestic and imported cheeses from rBGH-free dairies, an extensive selection of bulk foods, and the area’s widest selection of locally produced food products. Honest Weight Food Co-op is centrally located at 484 Central Avenue, between Partridge and Manning, in Albany, NY.

This presentation is made possible in part by volunteer labor and hundreds of small donations from patrons of The Sanctuary for Independent Media.

We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.