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THE FUTURE OF FOOD

 

" GM WATCH " <info

 

Sat, 1 Jan 2005 14:42:27 GMT

 

 

 

THE FUTURE OF FOOD

http://www.gmwatch.org

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The following is part a review by Allan Baddock of the film The Future

of Food, and part an explanation of the background to the film by its

maker, Deborah Koons Garcia. It has just been published in Organic NZ,

the Journal of the Soil & Health Association of New Zealand (est 1941),

and it seems like a good note on which to start 2005.

 

EXCERPTS: Baddock - " A new documentary on the politics driving the food

industry is being tipped as having an impact comparable to last year's

Fahrenheit 911. It has already sparked a wave of community action

across the U.S. "

 

Garcia - " The response to the film has been overwhelming and positive.

It has appeared in top festivals like the Margaret Mead Film Festival

at the Natural History Museum in New York, has been taken up by food

lovers like Alice Waters, has been used by activists in thousands of

screenings in community centers, church basements and living rooms. It's

playing in theaters and organic gatherings, like EcoFarm and The Midwest

Organic Farmers conference. It's been screened by Jehovah's Witnesses

and Healthcare professionals. It's being used in benefits for GE Free

Hawai'i, The Organic Seed Alliance, Slow Food and many others. It's been

taken off to Bulgaria, Indonesia, Brazil - and New Zealand! If someone

has $20 and 5$ for shipping, they can buy and show the film. Theatrical

screenings are even better - community! "

------

The Future of Food

Must See doco arrives in NZ

 

A new documentary on the politics driving the food industry is being

tipped as having an impact comparable to last year's Fahrenheit 911. It

has already sparked a wave of community action across the U.S.

 

Organic and consumer groups are organising neighbourhood house parties

to screen the film and get around the reluctance of American television

networks and mainstream cinemas to show it. A similar grass roots

response driven by community groups is already emerging in New Zealand

 

" The Future of Food, " completed in July, highlights the role of U.S.

corporations and government in driving international developments in

agriculture, and the need for consumers to insist on having the final say

in determining what we eat. The film breaks down the science of genetic

engineering into explanations anyone can follow, outlines the

behind-the-scenes moves which opened the way for corporations to claim

patents

on the world's seed stocks, and hears directly from US and Canadian

farmers who have been forced to destroy family stocks of heritage seed

built up over generations and replace it with patented seed. The

images of

Percy Schmeisser dumping 10 tonnes of localised heritage seed will

break any farmer's heart.

 

But anyone who has any interest in the food on our tables should see

this film. Buy it. Borrow it. Get together with your neighbours and show

it. The science is sound. The revelations disturbing. The conclusions

remain for you to draw for yourself. Beware of drawing any conclusions

until you have seen it.

/Producer/Writer Deborah Koons Garcia has spent three years

making " The Future of Food " . Although she has been making films since the

1960's and runs her own production company, many New Zealanders will

recognise the Garcia name for her legendary guitarist husband Jerry, who

died in 1995.

 

Organic NZ asked Deborah what shaped her take on the food industry.

 

" In 1965, when I was 15 and in High School, I won a first prize for my

science experiment " Polyploidy in Plants " . I had treated some seeds

with the chemical colchicine and irradiated others. These processes

polyploided or doubled the chromosomes in each cell - an early form of

genetic engineering. I planted the treated seeds along with an untreated

control group. What was very clear was that the normal plants were normal

while the polyploids were larger, thicker, quite deformed looking.

 

The difference was striking. The scientists who judged the fair were

fascinated. The radish plants were the most obvious. I remember looking

at the two sets of plants and thinking " These I would eat, those I would

not eat " . I remember thinking " Things are going to get very strange one

day in the world of genetics and I want to keep my eye on it " .

 

Well, there is something now to keep our eyes on - a different and even

creepier kind of genetic engineering using viruses and bacteria to

bring patented DNA from one species to another: bacteria to plant,

fish to

tomato, human to rice, human to pig.

 

It's all being done now, and the people doing it intend that we eat

this. In fact, a lot of it we may be already eating. They intend no

choice, no way to say " this I will eat, that I will not " .

