‘How America Works’ comes to Maryville farm

By Kay Wilson

Last January with snow and ice on the ground, the Schenkel farm, west of Maryville, welcomed a “How America Works with Mike Rowe” film crew to chronicle a corn farming operation.

The show made it to the screen in early May with a repeat of the show streamed June 4. The show is on Fox Business Prime, season 2, episode 3 for those who would like to view it.

John A. and son, John G. Schenkel, hosted the film crew on-site while they loaded a semi-truck with contracted corn; then they traveled with John A. to Lifeline Foods, St. Joseph, for a white corn delivery. The corn would be processed at the St. Joseph facility into corn chips. The premise of the show was to explain the production of corn chips with the upcoming Super Bowl in early February being a day of great consumption of the snack.

“Lifeline Foods were the reason we got involved,” said John A. “A couple of months before the filming day, they (Lifeline) contacted us since we’re one of the members.”

The Schenkel farm produces both white and yellow corn to fill contracts with Lifeline.

Most of the film crew were aware of the origins of corn chips; however, the duties connected to a farm raised some eyebrows.

“If the crew would have had more time, they would have liked to have filmed all the seasons of corn production,” said John A. “But there were time constrictions with the film crew so they settled for the delivery of corn from grain bin to Lifeline.”

Lifeline Foods CEO Kevin Kelly noted the company’s marketing firm’s film production group said they were needing a corn milling operation. The show included a large segment about Lifeline’s production of corn ingredients. The company contracts 25 million bushels of corn annually for the ingredients division and ethanol.