The Future of Food
by Deborah Koons Garcia
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Andrew Kimbrell, Deborah Koons Garcia, Dr. Charles M. Benbrook, Percy Schmeiser, Sara MaamouriDirector: Deborah Koons Garcia
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Cinema Libre
Movie Reviews of The Future of Food
Movie Review: Global warming could be inconsequential if we don't halt the production of Genetically modified foods.
Summary: 5 Stars
THE FUTURE OF FOOD is an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade and examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world's food system. This film is not just for food faddists and nutritionists. It is a look at something we might not want to see: Monsanto, Roundup and Roundup-resistant seeds, collectively wreaking havoc on American farmers and our agricultural neighbors around the world. Most people don't realize that genetically engineered foods have quietly slipped into much of the American food supply, mostly from corn and canola. They're in an estimated 60 percent of all processed foods. If this technology isn't challenged and if this corporatization of our whole food system isn't stopped, at some point all of the food crops will be contaminated and it will be too late.
At some point agriculture became industry, and then recombinant DNA technology upped the ante in the 1990s. Biotech breakthroughs allowed the gene-splicing of plants from different species or even plants and animals to create crops that resist disease or can withstand pesticides, even the "terminator" gene that kills off crop seeds after one season. Nationally, 100 million acres of GMO crops -- mostly corn, soy, canola and cotton -- were under cultivation by 2003. Chemical companies like Monsanto created Roundup Ready canola, and Bt corn with a spliced-in gene that makes its own insecticide. These chemical companies have succeeded in first patenting their own GMO seeds, and then slapping patents on a huge number of crop seeds, patenting life forms for the first time without a vote of the people or Congress. Thus letting new life forms loose on the land without long-term testing of the health effects and real government controls, especially labeling of foods.
In the film, Percy Schmeiser (Saskatchewan grain farmer) tells his story as one of the hundreds sued by Monsanto after pollen from the company's patented Roundup Ready canola from a nearby farm had drifted into and pollinated with his field. Monsanto accused Schmeiser of violating its Roundup Ready patent, even though Schmeiser never planted the GMO canola and didn't want it in his field. He fought the suit where many other farmers settled, but lost, and must now pay Monsanto to plant his next crop from his own seed. The film also travels to Mexico, where hundreds of varieties of corn thrive in different climates and soils, to show how GMO crops threaten such biodiversity. Here evidence is found that the genes of GMO corn had already jumped the border to contaminate native species. The uncontrolled spread of genetically engineered plants found far beyond the fields where they were planted is one of the strongest arguments the film makes for introducing safeguards.
The film questions why the U.S. government hasn't required GMO foods to undergo the rigorous testing required of medicines created by recombinant DNA technology, and why it has resisted efforts to require GMO labeling on foods, as Europe does. Suggesting an answer, the film ticks off all the government officials who have links to Monsanto, including Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Ultimately, people need to think more about the consequences of their food choices and to use their consumer power to push for labeling and regulation. While some people are seeking to ban GMOs, others think labeling would drive GMO foods off the market, as it has in Europe. One thing is for sure, long gone are the days when "we could grow healthy foods over here, and they could have their GMO food over there." With genetic engineering, it is probable that over a short period of time, it would contaminate all natural food crops which could be extremely detrimental especially in cases where the terminator seed is involved. This is a big deal. If you care about your family make sure the foods they eat are non genetically modified. Currently the only way to do this is by eating organic since it is not required to list GMOs on the labels of your food. The largest crops of GMOs are corn, soy, canola and cotton. If you eat fast food YOU are eating GMOs. If you drink anything sweetened with High Fructose Corn Syrup, you guessed it, all GMOs. If you suffer from unexplained allergies, try eating organic since many people are suffering from the effects of unknowingly eating GMO foods.
Terminator technology is currently the greatest threat to humanity. If it is used by Monsanto on a large-scale basis, it will inevitably lead to famine and starvation on a worldwide basis (This means YOU, ME AND THE KIDS OF THE RICH AND THE POOR). Billions of people on the planet are supported by farmers who save seeds from the crops and replant these seeds the following year. Seeds are planted. The crop is harvested. And the seeds from the harvest are replanted the following year. Most farmers cannot afford to buy new seeds every year, so collecting and replanting seeds is a crucial part of the agricultural cycle. This is the way food has been grown successfully for thousands of years. What is most frightening is that the traits from genetically-engineered crops can get passed on to other crops. Once the terminator seeds are released into a region, the trait of seed sterility could be passed to other non-genetically-engineered crops making most or all of the seeds in the region sterile. If that is not bad enough consider this. Phytochemicals (free-radical and anti-oxidants) are substances that plants naturally produce to protect themselves against viruses, bacteria, and fungi and to are essential for the next generation of seeds. The plant creates phytochemicals as it comes to its peak ripeness on the vine. The foods we eat today are already lacking in these essential elements due to the fact that the majority of our foods are picked before peak ripeness for transportations means. The reason it is recommended that we eat several servings of fruits and vegetables a day is because of the health providing benefits of these phytochemicals. If the terminator seed prevents the plant from germinating the vegetable or fruit itself will not contain any of these essential nutrients and our bodies and immune systems will be left open for attack from all viruses and bacteria. We will be defensless as plants are our only way of getting these essential nutrients. One last little tidbit of information for you. Guess who is the coowner of the terminator seed patent? The US Government. See the movie.
Summary of The Future of Food
There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America, a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat...Similar DVD Movies
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