I knew I was going to be angry when I watched this movie.  The Future Of Food was made in 2004, so it is a bit of a pre-cursor to movies like Food, Inc and Fresh.

The main focus of this movie is genetically modified foods, and there is more than enough bad news here to fill a full-length documentary.  They discuss the process for how scientists get cells to accept these new genes: apparently, the genes have to be attached to some sort of virus that will invade the cell and set up shop.  The cell is altered in many ways other than just the addition of the new trait.

Is this a necessarily bad or dangerous?  The problem is:  we don’t know.  We have no idea.  They’ve done very little testing, and some studies that have shown negative effects on animal test subjects have been immediately squashed by industry.

The film explores many of the aspects of these wide and varied problems.  Among them:

Because the US allows patents on living organisms, Monsanto (our major agriculture corporation) owns the rights to all these plants.  But unfortunately plants reproduce themselves.  So once that seed is out in the world, if it accidentally spreads to your yard, Monsanto can hold you liable for growing their product without a license.  Several farmers are interviewed who have been sued for this very thing.

The very fact that these plants are reproducing themselves out there in the world is also a huge problem.  Stands of old-world strains of corn, wheat, etc. are being contaminated.  In the film they test some corn in a remote location in Mexico (a country which is fighting HARD against GMO’s).  They find some of the mutant Monsanto genes in the corn.

This is especially scary since Monsanto currently holds patents on several genes known as “terminator genes.”  These render all seeds that a plant produces sterile.  Hence, you can’t save seeds to re-use them for next year. You must buy next year’s seed.  Imagine the consequences if these became widely used, and genes started spreading far and wide.  75% of farmers in the world save and re-use seed.  You think we have starvation issues now?

When the film was made, five years ago now, the fight against GMOs was in its infancy in the US.  I’d like to think we’ve made some progress.  However, GMOs still do not require labelling, which would be such an important first step towards creating a database of known reactions to them.

If you feel anywhere near as passionately about this as I do, please check out the Institute for Responsible Technology for more information.