Corn: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

our main story tonight concerns corn we

love it in all of its forms from caramel

corn to the Corn Palace in South Dakota

to the mascot of the Nebraska Corn

Huskers except not the modern travesty

I'm talking about the early one no not

that demon the original yeah that's him

the guy in regular clothes with an

enormous corn cop for a head asking the

question am I man or am I corn we love

corn so much we've even found a way to

make it a wholesome family activity this

Illinois Corn Maze is rural sprawl 28

acres in all with almost 10 mil of

trails we said if we're going to do it

why not be the world's largest the theme

changes every year that great aerial

photograph we want people to go wow

that's a magnificent picture our Beatles

maze in in

2013 I mean you could see the faces of

The Beatles fifth graders zigzagging

through a corn maze thinking we got to

find a way out or this field trip could

be our

last

wow that got dark quick although I think

even the Beatles would agree there is

just no better tribute to their legacy

than having terrified children wander

around Ringo's nostrils wondering if

they'll ever see their families again

and because of how much we love corn

appealing to the Corn Growers of America

has always been good politics

presidential contenders love to Pander

to people in Iowa from Obama standing in

front of a corn field to Mitt Romney

pretending to be intently interested in

an ear of corn to whatever George Bush

thought he was doing here there is a

long history of American politicians

being weird around corn but perhaps no

one has ever been weirder while

discussing it than this I just met

non-liquid gold you know where it was

Iowa it's called corn they have it's non

liquid that's my day you have more non

Liquid Gold they said what is that I

said corn they said we love that idea

you know that's pretty cool thought

isn't it that's a nickname in its own

way but we came up with a new word for

new couple of words for corn

yeah did you though because non-liquid

gold isn't so much a way of describing

corn as it is a way of describing

regular gold that's a level of non-

innovation Innovation that we haven't

seen since Lyft invented something

called lift shuttle which was and this

is true the

bus but he is right we are the world's

largest producer consumer and exporter

of non-liquid not gold in the world we

also produce more corn than any other

crop in the US farming it is a nearly 90

billion industry with Farmers planting

roughly 90 million Acres a year and in

case you're like me and don't really

understand what an acre is it might help

to know that cornfields currently occupy

nearly 5% of the land surface of the

contiguous United States and you might

already be thinking well so what that

means that America's well stocked for

the movies barbecues and House parties

where someone wants that Black Bean

Salsa thing why do you have to ruin a

good thing to which I say one it's a

calling and a Clarity of purpose and two

of those millions of acres of corn only

1% is made for direct human consumption

the rest is called field or Dent corn

which as these documentaries discovered

might look delicious but very much

isn't it's not very good

tastes like s yeah it's disgusting it

tastes like chalk I really thought it

would taste

better yeah it turns out sweet corn is

as similar to Dent corn as a chocolate

bunny is to a real bunny only one of

them actually tastes good raw now I

should point out Dent corn is used in a

lot of things that we do consume like

cornmeal and high fructose corn syrup

it's also used in Industrial Products

like paint Plastics but in recent years

such uses have only accounted for around

15% of what we do with Dent corn with

around 40% being used for Liv stock feed

and the final 45% becoming the gasoline

alternative ethanol but as you will see

while corn is incredibly versatile the

way we've incentivized farming it has

caused considerable Downstream harm

because it turns out Corn's utter

dominance of American agriculture comes

to the expense of our environment our

health and some of our farming

communities just listen to One scientist

who grew up farming sum up how he feels

about it I go by a field of corn looks

beautiful to me you know that that comes

from having grown up on the Kansas farm

if you're not aware as to what it is

that stands behind all of that

agriculture you can live with the

illusion that there's nothing wrong

right if you don't know what's behind

those stalks of corn you can easily

believe that there is nothing wrong but

I've already shown you that there could

well be a bunch of fifth graders

wandering around back there running low

on Supply so I think we're past the

