Evan Zhao

Documentary Reaction Paper

Extended Definition of Excess
Adv Comp - Ashlock 1
Excess Death by Corn
Somewhere in the midst of the economically disenfranchised, someone is starving to
death. Now, one in three American adults is struggling with the opposite being overweight
(Obesity). We bathe in excess. Excess of what? Evidently, it is an excess of corn that leads to
Americans being slightly heftier than the average human excess is our biggest first world
problem.
In fact, the entirety of the modern food industry is rooted in excess. In the early twentieth
century, the U.S. government intervened in the food industry to maintain constant food prices.
This model became obsolete as American values shifted to become more consumption-oriented.
Towards the mid twentieth century, trailblazers like Earl Butz transformed the food industry and
shifted the focus away from control and towards excess, the name of the game became
maximizing the amount of food produced at the lowest possible price.
Today, in the time it takes to watch an episode of How I Met Your Mother of Netflix,
over 30 thousand corn plant seeds can be planted with the proper equipment. Corn has been
selectively grown so that the modern commercial corn plant maximizes the amount of yield per
unit of area rather than exhibiting any nutritional qualities. The implications of this cannot be
underscored. The golden fields that landscape Iowa are not a reflection of a nutritious grain being
grown. Rather, it is simply calories being grown as a raw material on a massive scale. In 2014,
the estimated amount of land used for corn production in the US amounted to an incredible 91.7
million acres. Soy occupied a whooping 81.5 million acres, and wheat occupied another 55.8
million (Prospective). To put those numbers into perspective, note that the entire mass of Italy is
only 72 million acres (World).
Excess does not seem to end at production it permeates into consumption. A byproduct
of U.S. obsession with excessive consumption is that in 2012, nearly one in ten Americans had
been diagnosed with diabetes. In the film King Corn, it is revealed that a prevalent factor in the
development of diabetes is the excess of consumption of high fructose corn syrup. It turns out
that simply having one soda a day doubles ones likelihood of developing type-2 diabetes. This
level of excess has become deadly for many Americans; 234 thousand deaths related to diabetes
were recorded in 2010 (Statistics).
Even the emblem of excess in American food, McDonalds, is really just corn in disguise.
King Corn revealed that not only is the soda infused with calories from corn sweetener, but the
archetypal fries and symbolic burgers are all rooted in the corn industry as well. Fries are tossed

into corn oils which make up most of their caloric intake while the beef in McDonalds burgers
is corn-fed, containing an appalling seven times as much saturated fat as grass-fed beef contains.
Our generation is projected to be the first to have a lower life expectancy than that of our
parents. The excess culture that we live in drastically alters our health and takes our privilege to
such an extent as to hurt ourselves. Excess had often been something to be celebrated, but excess
can indeed become too excessive. Our biggest problem with excess today seems to be a flirtation
with death rooted in too much corn. Ask yourself again. Excess of what? Excess of death by corn.

WORKS CITED
Prospective Plantings. Washington: Dept. of Agriculture, Statistical Reporting Service, Crop
Reporting Board, 1977. United States Department of Agriculture. 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 01
Oct. 2014.
"Obesity and Overweight." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 14 May 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
"Statistics About Diabetes." American Diabetes Association. N.p., 12 June 2014. Web. 29 Sept.
2014.
"World Factbook." Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency, n.d. Web. 29 Sept.
2014.