Corn: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) 

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.’”

John Oliver managed in 25 minutes to do what Stephen King tried multiple times: Make Corn scary.

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

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!!!

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...

For those wondering where our old friend Monsanto is in this episode, that company has been bought by Bayer

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.

John Oliver is the only person I can listen to talk about corn for this long

Any time the word legal is prefixed with "perfectly" you know some shady shit is involved.

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!

The truth is distracted Americans owe a lot to John. Thank you for your research!

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.

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.

Randy Beavers. Rusty Butz. Tricky Dicks. This episode had it all!

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.

Having a dad that’s on a farming cooperative board, I can definitely say that the way they say “actively farming” is just as true as to how they choose board members each year. I’d wish John do a separate video on that cause all of these farming companies are cooperatives which are supposed to be led by actual farmers but this hasn’t been the case.

Monocropping bad. Monoculture bad. Diversified and companion planting good.

When I find myself in times of trouble The news anchor says to me: "This will be your last Field trip"

John Oliver screaming "What are you doing!" has become my favorite thing.

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.

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.

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.

Thanks HBO for making Thursdays the new monday.

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.

As a kid from Iowa, everyone experiences the frightening event of being lost in a cornmaze at least once. As an adult, everyone experiences being lost in a cornmaze, you're just too embarrassed to tell your friends

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!

Non-liquid gold 😂. No one had the guts to tell him “That’s gold, sir”

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.

Farmer here. Thank you for covering this.

As an Iowa resident, watching John Oliver trying to walk through corn was hillarious. I never realized "walking through corn" was a skill.

As an environmental scientist born, raised, and educated in Iowa, this is nothing new. In 1985 cargill opened a plant in eddyville Iowa specially to make high fructose corn syrup. 1986 most foods moved to HFC. Today over 70% of the worlds HFC comes from there. Iowa doesn’t feed the world, we fatten it. Ag is the most leveraged bailed out industry in our country. All at the cost of the family farmer.

This is one of the BEST JO productions I have ever seen. I have beenteaching this CORN DILEMMA for decades. Thanks,John.

As an Iowan, you missed one of the worst things about corn: “Corn sweat” In the summer, you can see a watery haze rising up from the cornfields, and that means it’s going to be ungodly humid.

Fun fact: I won a speech tournament hosted by the University of Nebraska in about 2004 with a speech critical of the corn subsidy. I was given one of those corn cob shaped hats as a prize.

I am a recent agronomy graduate from Iowa state and I couldn’t agree more

This is something I did a project on in grade 8 which was something like 18 years ago now. I can tell you right now my classmates did not care at all. The adult teachers also did not care. My mother worked at a federal facility monitoring freshwater pollution and remembers how all the scientist there had been saying for ages about how making corn as profitable as it is would cause serious issues with the great lakes, soley via the huge fertilizer required.

As an Iowan, I have multiple shirts from college that were given out at my school's rivalry football games (sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association), that tout all the uses of corn and how important corn is to the state. Their motto is "corn grows Iowa" when it should really be "corn subsidies grow big ag in Iowa". We're also one of just a couple states with rising cancer rates, most likely due to all the nitrates from farms in our water, but the state won't do anything to address it because of the ag lobbies.

BRO YOU'RE MAKING SO MANY ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTISTS SCREAM WITH GLEE

The guy eating a burger is a legend! I was hoping you got him to do the final message

Thank you for covering this topic! Growing up in Iowa, as far as the eye can see, it’s all corn and soybean fields, dotted with cattle lots and hog confinements. Our fertile soil came from the prairies that once covered 70-80% of our state. We now have less than 0.1% remaining of our remnant prairie, making our landscape the most biologically altered state in the country. That is all due to the extractive nature of corn farming subsidized by our government, taking more and more land, even the side of highways that once used to be a refuge for our dwindling native plants. We can’t continue farming in this way, without cover crops, without crop rotation, constantly tilling up the land. We’re losing our topsoil at an alarming rate. But it feels like too much money is in the game for us to make changes. Most of the land is held by big corporations that care nothing about the next generation, who will take what they can get and leave when it’s no longer profitable. And don’t even get me started on the insecticides and neonicotinoids used on the crops and on the seeds!

I come from a farming family and this all the way. So many of my relatives have had to grow corn (from Monsanto, of course) instead of what they want to farm and/or what our family has been growing in rotation for generations. It's extremely expensive and is simply grown for them to keep their farms, not because it's what they want to do. Also I'd love to see you guys tackle Monstanto again.

Teacher - OK kids. Field trip to the corn maze. Let me just collect those waiver…i mean permission slips.