point of the illusion here and given

that tonight let's talk about a few of

the key problems with corn specifically

how we subsidize it how we grow it and

what we shove it into and let's start

with the fact that the US is incredibly

well suited to growing corn as this

professor explains in a bizarre walkand

talk it's really a tropical crop warm

season crop but the growing season here

the precipitation the rainfall that we

get the amount of light that we get

all those things combined to just be a a

wonderful perfect environment for it to

grow in what is happening there whose

idea was it to make him do that you know

what would make this point about the

perfect climate of the Corn really land

for people Professor Roger Elmore being

aggressively groped by horny stalks of

it but while chemical fertilizers

careful breeding and new technology have

made Farmers able to grow massive

amounts of corn government policy has

also played a significant role by by

heavily thumbing the scale in

incentivizing what crops Farmers choose

to grow modern farm policy was born

during the Great Depression when Farmers

faced a crisis nearly a million lost

their farms in the first four years

alone and that is when FDR's

Administration passed legislation to

drive the price of farmed Goods up

during times of over Supply by doing

things like paying Farmers to plant less

but a key turning point came in the

1970s thanks to in large part to a man

named and this is true Earl

butts his nickname was actually Rusty

meaning he was known as and this is true

again Earl Rusty

butts anyway buts who was Nixon's

agriculture secretary disagreed with the

policy of paying Farmers to reduce

Supply and sought to swing the pendulum

all the way in the opposite direction

with the new Farm Act we have

experienced a 180 degree turn in the

philosophy of our farm programs we've

abandoned the longtime philosophy of

curtailment and cut back to the new

philos phos opy of expansion we're going

to see the most massive increase in

production of farm products ever in the

history of this country yeah Rusty buts

a man who looks like he'd probably one

day have to resign after saying a racial

slur insisted everyone should grow more

and he did that only a few years before

unsurprisingly resigning after saying a

racial slurp but while he was still in

the job buts pushed hard for Farmers to

expand their operations and Nixon's 1973

Farm Bill reflected his philosophy

Farmers would no longer be paid for not

planting crops instead if prices fell

below a certain Target the federal

government would simply pay Farmers to

make up the difference significantly

reducing the risk of expanding your

operation and incentivizing Farmers to

go as big as they could these policies

help create almost immediate surpluses

in commodity crops especially corn and

similar policies still exist today and

on top of them the government now issues

subsidies to pay for part of a farmers's

crop insurance which provides coverage

to Farmers if their crops fail those

subsidies have amounted to over 60% of

the insurance premiums in recent years

and while these policies sometimes get

positioned as protections for small farm

family Farmers the truth is that is not

who reaps the vast majority of the

benefits which tend to flow to the

biggest producers in fact over the last

28 years the top 10% of farm subsidy

recipients received

79% of the subsidies with over a quarter

of them going to the top 1% meanwhile

the vast majority of farmers do not

benefit from Farm subsidy programs at

all and that is for many reasons not

least of which is that it's much harder

for small farms which might grow a wider

variety of crops to qualify for them

just listen to this family explain their

small farm situation we grow tomatoes we

grow basil we grow cauliflower we grow

broccoli we grow um chard and carrots we

grow the health healthiest crops we we

possibly can't I don't think there is a

subsidy for any of the crops we grow as

far as I'm concerned the only subsidies

out there are for the big grain

producers okay first let me just address

something quickly that's a up

looking carrot that that kid is holding

there but second it does feel wrong that

an operation growing healthy produce

wouldn't receive any subsidies even if

it is called s which sounds less like a

small family farm and more like a pH

balancing douche and so

big land owners have over the years

developed all sorts of ways to gain the

farm subsidy system for instance

payments used to be capped on a per Farm

basis so they simply started subdividing

themselves into multiple entities Each

of which could then collect the maximum

payout back in the 2000s the GAO pointed

out this problem noting that one land

owner in Arkansas David Brooks Griffin

