Why the Soviet Union was obsessed with corn

Original video here: https://youtu.be/9w7WrXsHkIQ

How this video happened

I think I saw Khrushchev's corn-adoring picture on the cover of Life and said: I have to do a video about this now. I'll admit that a combination of logistical delays and worries about the commercial viability of corn content (corntent?) meant that this idea cooked for a while.

But that time delay also led to lots of great props, interviews, and a much richer story than the one I envisioned when I saw the picture.

Check out more

Here's a link to the reaction video (for some paid tiers).

The man who snuck into Garst farm

The international summit between Roswell Garst and Nikita Khrushchev featured one notable guest. Well, a couple — Adlai Stevenson was there. But so was Jack Christensen.

Featured in Life Magazine, October 5, 1959, Christensen told the story of how he snuck into the summit — and nobody noticed. "I just wanted to see what he looked like," he said.

As he wrote in Life Magazine, he was living about 100 miles from Coon Rapids when he heard about the big visit. It seemed worth a try to sneak in. And he did. Here he is, at left, with Nikita patting his tummy. Supposedly, Nikita said "Now there's a real American."

Here he looks on, arms folded, as if he completely belongs. Roswell Garst and Nikita chat.

Here's a group shot he snuck in on.

And here he watches as the scene unfolds.

How did he do it? Moxie and fitting in. He and a buddy just walked in and magic happened. In the article, he reveals that he once snuck onto a football team and showed up at the 1956 Democratic Convention. In his obituary, published in 2003, his said that he once went to Cuba without telling anyone just to see what it looked like.

He told the story in tandem with his Life article on the panel TV show I've Got A Secret. The photo of Nikita patting his tummy was so famous that the panel guessed his secret quite quickly. Christensen said he handed Khrushchev the corn on the cover of Life, despite the purportedly large security force present. Christensen was one of only seven people to go with Nikita into the cattle pen.

I couldn't find too many notable stories after that. He eventually moved to Texas from Iowa, and there isn't a photo of him, say, sneaking up on Ronald Reagan or shaking hands with Richard Nixon. You might be wondering how Life  even learned about the story. Simple. Jack Christensen called them up and told them.

Sources for the video

Photo and video sources (many of which are blessedly creative commons) are on the YouTube page. For info:

• Check out Aaron's book about the corn crusade for a much more in-depth and scholarly look at the issue.

• Laura was kind enough to share her wisdom and, if you're in Iowa, her writing about state politics is likely a must-read.

• Liz runs the Whiterock Conservancy, which seems lovely. Do check out this podcast with her. You get to learn a lot about her work from it, and you'll also hear longer versions of some of the stories I had to ask about.

• Didn't read this whole book, but it provided a few backup resources for the Virgin Lands map.

• Roswell Garst's letters are available to read! I include one in the video.

• The CIA docs in the video literally just come from searching "Garst" and "Corn" here.

• Russian photos are via this site. Pravda comes from the Pravda Digital archive (you can access this a variety of ways). It was pretty sweet to use various AI translation sites to search in Russian and translate various signs and things on images. I'm really careful in how I use this stuff, but for basic stuff like searching a Russian site for corn pictures, it's pretty awesome.