The corn segment doesn't reveal much beyond what was in the 2007 documentary "King Corn" that it uses several clips from. But it does bring it to a new audience who might never have even heard about that documentary, and does it with the usual Daily Show humor. Anyone interested in learning more about the shady story of corn farming in the U.S. should give King Corn a watxh.

I grew up in the rural midwest. When I go back to visit I'm always surprised to see to relative dearth of locally grown produce. I asked a schoolmate who inherited a farm there why they didn't grow more diverse produce and things local people could eat. He laughed in my face.

Just last Tuesday, a dust storm caused a multi car accident that killed one and injured several. This is not uncommon during planting season and is forecast to get worse thanks to climate change. Keep up the good work, LWT staff and Jon. We hear you and appreciate your efforts

"I don't like to be touched by corn or honestly anybody". Non-liquid gold🤣.

I'm from Iowa and when people learn this, they usually ask if I grew up on a farm. Then I have to explain Agribusiness to them and that leads to a lecture about the true nature of corn. Now I'll just print out a QR code with a link to this video.

One acre of tall Corn puts out 5000 gallons of water vapor per sunny day. 5000 X 90,000,000 million acres is equal to 450 billion gallons of humid air over the central and north central and eastern USA. Minnesota never used to be so humid in July Aug and September before.

"The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan covers this extremely well, too. It's basically the first 30% of the book, and I've never looked at the entire industrial agriculture system the same.

My High School teacher showed my class King Corn. Changed my life. I have taken the info into my life every step of the way since. It profoundly affected me and how I understand food and nutrition, as well as how everything is interconnected. One of the rare moments when everything was coming together in life and a piece of media hit me at the perfect time. Very cool to see it mentioned.

As a Californian living in the desert communities around Pa lm Springs, water is on people's minds as well as our water bills. skyrocket. Aquifers are approaching all time lows. The biggest dams in the country are at all time lows levels! Even at the dam construction phase, water was being sequestered as the dams approached completion. We are at a water crisis. Remaining water feeds the rest of America''. We can't eat or drink ethanol. 45% of all corn goes to fuel by way of legislation and federal subsidies. It has to change before its too late.

As a plumber in the midwest, I always recommend installing a reverse osmosis system for drinking water. Nitrates are so dangerous

Almost lost it when he told the Corn not to touch him and needing personal space. LOL

"It's not goodbye... it's see you later" is the best repurposed, purposeful punchline. You and your writers are incredible.

Iowa native here :) Our obsession with the singular, beautiful monstrosity that is corn is unparalleled (or actually very parallel, so parallel that every row will never touch each other even if it went to the ends of the earth) compared to any of your other states' iconic symbols. Love the nostrils of Ringo especially for a nice place to chillax

I grew up in Iowa in the 70's and 80's. Corn was everywhere. Detasseling was how I earned money for college. The mascot for the local children's theater was an anthropomorphic ear of corn. Corn was everywhere. I did start to wonder- if Iowa has such great soil and climate- why don't we grow other things? Tomatoes. Lettuce. Things we can actually eat.

"Non-liquid gold" aka... just fucking gold.

The American corn is killing Latin American traditional corn. Latin American are losing red, blue and black & white. Even the purple and painted ones too. We need to protect the other corns to save traditional foods. Save the corn.

This is why I love this show. John always covers issues that are very important and affect millions but are often passed over for more attention grabbing stuff like politics and scandals. Excellent stuff!!!

I’m from Illinois and I find this validating because I wrote a speech for one of my college classes about this exact subject last year

I suggest that every decision maker in the Corn industry read "The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan. The story of the Dust Bowl is laid out in the most graphic way possible. The story of what led up to the Dust Bowl is a story about the worst lies being packaged as great opportunities for poor folks trying to make a living growing wheat, but finding no water. It is a cautionary tale, so dark I could not get all the way through it. Thanks John!

I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that growing corn for ethanol is energy negative. Like, it takes more fuel to run the farm equipment, transport, and process the corn than you get back out of it. In terms of energy, it would be dramatically better to replace cornfields with solar farms.

I live in Central IL and a DeKalb ad played before this video. ETA: We just had another major dust storm alert this week.

As an Iowan, I am VERY excited for this episode.

LastWeekTonight uploaded: Corn me: I am now interested in corn

How can you not love this show??? It is not only informative, but absolutely f*cking hysterical!!! It must be drowning in creative, clever writers.

I'm so grateful to live in the PNW where there are lots of small farms that grow a wide variety of crops and humanely raised livestock. It's such a shame that isn't the standard across the nation

I support that reporter, for simply really hammering how major this problem is by do to himself what "we" are doing to fish.

Thank you HBO for highlighting such an important issue

That reporter's dedication to his craft, damn near choking himself, should be nominated the David Carradine award.

