What’s Happening to Our Food?
Genetically modified foods are sneaking on to the shelves throughout supermarkets all across the globe, even under the label of “organic.” Without proper labeling and the distinction of genetically modified ingredients, it becomes impossible to tell what exactly we are putting into our bodies. If someone has an adverse side effect of a genetically modified food or ingredient, there is no way to deduce the source of the problem.
In a landmark case in 1980, the supreme court permitted the patenting of whole-scale living organisms. This opened the door for modern day corporations to patent every single plant or seed that exists. Corporations are now able to sue farmers for infringing on a patent, even if that plant spread on to his property from a neighboring field, or off of a truck by the wind, animals, or any other natural process. Farmers either are forced into huge settlements that include their silence, or become engaged in a drawn-out legal process that is extremely expensive to sustain. These farmers are no match for the legal teams of the large corporations.
The corporations have now been going into seed banks around the world and patenting plants that are indigenous to other countries. If global patent standards are passed, this would allow these multi-national corporations to sue farmers who are farming plants that their families and cultures have been growing for centuries.
THE FUTURE OF FOOD, a film by Deborah Koons, offers an in-depth investigation into these issues and offers a disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. You can buy this must-see video from their website and you can stream it here.
More about the film from the creators:
From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.
Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD 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. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.
FOOD, INC. is another film by Robert Kenner that offers a similar perspective on the U.S. food system. It exposes issues that have been hidden from consumers by governmental agencies like the FDA and USDA. There are interviews with farmers in the business, as well as other filmmakers and advocates who talk about the unethical treatment of animals, the politics of the U.S. food system and the safety of the food we eat.
You can watch the trailer for this movie at the official Food, Inc. website.
For more information on THE FUTURE OF FOOD documentary, please visit:
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Posted on 04/08/2009 09:50 pm