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America's King Corn

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Across the country, and especially in the great Midwest, the corn pickers are in the fields today, bringing in what is projected to be the biggest corn harvest in American history.

Through corn meals and corn sweeteners and corn-fed livestock and corn-brewed ethanol, Americans eat and drink — and now are beginning to drive on — an astounding amount of corn.

In a beautiful new documentary called "King Corn," two young Americans plant one acre of corn in the corn ocean of Iowa, and learn a bundle.

This hour, On Point: You are what you eat. The corn-fed nation and "King Corn."Guests:

Ian Cheney, co-writer and co-producer of the new documentary King Corn.

George Naylor, president of the National Family Farm Coalition and a corn/soybean farmer in Churdan, Iowa.

Ricardo Salvador, former associate professor of agronomy at Iowa State University, currently he's Program Director of Food Systems and Rural Development at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Daryll Ray, Director of the Agricultural Policy Analysis Center at the University of Tennessee.

This program aired on October 10, 2007.

Headshot of Tom Ashbrook

Tom Ashbrook Former Host, On Point
Tom Ashbrook is an award-winning journalist and host of WBUR and NPR's On Point.

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