Eric Schlosser says, "Lake and his wife, Alyssa, sift through the new tapes that arrive at their office each week from round the world. The people who appear in these videos are of every race, size and shape. Their bodies are different from those seen in typical hard-core films, in which the performers often look like parodies of the reigning masculine and feminine ideals."

People who send tapes to Homegrown hope to break into the porn business, or earn a little extra money, or show off. The company pays them $20 for every minute of video it uses; about half the tapes that Homegrown receives are eventually released in some form. "In a sense, the company serves as a clearinghouse for the democracy of porn, supplying hard-core videos by the people, for the people."