 

The changes that are going on now in agriculture are profound and we

stand at a crossroads. Because of the nature of this technology and

because of patent law now, the genetically engineered organisms

growing in

fields and test plots today can not only pollute our fields and food

supply but cross with any kind of plant and turn it into a genetically

engineered one, unpredictable, uncontrolled and owned by Monsanto.

 

Despite the benefits touted by industry, the four main commercial crops

which are engineered today - corn, soy, cotton and canola - are

engineered either to resist the spraying of the herbicide Roundup or to

manufacture a naturally occurring bacterial insecticide, Bt, in every

cell.

They are engineered to resist a pesticide or to be an insecticide. They

create more spraying, more resistance, more risk.

 

These new transgenic foods have never been tested for health. In the US

they are not labeled, but they are patented. If the seeds blow onto

your property and cross with your plants, your plants become the property

of, say, Monsanto Corporation.

 

I deal with these and many other issues in " The Future of Food " . I made

the film with the express purpose of informing people of what is going

on here - from the cellular to the global level - so they would have a

deep understanding of all the aspects of genetic engineering in

agriculture and would feel inspired to take action: like eating

organically,

supporting local farmers, and creating communities based on protecting

our agricultural heritage, our food.

 

The response to the film has been overwhelming and positive. It has

appeared in top festivals like the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the

Natural History Museum in New York, has been taken up by food lovers like

Alice Waters, has been used by activists in thousands of screenings in

community centers, church basements and living rooms. It's playing in

theaters and organic gatherings, like EcoFarm and The Midwest Organic

Farmers conference. It's been screened by Jehovah's Witnesses and

Healthcare professionals. It's being used in benefits for GE Free

Hawai'i, The

Organic Seed Alliance, Slow Food and many others. It's been taken off

to Bulgaria, Indonesia, Brazil - and New Zealand! If someone has $20 and

5$ for shipping, they can buy and show the film. Theatrical screenings

are even better - community!

 

I want a world in which everybody can say " this I will eat, that I

won't " . Actually, I want a world in which organic agriculture is

everywhere

and agribusiness with its toxic legacy is something like slavery, a

destructive condition we've evolved beyond. I want a world where everyone

has enough safe, healthy food to eat.

 

Everything that's wrong with trangenics, genetically engineered plants,

genetically modified organisms - whatever we call them - is summed up

in the idea of creating bananas engineered to contain a vaccine so

children in third world countries can get their vaccines by eating a

banana.

I cannot understand this. What if the child happens to eat several of

these vaccine-bananas one day? This would be after already having been

banana-vaccined as a baby.

 

Or there's that spermicidal corn growing in test plots in Southern

California. What happens when pollen from that corn floats right over to

the popcorn corn ? May solve the population explosion. Speaking of

reproductive issues, there are the pigs that have had serious

reproductive

failure after eating GMO soy. Humans are eating that same soy.

 

Who's in charge here? An out of control machine? What future are these

people planning for us? What has happened to their minds? Lots of

question marks, lots of work to do.

 

It makes sense for people in New Zealand not only to eat organically

but to work to protect your beautiful islands. The industry is turning

the islands of Hawai'i into a sacrificial zone. They have thousands of

test plots growing plants which create what? – pharmaceuticals, plastics,

chemicals? The citizens are battling in the courts to find out what is

even growing there - people who farm and eat right nearby. This has to

stop!

 

New Zealand, you are at a crossroads. Inform yourself. Protect

yourself. You have paradise there and it's important to save paradise,

for all

of us. It's what we in California are working for. May we all have

great success in this noble effort, everyone all over the world, everyone

who thinks, everyone who eats, everyone who cares.

 

Deborah Koons Garcia

 

Side Bar:

Deborah Koons Garcia began making films more than 30 years ago, at the

University of North Carolina, before heading to the San Francisco Bay

Area for a Master's in fine arts from the San Francisco Art Institute.

 

Other film projects include " All About Babies, " a series on early

childhood development, a feature called " Poco Loco, " and " Grateful

Dawg, " a

look at the musical collaboration of Jerry Garcia and David Grisman.

 

©2004 Deborah Koons Garcia & Allan Baddock

 

DISTRIBUTION CONTACT:

Lily Films, Inc.

P.O. Box 895

Mill Valley, CA 94942

T 415 383 0553

F 415 383 6852

info

http://www.thefutureoffood.com

 

 

 

 

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