[Insert Clever Corn Pun Here]

Watching King Corn was a massively eye-opening experience for me. As an "Animal" major, I never really gave any thought to where everything I ate and drank came from. So, in learning that corn has its fingers in virtually every aspect of the edible industry, I think I'll be much more conscious in my Caloric decision making.

The most surprising thing I noticed throughout this whole documentary was that despite how bad the system may seem now, all it is is the result of a generational butterfly effect. If you look at various generations throughout history and how they were raised, you'll often see direct results from the ideas that they formed as a collective society as they grow older and more influential in political and entertainment-related fields. This corn crisis is no different. Being raised in the Great Depression, in the time of hard labor, it's no wonder that that generation focused its efforts on creating cheap, easily obtainable food. Who knew what a slippery slope it would be decades later?

In all honesty, however, I don't think our prognosis as a whole is very favorable. Sure, we're the youth, and we'll change the world, and all that jazz we've been fed since we were little. But think about it: The ideas and beliefs that were formed to help the problem at that time were formed in a generation that knew nothing else. They lived in such a hard time that their beliefs were hardwired into their systems, and when they started to gain power, they did what they could to alleviate it. They believed in their solution, but, more importantly, they believed in their problem.

Now, if you classify us VISTA's as one generation, let's say mid-80's to early-90's, and include everyone else born in that period with us, what problems have we faced? What have we seen in our time that has inflicted us with so much pain that we've devoted our lives to correcting it? What, if any, hardships as a generation have we seen? We were raised in a very prosperous time. I personally struggle to think of anything that directly affected our generation at such a universal level that any kind of idea or belief has been hardwired into us all. Most of us only believe what our parents tell us or what's on the TV or internet anymore. How many of us are educated enough to see the problems our world is facing now? Too few.

If anything, I think what really unites and defines us is complacency. I don't see us fixing that anytime soon. Maybe one day, once we add to the problems of the generations before us, the generations after us will start cleaning up our mess. But honestly, don't you think that at one point, someone was saying that about ours? It's a vicious cycle. It's a slippery slope. Whatever corny cliche you decide to use, the problems need to be brought to light. They say change starts with a few, but I refuse to believe that until the many align themselves with the few. Only then will we actually be able to see change. Will it be our lifetime? That's the million-dollar question.