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Eldora, Iowa (population 2,820) marked Day Six on our Nine-City Iowa Tour, and a big day in the U.S. Senate, too, where 79 senators okayed a not-so-new, no-so-different, decidedly unexciting $286 billion dollar Farm Bill for 2008.

The Senate killed one measure that would have reined in the size of the subsidy payment a single farmer can receive from the government. (Instead, the cap remains at a hefty $360,000).

And it whacked another amendment that would have stemmed the flow of subsidy payments to big farmers taking home more than $750,000 in a given year. (Instead, industrial farmers — often city-dwellers — can still make up to $2.5 million before getting cut off.)

The day before, the revolutionary FRESH Act died, too, and the Senate thereby waived goodbye to a bi-partisan measure that would have done away with corn and other commodity subsidies altogether…and replaced them with a new system of crop insurance for all farmers — even the ones that grow fruits and veggies.

With these headlines fresh in farmers’ minds — and ours — we had a lively floor debate ourselves.

Read about the Farm Bill news here or here, and then watch our Eldora visit yourself by clicking the King Corn logo above to see Entry Five of our Iowa Tour Video Journal.

Back on the road and driving southeast from Greene, King Corn’s touring trio forged ahead on their nine-city adventure…stopping in two of Iowa’s largest cities this week.

Along Route 380 between Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, the corn fields were buried under several inches of fresh snow, and the corn wet milling plants of Cedar Rapids pumped hot steam into the below-freezing air — and high fructose corn syrup into our food system.

Even so, those intrepid Iowans turned out by the dozens. And with the Farm Bill up for debate again in the Senate, the conversations turned toward the political…

Watch for yourself by clicking the King Corn logo above to see Entry Four of our Iowa Tour Video Journal.

Heading northeast from Sioux City, King Corn returned to the cradle of its cultivation on Monday, pulling up to Greene, Iowa for a packed screening at the Community Center.

The room was filled with familiar faces — Chuck Pyatt and his wife Hattie, Rich Johnson, Al Marth, and Bruce and Dawn Cheney were among them — and we received yet another warm welcome…on yet another cold night.

Watch for yourself by clicking the King Corn logo above to see Entry Three of our Iowa Tour Video Journal.

All aboard to Siouxland: home to the beautifully restored Orpheum Theater, where a crowd of almost 300 poured out of the snowy streets to watch King Corn on Sunday night.

Check out the Sioux City Journal’s rave review of the film here, and then watch our tour of Sioux City yourself by clicking the King Corn logo above to see Entry Two of our Iowa Tour Video Journal.

In its first stop in a nine-day barnstorming tour across Iowa, King Corn’s dynamic trio pulled into the little town of Algona (population 5,478) to screen the film at the old Algona Theater — now converted to the palm-fronded indoor golf center, Berte’s Back Nine.

The snow was blowing and the roads were slick, but Algona greeted us with unsurpassed Midwestern hospitality: hot kielbasa soup from a local sausage maker, cold drinks at Berte’s bar, and a turnout of about thirty local farmers, townspeople, and a hearty contingent of — who knew? — Barack Obama supporters. Best of all, they liked us!

Watch for yourself by clicking the King Corn logo above to see Entry One of our Iowa Tour Video Journal.

King Corn is pleased to announce its all-Iowa, nine-city barnstorming KING CORN IOWA TOUR, to run December 8 through December 16.

Bundle up, tell your neighbors, and come check us out in the great Hawkeye State. Almost all screenings are free and open to the public. And best of all, Ian, Aaron, and Curt will be there, blue truck and all. (If it makes it, that is.)

Here’s where you’ll find ‘em:

* Algona, Iowa — December 8: Berte’s Back Nine, 7pm

* Sioux City, Iowa — December 9: Orpheum Theater, 4pm

* Greene, Iowa — December 10: Greene Community Center, 7pm

* Waterloo, Iowa — December 11: Crossroads Theater, 7pm

* Cedar Rapids, Iowa — December 12: CSPS, 7pm

* Eldora, Iowa — December 13: Grand Theater, 7pm

* Cedar Falls, Iowa — December 14: College Square Theater, 7pm

* Clear Lake, Iowa — December 15: The Lake Theater, 4pm

* Fairfield, Iowa — December 16: The Co-Ed Theater, 11 am

Best of all, even if you’re not in Iowa (or you’re too snowed in to  make it to the theater), you can watch a video of each stop on the tour at our brand-new Current TV Iowa Tour site.

A special thank you, too, to the funders who made the Iowa Tour possible: The Fledging Fund, The WK Kellogg Foundation, and The Sysco Corporation.