had split his farm into 66 smaller ones

and seem to be listing his employees as

their owners just watch what happened

when one reporter tried to pay Griffin a

visit we wanted to speak with Mr Griffin

shown here leaving on his helicopter but

he refused so instead we set out to find

some of the people Griffin enlisted as

owners of those smaller Farms it took

some hunting for us to find Quia pots

I'm a partner in three different Farms

the government lists him as a part owner

of several of the smaller Farms but like

many listed as owners of paper Farms

pots appeared to be an owner in name

only the records indicate over 3 years

you received

$340,000 through the Farms through the

farm payments that's right but did you

put that money in your bank account yeah

no yeah of course no that is very well

said and if you're wondering how to tell

who the real owner of the farm is it is

not the guy who agreed to that interview

and it is the guy showed leaving on his

helicopter but USDA investigators said

that that was perfectly legal and

Incredibly some of the rules have only

gotten looser since then under the

current farm bill that per Farm payment

limit has been scrapped and while there

is technically a limit of $125,000 per

year per person crucially there is no

cap on how many people can reach the

payment limit so in addition to more

immediate family members like parents

siblings and adult children cousins

nieces or nephews also qualify for

payments the only real requirement is

that you must be actively engaged in

farming but it turns out even that

doesn't really mean much the definition

of actively engaged in farming is very

vague so you can call into a shareholder

meeting every now and then a few times a

year or do things like have some small

Financial Risk in the farm in order to

receive payments so you don't have to

ever set foot on a farm to receive these

payments that's true you don't have to

even set foot on a farm you can just be

the farm owner's cousin which as we are

all aware can be someone you barely know

a normal relationship with your cousin

is get their holiday card announcing

their third pregnancy think didn't they

say they hated kids hang the card on

your fridge and then throw it away once

you stop feeling guilty all of which in

my opinion doesn't entitle you to

$125,000 a year and look it is not like

corn is the only crop that we subsidize

in this way you could make similar

criticisms of wheat or soybeans but the

biggest share of these subsidies in

recent decades have gone to Corn far

surpassing that of any other crop

basically in the world of agricultural

products corn is the unquestionable

Superstar beans want to be it oats want

to it and and as the corn industry

has ballooned some of the biggest

beneficiaries haven't actually been the

farmers themselves but enormous

corporations from these four companies

that now dominate the nitrogen

fertilizer industry to these two that

now dominate nearly three quarters of

the supply of seeds for corn and the

production of corn has become

increasingly Industrial the methods that

we've used to supercharge its growth

have taken a toll on the environment

take nitrogen fertilizer it is needed to

intensively Farm one crop over and over

again especially if Farmers don't take

steps to protect the soil's natural

fertility and corn uses the most

fertilizer of all major US crops and

that can have consequences that many

scientists including that guy that you

saw earlier are very concerned about

because nitrogen fertilizer is the

biggest contributor to a problem that

happens when contaminated water on

agricultural land leeches into

groundwater or runs off into rivers and

streams and eventually gets into our

drinking water which can cause a

condition with a truly horrifying name

since the 1940s scientists have warned

that exposure to excess nitrates can

inhibit oxygen circulation in an

infant's blood consuming high nitrate

water will tend to strip oxygen out of

the blood and that's produces this blue

baby syndrome it's true there is a

condition called blue baby syndrome

where excess nitrates deprive kids of

oxygen and it can be fatal it is so

horrifying you're not even registering

that that man is called Randy beavers

which in any other situation would be

all anyone cares about and I do hope we

can all at least agree no child should

ever be turned blue unless they

disobeyed Mr Wonka's clear instructions

about not trying the chewing gum and now

suffering the only slight L

disproportionate consequences and it's

not just humans at risk here because

when that contaminated runoff eventually

washes into the sea it can cause serious

problems in there too as this local news

reporter chose to tell people in a

totally normal way here is a little bit