The ability to talk for 24 minutes and 53 seconds without saying the name M O N S A N T O but talk about "powerful interests" in an entertaining, interesting and educative way is honestly impressive

I live in Central Illinois just north of where that dust storm hit. He didn't quite dive into how bad it was on top of the seven killed. Dozens of injuries that overwhelmed the small towns nearby and shut down the direct interstate route between Chicago and St Louis for hours. And that's just the surface level of what it did here.

Rusty Butz is an Ace Attorney name and I refuse to believe this person is real

I am so glad that this episode was made. I have seen so many small family farms in rural Washington and Oregon being eaten up and destroyed by great big commercial farms. It is absolutely heartbreaking. Someone needs to do something about these big corperate farms killing what was once a cornerstone of america. All of the little family farms would grow lots of things and sell them on the roadside or at farmers markets. These big farms take up all this land and then plant monochrops. There are serious concerns about how much more water these corporate operations are pulling from limited watertables. They use way more water than the little farms that were thete before. The water issue has reached a point where the state is even getting involved.

Thanks for this episode of Beavers and Butz Head

Thank you for covering this. I found out about the lack of aide for smaller farms year's ago in a debate class and was so shocked. I hope we can change it.

I have been spreading the word about Corn for years and its nice for it to finally get some mainstream attention, sadly this may not cause any change but at least more people are aware of it now.

My grandfather raised sweet corn. We harvested each fall. That corn, freshly picked and cooked, was the most delicious corn I’ve ever had in my life.

A wealth of information. Thanks John!

Imagine being excited to watch John Oliver talk about corn because that’s where I’m at this morning.

"Corn: Beans wanna be it, oats wanna fuck it." needs to be on a shirt.

16:02 the _second_ largest source of nitrogen runoff is suburban homeowners fertilizing their lawns. In the Chesapeake Bay specifically, some studies have concluded that lawn fertilizer runoff is the single largest source of nitrate pollution. Suburban lawns are killing our waterways.

Hey Bill Maher, thanks for your great show on general elections in India. Have to leave this comment on this video since RU-vid won't let me watch the other one from where I am. Thanks again, Bill Maher!

I'm so glad someone is talking about farm subsidies & fraud, it's not spoken about enough. I know this episode is about corn but hopefully they'll circle back to that topic again someday.

The amount of ways the most wealthy among us find ways to take more than they need should, at some point, cease to amaze me.

I live in Nebraska. Our Last Week Tonight Episode is finally upon us! All hail corn!

You educate, entertain, and advocate all at the same time. I never miss your new episodes.

Can we talk about how much food corporations THROW AWAY instead of donating? It's extremely evil

The dust storms in central Illinois seem to be a new environmental issue in the area. It's like the modern era of the dust bowl. The fields used to have year round vegetation surrounding each field but in recent years much of that vegetation has been removed. That combined with drier conditions has led to a rapid increase in dust storms. Something that I don't remember being an issue up until about 2-3 years ago.

Thanks John for spreading the word about nitrate leaching problems!! Farm country is in trouble

I was born and raised in Illinois, spent the first two and a half decades of my life there, and I would like to say that hearing someone unironically call Illinois "tropical paradise" made me die laughing bc that is so far from the truth 😂

I also appreciate that the news clip about the field trip “being your last” also had on the screen the phrase “cornucopia of fun”

I love that corn is getting the coverage it deserves! I wish they would have mentioned how during corn years (where the main crop in the area is all corn) it affects the weather and makes it incredibly humid and more stormy 😂

Thank you for going over nitrate pollution, I think it's something more people should be aware of. I studied a lot about the Natural Resources of my state in college, and nitrates leeching into the Ogallala aquifer is something we went over on several occasions. Our state monitors the nitrate levels in the soil and rivers, and regulates how much nitrate fertilizer can be used each year depending on what the data shows. If the levels become dangerous in an area, they can stop people from using that water, but it's still a problem we should continuously to try to improve. No nitrates in the water would be ideal, but we need food so for now they're a somewhat necessary evil. Hopefully we find a better solution for fertilizing crops someday soon.

Your video on modi in banned in India. Our dictator banned your video that you made on him. Please make more.

I was relieved to see John walking through the corn with eye protection. I was wincing watching the other guy with just his glasses, those corn leaves will slice your eyeball, like a papercut

It's sad that we learn more from John Oliver and Last Week Tonight then we do from the news

Small farmer here (yes, i grow corn). I ❤ John and all the work his team does. I wish I could fill in all the gaps, but even I don't know them all yet. However, if y'all got questions, I'll try to reply.

Thank you John Oliver and HBO for entertaining me so much. You guys are the best.

I live in a sugar beet area, same subsidy programs.... When the local beet farmer has a summer and a winter vacation home, and multiple vintage warbirds, you know something isn't right.