environmental film

Check out these sometimes funny, always fascinating environmental film picks about farming, oceans, and your neighborhood church.

RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—The summer of 2010 was, officially, the hottest on record. We'll see if 2011 turns out to be another record breaker, but science suggests more hot summers are on the way. Hopefully, that alone is motivation enough to do something about global warming. But if not, check out one of these great environmental films about influential people who are doing everything they can to change the way we eat, drink, and even pray to improve the world around us. You'll be inspired.

#1: KING CORN (2007)

Hopefully, you caught the great food documentary, Food Inc., when it came out, and saw how corporate agribusinesses are dominating the food industry in ways that put our health at risk and pollutes the environment with concentrated animal-feeding operations, harmful pesticides, and genetically modified seeds. So, next on your food movie list should be King Corn, a look at how one simple crop became the basis for nearly every processed food and meat product on grocery store shelves. The two filmmakers, recent college graduates from the East Coast, document their year of growing an acre of Iowa corn then following their crop as it's turned into high-fructose corn syrup, food for industrial cattle farms, and processed food. It's a provocative look at our food supply, but the two directors are funny and at times goofy, so the movie isn't overly depressing.