Luis Pedron: Was it a conscious choice on your part why fellow producers Curt and Ian were the on camera talent of your film? Why wasn't it three of you finding yourselves in the cornfields of Iowa?
Aaron Woolf: Well someone had to be behind the camera – Curt and Ian are a lot younger and it seemed fitting that they would stand in for a whole generation whose health is threatened by all this bad food.
Luis Pedron: Where did this kernel of idea come from?
Aaron Woolf: I had been wanting to do a film about food for sometime and we were all wowed to figure out that we had this family connection to Iowa - and that corn was at the root of a lot of our fast- and processed foods.
Luis Pedron: This film has a sense of films like Super Size Me and Sicko. Were you influenced by those films or similar ones?
Aaron Woolf: SuperSize me came out when we had already begun filming the project and Sicko came out long after we were done. But it's nice to be compared to such successful films!
Luis Pedron: As a person, what discoveries did you realize when you became a farmer producing corn? Was there a sense of enlightenment on your part in terms of being humbled by the experience?
Aaron Woolf: Well I think our respect grew tremendously for the farmers - and I think it is their voices that are most powerful in the film
Luis Pedron: How do you suggest we deal with diabetes and obesity? From your experiences and discovery what is the best way we should take care of our health?
Aaron Woolf: It is clear that what we eat has a great deal to do with these chronic diseases - and our present food system doesn't make it very clear what it is exactly that we are eating. That was part of the motivation for the film: to find out where our food comes from. It is also clear that our diminished physical activity is a major contributor to these illnesses .
Luis Pedron: Did you ever get to buy that acre of land in Iowa? Will you become part time farmers in between shooting your next film?
Aaron Woolf: The acre we will be "acquiring" will actually be put into conservation easement - which means that we won't be farming it - and neither will anyone else. I don't think the nation will miss an acre of corn.
Luis Pedron: Did you ever get tempted to make crop circles out of your corn field?
Aaron Woolf: We had a lot of ideas sitting there in Iowa for all those months but I don't think that was ever one of them.
Luis Pedron: Were there any funny anecdotes you had filming in Iowa?
Aaron Woolf: There were some strange episodes near the corn palace which probably couldn't be reproduced here and now. Suffice to say a lot of stuff goes down in a year long shoot!
Luis Pedron: Have you shown this film to the town you shot this film at? What was their reaction?
Aaron Woolf: The responses have mostly been very positive from the friends and family in Iowa we've shown the film to - we really look forward to the theatrical shows in the Midwest.
Luis Pedron: Have you shown this to anyone in the medical and academic field? How did they react?
Aaron Woolf: The first screening we ever did of this film was at the Medical College in Auckland New Zealand - the responses were great, I think mostly because the film compared favorably to the kinds of dry journals people there were used to studying!
Luis Pedron: What is your favorite scene in the film and why?
Aaron Woolf: I love when Ian and Curt try to make industrial corn syrup in our Iowa kitchen. I think it really shows how crazy the process of food making has gotten in our country.
Luis Pedron: If you were the Agricultural Head right now, how would you reform this practice of over producing food?
Aaron Woolf: I think we all need to think about the kinds of things we incentivize in the Farm Bill – it's really our decision. If we can speak effectively through our legislators, we can tell them we want a Farm Bill that favors fresh produce over happy meals, one that preserves our soil instead of one that contaminates our water-table with mega feedlots.
Luis Pedron: You mentioned ethanol can be produced from corn, as far as you know has the US government considered using the over abundant corn that we have to produce alternative energy like ethanol?
Aaron Woolf: I think we have to be very careful imagining that ethanol from corn will solve our energy shortages -- despite our glut of corn, think how much fossil fuel it took in the film to produce that acre of corn!
Luis Pedron: Now that more and more people know about over eating and eating fatty and sweet foods are actually bad for your health, do you think people will think twice and for a change take care of their health?
Aaron Woolf: I guess we hope our film will be part of that discussion
Luis Pedron: What is the selling point of your film and why?
Aaron Woolf: I think the film works both as a real investigation and as a credible narrative - it was a real trip to look into America's food system and we hope the story makes for a pretty engaging ride.
"King Corn"