what it's like to be a fish this time of

year in parts of the Chesapeake

Bay can't breathe I can't

breathe that's because in the hottest

part of the summer as much as 15% of the

Bay has no oxygen in the water it's

called The Dead Zone bre what are you

doing the number one thing you are

taught as a child is not to put a

plastic bag over your head and he's

doing it on TV which is hugely Reckless

everyone has a plastic bag it's not hard

to get I've got one right here but I

know I know I shouldn't put it on my

head not even to make a point about the

lack of oxygen in the be Bay or about

how you shouldn't put a plastic bag on

your head on TV I I I could do it but

but but I shouldn't it's

tempting but I won't I won't children

are watching not

mine they said you couldn't pay us to

watch which for what it's worth I kind

of do all their money was first my money

but that said it's a no for my kids

anyway I I won't do it but this isn't

goodbye it's see you

later and it's not just the Chesapeake

the Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone that

at one point was the size of New Jersey

with studies finding Farm fertilizer is

the single largest contributor over

farming of corn is also led to severe

erosion in some areas which can lead to

hazardous dust storms in fact this storm

from last year in Central Illinois

killed seven people and was directly

tied to Farmers tilling their land to

plant corn and soybeans so we've talked

about how our subsidies for corn have

caused an increase in production and

we've talked about how we grow it which

brings us to the third set of problems

here what we put in in and remember 40%

of the Corn that we grow is going to

feed cows Hogs and poultry and while

livestock has always been fed some corn

the use of it has been turbocharged by

the fact that it is now so cheap as one

journalist has written taxpayer

subsidies for corn have served as

Financial jet fuel for a new breed of

industrial meat producers because feed

is their biggest cost but the thing is

these animals aren't evolved to have a

diet that is predominantly corn it's bad

for their digestive system as this man

in the car explains to those two

documentaries that you saw earlier in a

weirdly cheery way what are you eating

for lunch or uh today cornfed

beef do you actually know anything about

cornfed bee do you know what it does to

them what is it to the cabin um it's a

good thing they slaughter when they do

because it actually kills them to feed

them to make the meat like that so

they'd be dead in 6 months anyway eating

that stuff so it's just as well that

they slaughter really yeah it's terrible

where is this

every major confinement feed lot

everywhere honestly I kind of love that

guy he should be the mascot for every

fast food chain Ronald McDonald

this is the most accurate mascot

imaginable an impossibly American man

who thinks the food tastes good knows

it's tied to suffering and ultimately

just wants to bring his Wild Card energy

to the parking lot this is my Burger

King right here and the problems corn

causes for the digestive systems of

livestock can leave cattle more

susceptible to liver abscesses which is

a major reason why antibiotics are often

added to the feed of entire herds of

beef cattle a practice that the who has

discouraged and of concerned that it's

contributing to expanding antibiotic

resistance and I admit it is much less

fun to learn about that from me than it

would have been from that guy absolutely

housing his cheeseburger yeah medicated

feed might give us all antibiotic

resistant UTI bonap te cornfed

beef but maybe the most ridiculous way

that we use corn is ethanol which

remember accounts for 45% of our

domestic corn use ethanol used to be

known as gahle and while it's been

around since the 30s it was during the

1970s energy crisis that it really took

off with boosters like this Illinois

Agriculture official Leading The Way

with an unfortunate historical analogy

Mr Mavis why are you so high on gasal

well if you can tell I have some age on

me Charlene and it's probably since

Pearl Harvard the only thing that I've

seen that's been good for all of

America that's a pretty weird way to

characterize Pearl Harbor the surprise

attack that killed over 2400 people and

led to the US entering World War II but

you know what let's give that guy a

break he probably just misspoke I'm sure

he won't say it again it burns without

use of tetra ayad eliminates an EPA

problem it employs people in America it

takes an agricultural Surplus as kill us

and turns it into Dollars instead of the

storage it's it's that Pearl Harbor

we've needed okay

okay the first time he said it I thought

I don't think Al Mavis knows what Pearl

Harbor is the second time I thought

maybe I don't know what PE Harper is cuz

