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Check out a documentary called The Future of Food. I won't claim that it's completely unbiased, but it features commentary from a number of small family farmers and does explain some of the science behind genetically modified food crops. I grew up on a farm myself and my parents still farm and the stuff that Monsanto is doing makes me mad as hell, both as a consumer and for what they're doing to the little guys (family farmers). IMHO Monsanto is a shining example of corporate greed and massive corruption. They aren't even all that bashful about it.

If you want to know more about how genetic modification makes extortion against farmers possible, see the movie, "The Future of Food" .

The movie is about a plan of a big corporation, Monsanto to get control over the food supply, using its patented genetically powerful weed-killer Roundup, and patented seeds that are resistant to the weed-killer.

This is how Monsanto does it: Monsanto patented and sells a genetically modified versions of normal food crops. Inevitably, some of those plants spread and begin to grow in another field near where they were planted. The corporation then sues the farmer in that field for patent infringement. Amazingly, the courts find in favor of Monsanto, even though the farmer had no involvement in the spread of Monsanto's genetically modified plants; it is the nature of plants to spread.

The farmer either begins to buy genetically modified seed from Monsanto, or loses his or her farm. Then the same situation happens again, around that farm.

The Future of Food is a 2004 documentary film which makes an in-depth investigation into unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly made their way into grocery stores in the United States for the past decade.

The Telluride Daily Planet wrote, "This stylish film 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."

The film reports the legal action against a number of farmers in North America by Monsanto. The defendant of the Monsanto Canada Inc. v. Schmeiser case is interviewed.

"If you eat food, you need to see The Future of Food", wrote Newstarget.com.

The film was written and directed by Deborah Koons Garcia, and produced by Catherine Lynn Butler and Deborah Koons Garcia. You can view an interview of Ms. Garcia produced by The Massachusetts School of Law: The Future of Food: What Every Person Should Know.

I suggest watching the documentary, "Future of Food"(requires NetFlix account). The documentary is fairly one-sided, but describes the tactics that have been used.

Alternate movie site: http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

GMO-related concerns aren't "nonsense." You might want to do a little research on that topic before you go spouting off about it. For starters, watch this documentary: http://www.thefutureoffood.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU8XrioF4CE Then, read this (enjoyable) book: http://www.michaelpollan.com/omnivore.php Beyond the immediate (human lifespan) health concerns, there are patent nightmares aplenty. GMO plants are treated as IP. Seed from the GMO plants contaminates traditional farms, the farmers are sued by large companies like Monsanto, and the farmers are forced to destroy any saved seed as part of the eventual settlement. As a result, we're losing biodiversity at a shit-your-pants rate. If a slate-wiper disease strikes zea mays, we've got a real problem. The health concerns are real. It's not that eating some GMO canola oil will kill you; it's that almost all of our food is derived from the same few plants, and "minor" changes to the plants can have major effects on us. Further, we have the insane situation in the U.S. that GMO foods don't even have to be labeled as such. Most of us are stuck either paying through the nose for pseudo-organic and heirloom foods, or else eating... whatever the corporations feed us.

There is an interesting documentary that details much of what this post talks of. I would encourage everyone to check it out if they have the chance to.

The documentary "The Future of Food" is a great place to start.

Here are the first and second ten minutes of it on YouTube. Others are there as well, but these deal specifically with Monsanto and patents (but the whole one and a half hour documentary deals with it as well).

There is plenty other information on the net about Monsanto and their practices.

After seeing the Future of Food and reading up on Monsanto, I no longer buy any of their products or those of their subsidiaries if I can avoid it. They are cornering the market so much in food, seeds, and pesticides that it's hard to avoid. So now I'm trying to avoid pesticides altogether.

If you're unaware of the dangers of GMO foods and the biotech industry that produces them, "The Future of Food" is an excellent documentary to get you up to speed. I would highly recommend it.

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

An awesome and very watchable resource about GE crops and Monsanto's role is a movie called "The Future of Food". The trailer can be found here http://www.thefutureoffood.com/. Do you know what a terminator seed is? Find out.

...now, how about stopping attempts to require microchip implants (PDF link; sorry) in livestock which would render the few remaining family farms untenable and complete agritech's stranglehold on our food supply.

The first sentence states that monopolization of that knowledge is bad. The second one states that not granting a monopoly to those cultures is bad.

I didn't read that as what he was saying. It looked more like he was attacking Monsanto, ADM, et al for going to a country like Mexico, taking samples of the corn people have been planting there for centuries, patenting those seeds, and then suing the farmers for doing what they have been doing for hundreds of years to force them to buy GM seeds that they can't replant. He's not saying the Mexican farmers should be the only ones using those seeds. He's saying agritech companies shouldn't be able to sue them for continuing to use those seeds just because the company got an absurd patent on centuries-old technology.

Think Microsoft, RIAA, SCO, MPAA, etc. are evil? What happens to our bits is nothing compared to what's happening to our food...

I believe god owns the source code to our dna.

Perhaps we should let Monsanto and all the other asshats who keep patenting genes that they simply discovered in nature so they can sue others for patent infringement.

One of the most informative and somewhat chilling documentaries on the subject: The Future of Food. Shows clearly how a few multinational corporations have taken over most of the global food supply. Should be of interest to anyone who eats:
http://thefutureoffood.com/

I saw the above titled movie last night at a screening in New York. It examines Monsanto's extensive attempts to control both the global food supply and departments of the US government through the introduction of genetically modified seeds.

More info at the movie's website.

I've posted about this before, but, it's even more pressing now. there is a Documentary about to come out called The Future of Food that covers this case (interviews with Percy, his lawyer, footage of his farm, how he works, etc), others like it, and the entire GMO scene in great detail. After seeing the film, knowing that Monsato has won is quite chilling.

The film has made me change what I eat both from political and heath standpoints. It's very sad that Percy lost his case, not jsut for him, but for what it means Monsanto (and Dupont, etc) can do with the full backing of the law.

The film is showing at Silverdocs in DC (June 16, 2:30pm), the Telluride Film Festival (unknown showtime), and a film festival in Hawaii who's name I can't recall. Future showings will be posted on their website, along with DVDs for purchase.

(Disclosure: My girlfriend is the Associate Producer, Assistant Editor, and Narrator)

My girlfriend is just finishing up work on a documentary that deals with this sort of issue in depth:

The Future of Food (site is sparse now, but once they are done working on the film, will have additional video clips and information).

And while I'm not impartial, I think it's a good film that covers the topics quite fairly. The sum of it is that we're not really in control of what's happening with our food supply. As a result of working on this film we now eat organic whenever possible.

GMO has potential, but the science seems to be used to only help the bottom lines of the seed/pesticide companies, and not worry about the consequences. And even in this case, where the rice is being grown with "helpful" drugs, there are risks that are ignored (cross pollination, etc). The quote from the film that got me the most is:

"This is one of the greatest experiments that humanity has ever entered into" -- Ignacio Chapella

But there is very little regulation, and everyone seems to be falling over themselves to get into the biz without any vision of the big picture. If this goes bad, it doesn't mean the drop of the stock market and fiber/datacenters going offline, it means the midwest will become a wasteland.
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