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Movie Analysis: Corn Farms

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Movie Analysis: Corn Farms
Before watching this movie, I thought corn farms would be produced through plantation agriculture since corn is usually produced in large quantities on monoculture farms, or intensive agriculture because farmers want more crops using less amount of land so they are able to make more profit from their harvested crops. I imagined corn farms to be hundreds, maybe even thousands, of rows of green husks stretching for miles. Once the corns were in seasons and ready to be harvested, there would be tractors that drove down the rows to collect the corn. I know corn is an important grain for agriculture, especially for the livestock industry so I believed farmers would produce an abundant amount of corn for the population and livestock consumption. …show more content…
Corn production has gone up due to the help of ammonia fertilizer. Corn farms do not practice organic agriculture. Crop yield has gone up four times compared to Ian and Curt’s ancestors in the early 1900’s with the help of fertilizers and herbicides to kill the weeds. The government subsidizes large farms to plant on more land and to buy out their neighbors if they do not want to grow crops. Farmers get rewarded for overproduction of cheap corn which keeps the production of corn going on full blast. Majority of the corn produced gets fed to animals or us in the form of high fructose corn syrup which is empty calories. Due to consolidation of family farms into large farming operations, the consumers are harmed while the cooperation benefit because they get cheap corn produced in surplus to turn into high fructose corn syrup or feed to sell to livestock producers. Consumers are harmed because more high fructose corn syrup is being produced and put into the foods we consume on a daily basis. Corn is in everything that we consume, such as sodas and hamburgers. High fructose corn syrup has adverse effects such as a higher risk of acquiring type 2 diabetes and obesity. The table sugar consumption has decreased, but high fructose corn syrup consumption has increased by 30% because it is cheaper to buy and produce. In the late 1980’s high fructose corn syrup has taken over half of the sweetener

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