CLEARLAKE – “King Corn,” Second Sunday Cinema's free documentary film for Jan. 11, is a delightful yet serious examination of how corn, America's native crop, is now threatening America's health and community-based happiness.

Two friends, just graduated from college, set out to understand the relatively new paradigm of American farming: agribusiness. Because corn forms the basis of most everything we eat in this country (as has been discovered through cellular analysis) they focused on this once proud and healthy crop.

Both their great-grandfathers had grown corn in Iowa, so they returned there and convinced a friendly farmer to rent them one acre of his farmland so they could plow, plant, grow out, harvest, sell and then follow the corn they produced through the markets. They discovered that their corn sure ain't their granddaddies' corn.

Today's corn is all but 100-percent genetically modified (GMO) and requires herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilizers – and robust government subsidies. Since a cousin of theirs makes movies, they brought him along, and the result is this entertaining, informative and inspiring documentary. Inspiring? Yes – inspiring us all to change our diets and improve our health!

Have you noticed the "obesity epidemic" in this country? Many experts blame high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which sweetens virtually all cans of non-diet soda in this country (and infiltrates most processed foods as well).

HFCS is far worse in its effects on the human body than even that old villain, white table sugar. Because HFCS is structurally different from sucrose, it is metabolized differently – resulting in extremely easy weight gain and a higher threat of diabetes, another current epidemic.

At this screening, two local speakers will briefly present info on xylitol and stevia – alternatives to HFCS.

Our young heroes were students of well-known author and Slow-Food advocate Michael Pollan who states: "Food is a powerful metaphor for a great many of the values to which people feel globalization poses a threat, including the distinctiveness of local cultures and identities, the survival of local landscapes and biodiversity."

Imagine for a moment all the benefits of feeding your family organic food produced by local, sustainable farmers proud of the tasty, healthy, corn, carrots, squash and other veggies they grow!

This film earned widespread and enthusiastic praise. The Boston Globe extols "King Corn" as "an enormously entertaining moral socio-economic odyssey through the American Food Industry." The Washington Post found it to be "funny, wise and sad".

As always this Second Sunday Cinema film is free, and as always it will be screened at the Clearlake United Methodist Church at 14521 Pearl Ave. near Mullen in Clearlake.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. for chatting with neighbors and grabbing seats and snacks. The film will start at 6 p.m.

More information is available at 279-2957.

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