Future of food documentary

[[)roi(]]

The Future of Food has been a key tool in the American and international anti-GMO grassroots activist movements and played widely in the environmental and activist circuits since its release in 2004. The film is widely acknowledged for its role in educating voters and the subsequent success of passing Measure H in Mendocino County, California, one of the first local initiatives in the country to ban the planting of GMO crops. Indicative of its popularity, the Future of Food showed to a sold out audience of 1,500 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco in 2004, a benefit for Slow Food, where it was introduced by Alice Waters.**

In September 2005, The Future of Food made a highly acclaimed national theatrical premiere at Film Forum in New York, followed by a tour of more than a dozen major American cities in the fall. Applauded by technology writers, food policy experts and environmental activists, the film has been shown around the world—from a plaza in Oaxaca, Mexico to the Jerusalem Cinematheque, and in citizen screenings all over the world—from India, Kenya, and Bulgaria to Brazil and Indonesia. It screened at a wide variety of professional gatherings, including the Midwestern Organic Farmers Convention, the Organic Trade Association 2005 trade show and conference in Chicago, and the American Dietetic Association convention. Columbia and New York Universities showed it to their students.

Throughout 2006, the film continued to be shown globally – to the public and at conferences, such as The Soil Association Convention in London and the Japanese Organic Farmer’s Convention. Garcia was the keynote speaker at the Nutrition and Health - State of the Science Conference put on by Dr. Andrew Weil and Columbia Medical School in New York City.* The film had sold out premiers in Paris, Amsterdam and London and was screened in Turin, Italy for Slow Food’s “Terra Madre 2006,” a gathering of 5,000 farmers and food producers from around the world; and at the Conference on Women and Food Solidarity in Dehra Dun, India.

Since 2004 The Future of Food has been featured at numerous film festivals including The Margaret Mead Film Festival, The American Film Institute/ Discovery Channel SILVERDOCS Festival, The Slow Food Film Festival, and the New Zealand Film Festival. The film has won awards for “Best Doc” at deadCENTER Film Festival; audience awards at both the Ann Arbor Film Festival and the Ashland Independent Film Festival; and the “Human Rights Award” at the Taos Film Festival.* It was chosen by the Oscar screening committee of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as one of the best documentaries of 2004. To date, The Future of Food has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian and Japanese. An Educational Edition of The Future of Food with a year-long, university level curriculum by Professor Joshua Muldavin was released in Fall 2007.

In 2009, The Future of Food continues to be shown throughout the world at film festivals, in classrooms, and as part of environmental, farming and cultural events. The film continues to enjoy the support of a wide range of organizations—from the Organic Consumers Association, to the Soil Association of Britain, to Slow Food.

Genetic engineering of food crops is as controversial today as ever, as many of the large agro corporations that use this technology position themselves as the answer to the world food crisis and further consolidate the seed supply. The Future of Food continues to be a key tool used by activists and educators who call for increased attention to this issue.*

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/About.html

It deals with why GM foods should be avoided at all cost, including why you should avoid for example by-products like: High Fructose Corn Syrup, Soya based products, ... and even why you should look twice at consuming any US originated products, fast-food chain products, ...

[video=youtube;jNezTsrCY0Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNezTsrCY0Q[/video]

This also touches heavily on the evils of patenting everything i.e. an insectide company called Monsanto that not only owns patents to most of the natural seeds for food (yes they own patents to stuff they didn't even create, for example: potatoes, wheat, soya, ...)

Monsanto is one of the biggest of four US insecticide companies underpinning all the GM foods and it is so intertwinded with the US government and the Bush family (Senior and Junior) -- blantant corruption, that it's so surprising this hasn't become a "foodgate" scandal.

Basically the US government has legally sanctioned the undermining of food diversity, creation and proliferation of untested GM seeds that in their worst form, require Monsanto insectiside to germinate, insectide to pollinate and are genetically designed to terminate after 1 planting i.e. they genetically do not produce seeds as Monsanto wants to ensure the farmers have to purchase seeds & insectiside from them every season.

