‘King Corn’ events spotlight bad farm policy and crop of local solutions

The corn-centric American food system is showing signs of stress.

But as global commodity prices and increased transportation costs push up food prices, the local foods movement in Michigan is gaining momentum.

Hundreds of people from across northwest lower Michigan spent a recent Monday evening learning about agricultural policy and celebrating local agriculture in Traverse City.

Serenity Tea Bar and Cafe, the new vegan eatery downtown, hosted a standing-room-only potluck of locally grown foods — pickled asparagus, whole grain sourdough bread, cherry crisp, whole bulbs of roasted garlic, cheeses — and screened a locally produced film on community-supported agriculture.

A new local foods magazine was unveiled, and at one point people broke out in a rowdy song about eating greens that is becoming a local folk favorite.

Later, across the street, the State Theater screened the documentary “King Corn,” a film the Boston Globe called “a moral, socio-economic odyssey through the food system,” about two friends who move to Iowa and grow an acre of commodity corn after learning that around half the carbon in their bodies comes from corn.

Continued -Looking out over the hundreds-strong audience, Curt Ellis, “King Corn” co-producer and star, who flew in for the event from Boston, said, “You people know you are here to watch a movie about corn, right?”

They did. And many seemed already familiar with the movie’s story.

Corn is the most subsidized crop in the nation, and subsidies have resulted in massive production that has been steered into corn syrup, ubiquitous in the empty-calorie prepared foods central to the American diet, particularly for the poor. Corn also goes to fatten cows in the confinement feed-lot operations.

The explosion of corn production is a big reason food is so cheap in the United States.  Americans spend around 8 percent of their income on food. But this low price camouflages other costs in the system; environmental degradation as fertilizer runoff flows down the Mississippi and contaminates the Gulf of Mexico, soaring health-care costs for diseases related to obesity. Plus, farmers get only a small portion of each dollar spent on food.

During the post-film Q&A, Ellis fielded questions from foodies and farmers and pointed out that while the federal government subsidizes corn production to the tune of $30 billion a year, only $1 million per year goes to promoting farmers markets.

The engaged participation by audience members is part of a surge of interest in localizing the food system. Michigan, one of the fattest states in the nation, is in a good position to model changes in agriculture.

It is second to California in the diversity of its agricultural products. Yet rather than selling fresh food direct to consumers, most of Michigan’s agricultural production goes into processed food, which is

Buying more locally could save energy and help farmers. And the state of Michigan has tried to point this out with its annual “Buy Fresh, Buy Local – Select Michigan Day.” According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, if every family could spend just $10  on Michigan food, it would contribute $40 million to the state economy each week.

Traverse City is a hot spot in the local food movement. Earlier this month food service directors from across the state converged here for a farm-to-school conference where they learned how to work with farmers and feature more fresh local foods in school menus. Other signs of localizing the system: a new distribution facility for regional foods, a push to feature local ingredients in the tourist region’s abundant restaurants, and the development of agricultural tourism.