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Down to Earth with...

BY KAREN SOLOMON

The Monarch of Maize

King Corn co-producer Curt Ellis explains how corn is ruining our lives

 

Though King Corn is Curt Ellis’ first feature film, this 27-year-old Yale graduate has two stalks of success on his side: a rich background in environmental and food activism, and his cousin, Aaron Woolf, an accomplished filmmaker who produced and directed his cinematic debut

(partnered with friend and co-producer Ian Cheney). The movie documents what happens when Ellis and

Cheney return to their families’ Iowa
corn farming roots to grow a single Click Image to Play Movie >
acre--and discover how food and
legislative systems are pushing corn, What are you hoping this film will accom-
in its many industrialized forms, ^{plish?
down our throats. We caught up We want people to know that an incredi-} _{with Ellis as he was beginning to ex-} ble amount of food comes from corn these _{days, in the form of high-fructose corn}
^{plore a corn-free diet and promote} syrup (HFCS) and corn-fed meat. People
^{King Corn in 30 cities nationwide.} have the ability to make powerful changes
that make our food system healthier –

Was it difficult to get people to such as reading processed food labels and participate in/excited about a eating grass-fed meat. We’d also like to film about corn? raise awareness on policy changes. The We knew that corn subsidies and Farm Bill is, for the first time, making farm-watching corn grow would be a ing important to people who eat, and not riveting topic for a film, but our just people who farm. investors got excited because they thought we said “King Porn”. Read more > [He laughs.]