April 2, 2010

The Future of Food

Just watched the movie, The Future of Food. It's crazy scary. At one point I turned to Rob and said, "This is a horror film!"

The first half of the film gives a scathing review of Monsanto's actions for the past few decades. The film pretty much agrees with what was said about Monsanto in the movie, Food Inc., but it includes damning documentation from Monsanto itself.

Within the discussion of Monsanto, several overarching issues are also addressed, most especially the patenting of life and the loss of property rights (of farmers). Even when a farmer and his predecessors have been growing and modifying a crop for generations, if even a little bit of Monsanto's patented gene gets cross-pollinated into it, Monsanto can take you to court for patent infringement. In such a case the farmer is required to destroy the seed that his family has been growing and modifying for generations because Monsanto didn't keep its patented seed from intermingling with his family's seed (and Monsanto is not required to keep its seed out either).

The movie then rolls right into the problem of genetically modified foods -- especially as they proliferate outside of the lands where they've been planted. Food allergies are a problem because genetically modified foods are not labeled in the U.S. and therefore can be unknowingly consumed. And there's the problem of a genetically modified organism containing the terminator gene (a gene that renders the next generation of that seed useless for planting) spreading into the world at large. (This is where it started to sound like a horror movie. Can you imagine what would happen if a large percentage of the world's crops got inadvertently crossed with the terminator gene? That would be our last year of those crops. The following year would be one of mass famine.)

Anyone who's concerned with the property rights of the individual, the health of yourself and your children, or the health of the environment, should watch this movie. ... Actually, if you eat, you should watch this movie.

11 comments:

  1. W.T.F.? This does sound like a horror film.

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  2. You have a typo in there: the link should read "Food, Inc."

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  3. I think I'd recommend watching this flick first, then watching Food Inc. if you haven't seen that yet. Food Inc. offers hope for a way out of this whereas The Future of Food just scares the living snot out of you (and rightly so if what they say is true).

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  4. Monsanto is evil. Terminator seeds ... need to be Terminated with Extreme Prejudice. Now, of course, one can understand why some starving people in Africa reject offers of Free Stuff... because it's not free. No, not free at all.

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  5. wow. this does sound scary. thank you for telling us about it!

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  6. it reminds me of the company stores that coal mining companies (and other industries?) had. the only place to shop was the company shop, but the prices were so high you couldn't buy enough to survive, and you couldn't save enough money to move elsewhere and find another job.

    only, this is a "company store" on a global scale. and with so few companies having such a near monopoly on seed, we're talking about corporations that will hold the lives of millions in their hands.

    ... and the supreme court recently decided that companies can continue to give unlimited political donations, ensuring that the government will continue to make rulings that favor these large, monopolistic corporations to the detriment of property rights and human life. (odd, something about "life and liberty" pops to mind, but i must be thinking of a SciFi or Fantasy book i've read recently.)

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  7. Saw it already, Monsato is insane. It's like a mad scientist of a company trying to take over the food world.

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  8. and we're all just going along with it. oh. happy. day.

    *sigh*

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  9. If you could show the directors of a company that exterminating all human life on planet earth (without calling it that, of course) would make money for their stock-holders...

    They would do it.

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  10. Thankyou for your input today, and on this in the last month. The guy who told me about Food, inc. - I passed on your and Crinkster's suggestions.

    See you around.

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