Every farmer which has tried to germinate their own seeds has been sued out of business using Monsanto's seed patents for food they never created in the first place (e.g. Corn, wheat, ...). All in sight of the US government and sanctioned "legally" by way of appointing ex Monsanto employees to key positions in e.g. FDA, EPA, ...

The documentary also touches on the negative impact food subsidies have had on the world, especially those of the 1st world countries. I.e. it has turned most 3rd world nations into completely dependant on food aid; and what's worse is that the US now sends the awful GM poison foods to these countries as part of the relief effort.

Why do I say poison foods (watch the film);basically the GM foods were genetically spliced with for example parts of bacteria, ecoli, ...

Of course once you've opened pandora's box; it's impossible to keep it contained i.e. every US food aid shipment is spreading this around the world and creating new strains of toxic GM food and further distroying the planet biological diversity. Many 1 planting terminating seed strains have aready been discovered outside of the US and outside of Monsanto's testing facilities.

Btw Don't just discount this off the bat; the film has received many awards and is backed up by a lot of research and studies.

Makes me personally want to scrutinize everything I buy and eat (thankfully I never touch fast food, and steer clear of all things sugar, sugar alternatives, sugar free, reduced fat, low fat, no fat, processed, ... i.e. best to stick to organic)

Btw for those with access to Hulu; the full documentary is available on the popular movie list.

 

[Elimentals]

The biggest problem I have with GM foods is the fact that it makes the farmer dependent on the companies for future food production. The fact that he can not keep a certain % of the seed to plant the next year is more worrisome in developing countries than anything else. As for modified food, we been doing it since the dawn of farming, we just speeding up that change in the lab. You will be shocked to see how original corn, and maze suppose to look like and how much it changed even before the companies started with direct genetic modifications.

Oh well so we learn.

 

[[)roi(]]

The biggest problem I have with GM foods is the fact that it makes the farmer dependent on the companies for future food production. The fact that he can not keep a certain % of the seed to plant the next year is more worrisome in developing countries than anything else. As for modified food, we been doing it since the dawn of farming, we just speeding up that change in the lab. You will be shocked to see how original corn, and maze suppose to look like and how much it changed even before the companies started with direct genetic modifications.

Oh well so we learn.

Watch the documentary, you'll even more concerned that no testing was done or is being done at all; and the FDA: saying that they're ok to rather just observe the population over a long period to see if there is any negative impact -- remember in the US, food is not labelled as GM foods (legally differentiation was circumvented), so it's impossible to associate health impacts with GM products. I.e. we'll never know.

Yet you have scientists whose lab studies with rats have been legally silenced because many rats either died, became massively obese, developed diabetes, became sterile, ...

I.e. I'd be more concerned about eating the crap than the farmers freedoms. All I can say is support organic (of course that implies you are very critical about what can be called organic)

Btw I was having an exactly similar discussion with a friend about how different corn looks today vs what we had as kids. Hence I have for the past few years avoided most snack, cereals, candies, sweets, fast-food, processed ... products.

I gone back to eating what we enjoyed as kids in the 70s or the same stuff our parents grew up on.

 

[Elimentals]

Watch the documentary, you'll even more concerned that no testing was done or is being done at all; and the FDA: saying that they're ok to rather just observe the population over a long period to see if there is any negative impact -- remember in the US, food is not labelled as GM foods (legally differentiation was circumvented), so it's impossible to associate health impacts with GM products.

Yet you have scientists whose lab studies with rats have been legally silenced because many rats either died, became massively obese, developed diabetes, became sterile, ...

I.e. I'd be more concerned about eating the crap than the farmers freedoms. All I can say is support organic (of course that implies you are very critical about what can be called origanic)

And here comes the issue, because no law govern it we have no way of knowing what is organic and what is gm that was grown organically so to speak. So in short its gone so far that we are fked even if we want to avoid it.

Edit: Oh and I saw that documentary some time ago, think it was out in NZ when they aired it on TV. Shocking stuff indeed but I still recon the biggest issue is that they took the source of seeds more than anything else.

 

[[)roi(]]

And here comes the issue, because no law govern it we have no way of knowing what is organic and what is gm that was grown organically so to speak. So in short its gone so far that we are fked even if we want to avoid it.

