Pushing Crops to the Limit

437 Words2 Pages
Pushing Crops to the Limit In the movie King Corn, Kurt and Ian are two men who moved from New York to the farm land in Greene, Iowa in the hopes of growing their own acre of corn. In the beginning, neither of them really knew anything about farming, crops, or anything else relating to that particular field. However, as soon as they reached their destination, they began learning with firsthand experience just what it takes to produce your own crop. They start with plotting off an acre of land, planning what to do, and talking to local business owners to get their ‘field’ set up. We learn that before they can even start planting, the soil must be sprayed with ammonia to prep it for the seeds, acting as a fertilizer. We are also informed that later on in the growing season, a chemical called Liberty must be sprayed on the plants to protect them. These chemicals are used to create the biggest crop possible with the space available, but is this type of care really ok? The products that are put on the crops work well, but what we see is huge amounts of corn that aren’t needed. Changing the way Americans farm is the only way to take care of the yield we end up with that isn’t necessary. Secretary of Agriculture Earl Butz passed a policy that changed the way Americans ran their farms. The government began paying farmers based on how much of a certain crop they could produce. There began to be a continually increasing amount of surplus corn, helped also because of the fertilizers and other chemicals we started to add to them. Land can only tolerate so much, so once it reaches its threshold, humans have to help it along. By adding ammonia and Liberty to the soil, we are able mass produce corn in a way we weren’t able to before. The corn grows denser, which gives farmers even more for the amount of space they have. If America had a shortage on food or needed to produce
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