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Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney are best friends and ecological activists who met at Yale and learned that their great-grandfathers were from the same small town, Greene, Iowa. Their existential shock at learning that their " ... generation was at risk of having a shorter life span than our parents,...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Authors: Alexander Street (Firm), WoWz (Musical group) (composer (expression)), Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Other Authors: Woolf, Aaron (Screenwriter), Ellis, Curt (Screenwriter, Narrator, fim director.), Cheney, Ian (Screenwriter, Narrator)
Format: Video
Language:English
Language Notes:In English with optional captions in English.
Published: [New York, NY] : Mosaic Films, [2007]
Subjects:
Agriculture > Iowa.
Farms > Iowa > Butler County.
Corn as food > United States.
Corn as feed > United States.
Corn industry > United States.
Corn > Processing > United States.
Corn products industry > United States.
Greene (Iowa)
Zea mays.
Animal Feed.
Crops, Agricultural.
Food-Processing Industry.
Sweetening Agents.
United States.
Agriculture.
Corn as feed.
Corn as food.
Corn industry.
Corn > Processing.
Corn products industry.
Farms.
Iowa.
Iowa > Butler County.
Internet videos.
Documentary films.
Nonfiction films.
Feature films.
Feature films > United States.
Video recordings for the hearing impaired.
Online Access:Connect to this streaming video (Alexander Street Press)
Description
Summary:Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney are best friends and ecological activists who met at Yale and learned that their great-grandfathers were from the same small town, Greene, Iowa. Their existential shock at learning that their " ... generation was at risk of having a shorter life span than our parents, and it was because of what we ate" prompts a return to their ancestral home--a farming town of just over 1000 people--to spend a year planting and harvesting an acre of corn. In the course of playing their minuscule part in the burgeoning corn industry, they learn about government subsidies, ammonia fertilizer, massively increased yields, and how the system favors mass production over small family farms. There is also the ubiquity of corn in food, from corn-fed beef to high-fructose syrup that sweetens sodas and other products. The film is a helpful tutorial on American corn production past and present, and an eminently watchable inquiry into the politics of food and public health.
Item Description:Originally released as a motion picture in 2007.
Electronic resource.
Physical Description:1 online resource (90 min.) : digital, sound, color
Production Credits:Edited by Jeffrey K. Miller ; Camera, Sam Cullman, Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney ; original music by The WoWz with Bo Ramsey and Spencer Chakedis ; written by Aaron Woolf, Ian Cheney, Curt Ellis, Jeffrey K. Miller ; produced and directed by Aaron Woolf.