No not true, beg to differ.

Although we have a crap government, we do have local organic farmers that generally give a damn; your local green grocer is usually aware of this i.e. organic products generally demand a higher price for which they must be able to justify.

I have personally visited a few farms which I can confirm use no insectisides at all and were very particular about their seed origins.

The good thing is that these very same organic farms provide produce to Woolies -- who in their words are very thorough in their checks as to what can be termed organic; makes sense if you think what reputational / financial damage can occur should it be proven that their organic claims are false.

Btw I have questioned my Woolies on the origins of their organic products, for which they provided me with farm details; a few were the ones I visited.

Edit: Oh and I saw that documentary some time ago, think it was out in NZ when they aired it on TV. Shocking stuff indeed but I still recon the biggest issue is that they took the source of seeds more than anything else.

Also saw it a number of years ago, and again a few months back when hulu made it available. Thought I'd share it as I'm quite sure it hadn't been screened locally.

Think it would be a good story for a program like Carte Blanche, considering they've previously tackled olive oils, frying oils, ...

...As for modified food, we been doing it since the dawn of farming, we just speeding up that change in the lab. You will be shocked to see how original corn, and maze suppose to look like and how much it changed even before the companies started with direct genetic modifications.

/EDIT missed your point on modified food; yes although farmers have been physically selecting the best seeds from each harvest, and SA for example created Pinotage by splicing the root and stem of two grape varieties; this is in no way even remotely the same as GM foods, which required cell level manipulation using viruses, and blasting with gold particles to force the blending of genetic material that would never blend naturally.

For example: in one case they blended genes of the tomato and the flounder fish to make the new tomato more tolerant to cold. In that particular case the US consumers refused to buy the product because the taste had been affected i.e. it tasted disgusting and nothing like a tomato.

 

[marine1]

Sounds like the plot from "supernatural".
But I bet in the years to come we will be using more and more GM

 

[[)roi(]]

Sounds like the plot from "supernatural".
But I bet in the years to come we will be using more and more GM

Good luck with your 3rd ear/eye (leviathan burger filled with HCFS -- yuck. Btw I'm quite sure the writers took inspiration from this documentary)

I for one, won't accept it, and will continue to be critical about what I eat.

 

[marine1]

Yeah agree, but makes sense what you posted. Fast food is making us fat and unhealthy.
Gm's IMO are going to have damaging results

 

[[)roi(]]

Yeah agree, but makes sense what you posted. Fast food is making us fat and unhealthy.
Gm's IMO are going to have damaging results

Yes re Fat-fast-foods, need only to look at US, UK and more recently at places in Gauteng i.e. glance over at the regular sit down or drive through visitors to Mcdonalds, KFC, Steers, ... or just look at the largest trouser and shirt sizes available at Edgars, Jet, Pep, ...

The substantial increase in fat kids, teenagers and young adults in South Africa is shocking as this closely mirrors the crap that the US and UK went through prior to their morbidly obese and diabetic trends

Almost all 1st world countries have kicked against receiving any of the US GM crap... Africa is unfortunately the happy US dumping ground.

Our green grocers and government will only kick back if we do i.e. if for example Carte Blanche and consumer agencies were to investigate this I'm sure at some point our green grocers / government would have to respond.

Would be really good if our government were to oppose subsidized food imports on a similar basis to the textile, clothing, ... industries. I.e. that it kills local production and jobs.

Some action is of course always better than none.

 

[akescpt]

Watch the documentary, you'll even more concerned that no testing was done or is being done at all; and the FDA: saying that they're ok to rather just observe the population over a long period to see if there is any negative impact -- remember in the US, food is not labelled as GM foods (legally differentiation was circumvented), so it's impossible to associate health impacts with GM products. I.e. we'll never know.

Yet you have scientists whose lab studies with rats have been legally silenced because many rats either died, became massively obese, developed diabetes, became sterile, ...