what is going on there was Al Mavis of

the Illinois Department of Agriculture

and Admiral in the Japanese Navy cuz I

don't know what the other explanations

could be I'm just saying it this point I

can only assume that the people in knew

him spent 911 tifully going Al would

have loved

this but Al maybe got his way basically

in an attempt to reduce our dependency

on foreign oil we passed the energy Tax

Act of 1978 which encouraged the use of

gahol or ethanol but what really set the

wheels in motion for our huge ethanol

industry today was the 2005 Energy bill

that created the Renewable Fuel standard

which mandated that a certain amount of

renewable fuel had to be blended into

the domestic gasoline Supply essentially

every gallon of domestic gasoline now

legally has to have at least a little

bit of ethanol in it the same way that

every pop album currently has to have at

least a little bit of Jack antinoff it's

just the law now understandably that

mandate created even more demand for

corn in the domestic market and some

like this Iowa farmer were thrilled by

that we've seen our yields rais quite a

bit in the last several years and and we

needed a place for this extra corn to be

going and and ethanol has filled that um

for us um I'm sure there's some

negatives but I guess I I I'm not

thinking of them right now yeah I'm sure

you're not but to be fair that is not

really your job unfortunately though it

is mine thinking of the negatives is

pretty much all I do here along with

speaking the negatives out loud and

making jokes about the negatives or one

modeling the latest suits from Sir

Michael gamon's habitatery for oddly

long gentlemen

and the truth is there are lots of

negatives when it comes to ethanol

mainly because the positives have been

so wildly overstated while ethanol

lobing groups have long argued that it

slashes Greenhouse emissions one recent

study found that thanks to the

fertilizer and land use changes needed

to grow the corn for it corn ethanol

produced under the Renewable Fuel

standard has a carbon footprint at least

24% higher than regular gasoline on top

of that the demand for ethanol is now

expanding production to areas where it

is much less suited to be grown places

like Texas and Western Kansas where the

shortage of water means that corn fields

need to be irrigated but that is a real

problem because corn is a water

intensive crop and it can take hundreds

of gallons of water to produce a single

gallon of ethanol and this is all

happening even as groundwater is being

dangerously depleted Nationwide and that

brings us back to our larger Point here

well well for some big farm operations

and especially the big companies that

benefit from corn there may be no

negatives to the current way that we

produce it for everyone else there

really are from dust storms to sick cows

to blue babies to this reporter from

your absolute

nightmares so what can we do well for

starters I would argue that we have to

rethink the Renewable Fuel standard

because it just makes no sense but on

top of that we might want to

significantly reset our farm policy one

idea that's been floated is to make the

federal safety net for Farmers

contingent on them having a strategy for

things like preserving top soil

controlling chemical runoff and reducing

greenhouse gas emissions and the good

news is the farm bill is actually

currently up for Renewal and we could do

all of that the bad news is as you have

seen there are powerful interests with

no reason to want the status quo to

change at all but it just has to and let

me be clear here this is not a takeown

of corn I know for large swats of

America it's an understandable symbol of

Pride and source of jobs and I also get

that it is frustrating to be lectured

about it or be panded to by a politician

pretending to be fascinated by its ears

but I do think it is long past time that

we shift our farming policy when it

comes to America's number one crop and

maybe the best way to drive this home is

to explain it in the way that people

seem to most enjoy being educated about

corn and that is watching someone be

absolutely assaulted by it because look

corn is as beautiful to watch grow as it

is to eat slathered in butter but unless

we force the

government and the handful of large

companies that control this industry to

change their priorities we're going to

be stuck where we are like a bunch of

fifth graders in the world's largest

corn maze begging for our lives

that is our show thanks so much for

watching we're off next week we're back

the week after that we'll see you then

good night how the

do I get out of

here is it

is it this

way and get off me get off me give me

some personal

space I don't like to be touched by

corn or honestly anybody