The Future of Food

I am currently in this weird documentary stage of my Netflix, why I have no idea. My recent documentary, The Future of Food worried me a bit. Sure, I've heard all the 'eat organic foods' speeches and yeah, I shop at Trader Joe's sometimes, but I feel that the film should have scared me much more. I wanted an expose on all the crap the dining halls are feeding us. All it really did was make me feel as though I was watching the film in a high school biology or ecology class or something.

First of all, I guess I was expecting to see something like Fast Food Nation (which is now I film, that I haven't seen but I've read the book). What I got was a lesson in genetics and how big companies, such as MONASTO - the makers of Round-up, make genetically altered seeds and then put patents on them so that farmers can't use their seeds. While it is all a bit complicated, basically the big companies sue any farmers whose seeds have any genetic make-up related to their genetically altered seeds. Due to seeds easily spreading (through wind, animals, what have you), cross-polination occurs rapidly and basically all plants become altered with some part of these genetically-engineered seeds.

The interesting part of the film for me was the patent part. Historically, people could not patent anything that was living, including plants. That has clearly changed and before long the large corporations will have ownership rights to all the plants and seeds. This seems really messed up. How can a person or company own rights to a plant? A seed can blow in the wind anywhere and grow. Humans cannot control everything. Additionally, there is no law requiring genetically engineered foods have a label describing their alterations and people have had serious reactions to certain foods that are genetically engineered. Not only this, but the clear push towards globalization of the food industry has put many farmers out of work, particularly those accused of having illegal genetically altered seeds. Anyway, it's late and I need sleep so that may not have been too intriguing, but despite it not being the most engaging documentary ever, I guess it still got me thinking a bit.

Moral of the story: eat organic food. but I probably could have told you that would be the moral without watching it.