I.e. I'd be more concerned about eating the crap than the farmers freedoms. All I can say is support organic (of course that implies you are very critical about what can be called organic)

Btw I was having an exactly similar discussion with a friend about how different corn looks today vs what we had as kids. Hence I have for the past few years avoided most snack, cereals, candies, sweets, fast-food, processed ... products.

I gone back to eating what we enjoyed as kids in the 70s or the same stuff our parents grew up on.

What products are you eating and where do u find them?

 

[[)roi(]]

What products are you eating and where do u find them?

Basically as I said I eat the food people used to historically eat, prior to the brainwashing of the US low fat, no fat, primary carb diets, ...

Sad to think we were led to believe that eating fake lab produced crap would be better than the real thing.

For example, avoid:
No fat-fast-foods, no sugar incl. avoiding what they call sugar free, and especially HCFS, avoid all fake crap (low fat, no fat, sugar free, ...), avoid all modified oils (hydrogenated, margarine, ...), avoid all processed foods (chips, cereals, ...), avoid fruit juices (you could never physically eat as much fruit as you can drink, and by drinking it you avoid all the natural fibre), avoid all sodas, shakes, ... (basically all sugar and processed drinks)

For example, eat:
Organic (people used to grow their own food along a similar principle), and unprocessed foods: enjoy your steak, fat, cream, wine, real bread (avoid any breads that become dough balls when you squeeze a slice in your hand) , etc.

Yet for the most part stay on or below your RMR (resting metabolic rate) each day.

When you feel "hungry"; ask yourself the question whether you would eat broccoli or a tomato or an orange (if the answer is no, don't eat -- re it's a craving, not hunger.)

Shopping:
Everything you want can be obtained from your current food shopping destinations; Woolies, Shoprite, Pick 'n Pay, local butcher, local green grocer, ..

You just have to be more critical; I find it best to avoid food shopping when I'm hungry; that way I buy less crap, and having no or less crap at home means I generally eat better.

Also it helps to ask them about the source of their produce (if they can't answer it easily, then its best to avoid. Woolies is fairly consistent, the others are a mixed bag)

Eating out:
Even eating out is no problem: avoid all fat-fast-food places, and rather go to non chain restaurants.

I tend to ask a lot of questions; until I know the place is good. The places that have waiters or managers that don't know about where their produce comes from are the ones I'll avoid. You'd think this is the exception; yet in my experience most good reputation places know their produce.

Food pyramid
Couldn't find a perfect one, but this is about the closest:

The following is the errors for me in the above:
1. Avoid fake foods: fat free, no fat, low fat, sugar free, all sugar substitutes (they're still sweet and still sugar; so don't get conned), ...
2. Move beef and cheese to same layer as fish.
3. Sweets and processed foods at the top (best to avoid; you don't need it)
4. Citrus (oranges, lemons, grapefruit, ...) and berries (strawberry, raspberry, ...) are better than most other fruits i.e. typically much lower in sugar impacting blood glucose + higher in fibre.

If I want to lose:
1. I cut more down on the fruit (re natural --ose sugars), grains, potatos i.e. reduce your starch items ratios.
2. I also avoid all milk products re lactose (best to avoid all stuff ending in -ose), cream and cheese tends to be exception as limited to no lactose exists; As a rule of thumb, the higher the fat in the milk product, the lower the lactose content; also with cheese the rule is the more aged the cheese, the less to no lactose.

All --ose products tend to have the quickest impact on your blood glucose levels, excess glucose = fat. Fyi --ose products are carbohydrates. http://www.food-info.net/uk/carbs/intro.htm

Once glucose is inside the liver, glucose is phosphorylated into glucose-6-phosphate, or G6P. G6P is further metabolized into triglycerides, fatty acids, glycogen or energy. Glycogen is the form in which the body stores glucose. The liver can only store about 100 g of glucose in the form of glycogen. The muscles also store glycogen. Muscles can store approximately 500 g of glycogen. Because of the limited storage areas, any carbohydrates that are consumed beyond the storage capacity are converted to and stored as fat. There is practically no limit on how many calories the body can store as fat.

