When art examines politics, the outcome can often be a re-examination of centuries of shared ideologies. The Sun Valley Center for the Arts' new multidisciplinary project, "Farming in the 21st Century," plans to not only examine farming in America and what Americans and other nations are consuming but also how health and the health of the planet are linked.
"People question the nature of agriculture as the world becomes sensitive to the carbon footprint of each citizen," said The Center's artistic director, Kristin Poole. "Will we see the rise of small-scale organic farming after a century in which family farms were absorbed into agribusiness? Who will determine what is grown and where?"
When The Center presented a sold-out lecture by Michael Pollan, the author of "In Defense of Food" and "The Omnivore's Manifesto," it was clear that the topic was a worldwide issue very much on the minds of the Wood River Valley community.
In the documentary film "King Corn," understanding where food comes from was an eye-opening and hands-on experience that filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney continue to explore.
"A friend of ours sent us work gloves and told us he was jealous about us digging in the dirt," Ellis said. "It took us less than two hours to plant 10,000 pounds of food with very little work."
Ellis will present "King Corn" at the Community Library in Ketchum on Thursday, March 26, for a free screening at 7 p.m.
Ellis and Cheney, who met as students at Yale, decided to make the film in a quest to find out where the food they eat comes from. With help from farmers, genetically modified seeds and fertilizers, they grew a bumper crop. The filmmakers decided to follow their harvest into the food system, which revealed troubling truths about how a preference for corn over other crops is damaging American agriculture and our health.
"Farm subsidies in place since the '70s rewarded the production of corn and soy beans," Ellis said. "High fructose corn syrup is a ubiquitous ingredient predominantly in the U.S. and becoming a global phenomenon.
The result of that, he said, has been an increase in diabetes.
As their populations grow, large countries such as China look for ways to produce cheap food, including confinement-raised meat, which introduces harmful chemicals into people's diets.
"King Corn" was shot over the course of 2004 and 2005 and is rooted in the rural town of Greene, Iowa, where the filmmakers grew their acre of corn. During the project, Ellis and Cheney discovered they were both grandsons of Iowa farmers who lived only a few miles apart.
"It is very hard to see the industrial food system through a magnifying glass and still eat from that trough," Ellis said. "I no longer eat confinement-raised food and I don't drink soda. Farm policy matters to farmers and the reality of the policy is it dictates a great deal of what we eat."
Ellis said low-income populations suffer the worst from the nation's farm policy, and it's not just about wealthy people shopping at Whole Foods who find a way out of the system. He said we need to revive the culture of cooking from scratch and grow some food in our backyards.
"The one thing I want people to understand when they leave the theater is changing buying habits is only half the battle," Ellis said. "We need to become policy advocates for a new farm policy, which is the other half of the battle."
The Center will open its new exhibition in Ketchum on Friday, March 28, with works by Julie Moos, Michael Gregory, Geoff Krueger and Tracy Linder. For details, call 726-9491 or visit sunvalleycenter.org.
Sabina Dana Plasse: splasse@mtexpress.com
"King Corn" is a documentary by Ian Cheney (left) and Curt Ellis that will screen at the Community Library in Ketchum on Thursday.
