@notthegoodgirl
I’m from Missouri, and what Big Ag and the gov’t has done to regular farmers is criminal. Big Ag is also to blame for the Colorado River running dry.
@lisam.willson1679
I am LITERALLY screaming, crying, and nodding my head with PURE JOY. As a soil science student and future conservation agronomist, I have been saying for YEARS everything that the Last Week Tonight team has reported here. There's much, much more to this than what they had time to cover, but the point being made here is that growing a heavily subsidized crop over millions of acres of what's left of our agricultural land in the way that it's grown and for the purposes it's grown causes MASSIVE damage to the land, the environment, our health, our economy, and our farm communities. This practice MUST STOP. Huge, huge thanks to John and the LWT team for bringing attention to this!!!
@oldred9122
For those wondering where our old friend Monsanto is in this episode, that company has been bought by Bayer
@kvr22_
As a native Iowan I'm really glad to see John cover this. The subsidies hurt small farmers and normal Iowans in the same way they benefit big ag. It's been one of the largest issues affecting our water sources and is one of the key ways big ag continues to control Iowa and hold oligopolies.
@syddlinden8966
Monocropping bad. Monoculture bad. Diversified and companion planting good.
@EveryCrazyDay
King Corn is such an underrated gem of a documentary. Both super informative and entertaining while also being very authentic to the whole vibe of the story.
@KuriusOranj
There was a corn field near my house when I was growing up. They eventually turned it into a subdivision. The new homeowners complained that the soil was essentially dust, and was nearly lifeless. Most struggled annually to keep anything alive in the yard. The corn farming had completely destroyed the soil.
@Martha-q8p1b
Thank you for covering this. As an organic gardener/ permaculture practitioner/ vegetarian and environmentalist, who has spent over a decade researching biodiversity/ nutrition/ soil/ etc....I just wish more people cared about the planet and health of the poor livestock. There are many terrific (disturbing) documentaries about corn. John Oliver, you are a national treasure! Thank you for being a wonderful, sane voice in the world!
@JaydonTobler
I remember I had a professor in my early years of college who told us: “You want to know how to lose a presidential election in 5 seconds? Just say ‘I want the US farming sector to be a free market.’”
@Ironraven001
I grew up a small organic vegetable farm that directly feeds 500 families year round, supplies 3 small grocery stores, and 10 restaurants with the majority of their freah veggies, all without commercial fertilizers, herbacides or pesticides, all on 10 acres of land. Spoiler, we have never been eligible for a single aubsidy. Feeding PEOPLE hasn't ever been the point of a farm subsidy, when i was in high school the largest recipient of farm subsidies was the Chicago Bulls player Scotty Pippen...
@aurum79argentum47
Here's an untold cost of growing corn: my Iowa grandparents spent 10 miserable years dying of Parkinson's disease in a nursing home. The incidence of this disorder is 6 times higher among farmers using pesticides around their rural wells. After a life of hardship growing America's crops crops, they had their they had their Golden Years taken away from them.
@andrewtexley448
I’m a 32 year old 4th generation farmer from northeast Nebraska. Pasture with cattle, hay fields, corn, soybeans, and cereal grains. Currently making the switch to certified organic, it’s been cool to learn how to farm that way, and to see the soil biology respond. I farm on my own since my dad (57) died in 2021 and grandpa died in 2022. My grandma still lives in her house on the farm and I take care of her. There are large complexities to the agricultural economy that aren’t covered ideal. But, I think it is important to remember is that farms, such as mine, are so far from consumers that it wouldn’t be possible to raise fresh “local” produce. The best way to better steward my farm ecologically would be to switch to only ranching, but with diversifying my crop rotation I can produce both grain and cattle while healing my soils
@masonvega
John Oliver screaming "What are you doing!" has become my favorite thing.
@TotalyKenyan
He forgot to mention that the corn subsidies in USA destroyed corn farming in Mexico greatly contributing to a lot of the current social problems in that country; including drug cartels, mass migration and displacement.
@stevelevy2845
As good as this segment was, I can't get "beans want to be it, oats want to f*ck it" out of my head. Watched it back three times, howled each time.
@jazzmasterjax83
John Oliver is the only person I can listen to talk about corn for this long
@mastma0321
I love that J.O. covered this topic! I come from a family that farmed for decades, and the subsidies have not only contributed to poor soil nutrients and erosion but also have inflated the value of farm land. My family has an 800-acre farm in Wisconsin that my Great Great Grandparents started 115 years ago, but sadly, it seems that my father's generation will be the last one to farm. When my grandfather passed away 15 years ago, he left the whole farm to my uncle, which was fine because my uncle was the one who helped support and ran the farm while he was alive. My uncle has two children who both went into computer engineering and now live in California and Arizona. When my uncle passes away, I'm fairly certain that the farm will be sold as neither child wants to farm. I've run the numbers every single way and can not come up with any profitable way to buy the farm. Most of the other farms around the area have been bought by corporations to farm or rented out. This has caused the land values to be untied to reality. My cousins would realistically be able to get $6-7 million for the farm now. I can't blame them if they took the money because they have no need or want to keep hold of real estate that they don't use. It's a shame because it would be nice to keep the farm in the family for another 100 years, but this is happening to multiple small family farms. Pretty soon, the only ones that will be able to buy farms are going to be massive corporations and other larger farms that will keep consolidating. To be clear, I'm not mad at my family because that's the hand they were dealt with, and they should play it to maximize their own benefit. I am salty at the government that they keep subsidizing farms of corporations, unprofitable farms, and farmers that do not have any business behind a tractor because they can not efficiently manage their farms.
@noamb.6491
I just published my senior thesis on the dangers of ethanol due to Land-Use Change earlier this year. Very awesome to see it get huge attention from John Oliver!
@ralphiegouch110
I'm a Kansan farmer, I've met Wes Jackson, worked in ag policy, and currently getting my PhD in agronomy. To say I'm in the middle of all this is an understatement...and John Oliver has nearly all of this correct. -Ethanol = Made-up BS -Corn Lobby is powerful -Subsidies mostly go to huge farms, all of which are divided into dozens of LCC/corps -Small farms still struggle. Many are failing and families are effectively in poverty. -We grow too much corn on land that can't support corn causing huge soil losses and nutrient runoff -Cattle die after eating corn for months...this is one thing that is actually incorrect, obviously cattle can't eat 100% corn and nothing else. If you only ate one specific thing for months, then you'd die too. -And for you city people, you can't 'just grow something else'. The choices are corn, wheat, sorghum, soybeans, and cotton/rice in some places. Everything you eat, like vegetables, require huge amounts of labor and markets that don't exist on the require scale needed.
@MrTJP777