Jon, First off, I would like to thank you for your love of movies and for inviting me to post on your site! Second, I'd like to point out, not that you won't be able to tell, I'm not the most elegant writer/reviewer. My memory is bad about details, so I’ll probably be the guy that tells you how it made me feel, or how it convicted me more than a formal review of events that went on in the film. Never the less, here goes!
The Future of Food convicted me on all fronts. The movie basically starts out on the idea that food has been genetically changed... wait a minute...listen… I'm not going to give details… I'm just not good enough to do that. Here's what I can say...the company that makes Roundup (Monsanto) has cornered the market on weed killer and seeds for crops. They have genetically engineered seeds that prevent Roundup from killing the plants. With that said they have patented their seeds. And farmers have to buy licensing to use their seeds. The company strictly enforces their patent and product by having people out on the fields all across the US checking to make sure farmers are using their own seed, or have license to use their seed. The problem with that is, seeds get pollinated by nature... so if Joe the farmer across the street is using a Roundup company seed and it blows over the street and starts growing in my field, I can get sued... and they do sue... I believe they said they have sued 9000 farmers in the United States for not having their license to grow their seed.
The Second part of the movie goes into how seeds, insects and animals are genetically engineered and it is a SCARY process. They invade cells with viruses like e coli and other stuff, then basically morph genes together to make a product. None of this stuff has been tested long term. There are so many unknowns, but we're eating it on a daily basis. My theory has LONG been that we are getting sicker and sicker from allergies from what we are doing to the environment and this includes crops and livestock. The FDA has been ordered, it says in the movie to pretty much stay out of the business of regulating these genetically modified crops.
Anyway, the thing about this movie is: it is a MUST see... I don't think we can go on like this, we’re ruining whole cultures... and the best way we can protest is to start buying organically grown from local farmers or super markets. Take away the demand for this cheater way of growing crops and ruining whole species of plants.
Darin Christian
The Future Of Food
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Great review! It's interesting to hear again about the crazy stuff Monsanto is doing with seeds and genetic engineering. Another documentary, The Corportation, talks about what Monsanto was doing in India, genetically engineering "super seeds" that would produce a good crop but would not produce any new seeds. So year after year, farmers in India had to go to Monsanto to buy more seeds. That is nothing short of criminal! (Thankfully protestors were able to kick these seeds off the market.)
Historically the general public has viewed Microsoft as a sinister corporation because of its agressiveness. Hopefully, films like these will educate the public about an even more sinister corporation, Monsanto.
Post a Comment