 

[ponder]

For example: in one case they blended genes of the tomato and the flounder fish to make the new tomato more tolerant to cold. In that particular case the US consumers refused to buy the product because the taste had been affected i.e. it tasted disgusting and nothing like a tomato.

I know one farmer that grows organic and sells to woolies. I also know a couple running a business that sources organic food and selling it on. There is a demand for it.

 

[demiurge]

As far as I can tell organically grown food is not better in any way than non-gm non-organically grown food.

 

[akescpt]

always more expensive to eat healthier. all the mass produced crap is cheap! need to make some better choices though. want my offspring to eat better.

 

[[)roi(]]

As far as I can tell organically grown food is not better in any way than non-gm non-organically grown food.

If you are aware of where the produce comes from and how they produce it, then clearly you've found a formula that works for you...

Question:
How without something like an organic label is everyone else able to also be rest assured that this is the case?

Nevertheless if you eat fresh produce that is clearly labeled, doesn't originate from the US (most countries we import fresh foods from have strict controls preventing GM contamination + by most also practice organic production methods) , is not processed, or chemical, ... then you're most likely on a better track than most people, especially those who frequent the fat-fast-food diners.

 

[[)roi(]]

always more expensive to eat healthier. all the mass produced crap is cheap! need to make some better choices though. want my offspring to eat better.

Yes, mass produced, processed, ... is of course cheaper today, but only because it's subsidized.

For example: the US farming industry runs at a loss without subsidies.

Take away the subsidies from the crap GM based constituent components and the price will be pushed way above what it costs to produce local organic and don't discount the fact that higher local demand will increase competition: i.e. quality and pricing.

To achieve this: I said we need people\media to support this, and ultimately we'll require government intervention to circumvent the need to import subsidized produce; especially that which is detrimental to our own industries.

 

[[)roi(]]

Environmental activists under the auspices of the 'Friends of the Earth Nigeria' have condemned the attempt by multinational agricultural companies to bring in Genetically Modified crops in to Nigeria saying it is not good for the ecosystem.

Speaking at a workshop tagged 'Building Strong Biosafety systems', Nnimo Bassey of the Friends of the Earth Nigeria, said although " the quest of the biotech industry is to force policy makers to think that genetically modified crops are the crops of the future and that they hold solution to our problems," the reverse is the reality.

"The reality," said Bassey , "is that the continual failure of Genetically Modified Crops are such as, BT cotton (Mahantini Fiats, South Africa and Burkina Faso) Potatoes (Kenya), Cassava (Nigeria) to deliver on their promises show that precious capital is being wasted on experimentations whereas such funds could have been expended to develop rural infrastructure, making credit accessible to farmers and generally promote tested local crops and sustainable agricultural practices."

She noted that several crops are being marked for genetic mutilation as potential raw material for biofuel and pointed out that "even if all the agricultural lands in the world were to be converted in to biofuel plantation only 20% of the world's energy needs would be met."

Haide Swanby of the South Africa-based Africa Center for Biosafety said although genetically modified food is now being sold openly in South Africa, there has not been independent research to determine its safety.

She added that claims that the genetically modified increase yields or income for the farmers in South Africa are baseless as independent inquiries have shown.

Watch part of Swanby's presentation here: In her presentation, Ricarda Stenbreacher of Econexus cited several experiments in which the GM have had negative effect and concluded that nobody can say with certainty that the GM is safe.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201205190370.html

 

[demiurge]

Question:
How without something like an organic label is everyone else able to also be rest assured that this is the case?

We live in a country where there is no legal definition of what constitutes 'organic' so anyone can label anything organic if they want to - having an organic label means nothing. Even in countries where there are such laws 'organic' it's mostly just a marketing ploy to convince people that by eating higher-priced foods, which do not involve the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, one can therefore avoid getting sick or be healthier. A multi-billion dollar industry has arisen in the USA based on the unsubstantiated theory that "pure" organic foods by themselves contribute to health and longevity.

However, I do think it should me mandatory to label foods as being GM or containing GM components. As much as I think the 'organic' movement is a con I don't want to eat GM foods or support the GM industry if I can help it. The only way to make that possible would be to have laws enforcing the labelling of such foods.