Monday, September 19, 2005
When Food From the Laboratory Leaves a Bitter Taste
Movie Review (NY Times)
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: September 14, 2005
The heroes and villains in "The Future of Food," Deborah Koons Garcia's sober, far-reaching polemic against genetically modified foods, are clearly identified. The good guys, acknowledged in the film's cursory final segment, are organic farmers along with a growing network of farmers' markets around the United States that constitute a grass-roots resistance to the Goliath of agribusiness and the genetically engineered products it favors.
The bad guys, to whom this quietly inflammatory film devotes the bulk of its attention, are large corporations, especially the Monsanto Company, a pioneer in the development of genetically engineered agricultural products. In recent years, Monsanto has patented seeds that yield crops whose chemical structures have been modified to ward off pests.
The film poses many ticklish ethical and scientific questions:
Since genetic material is life, should corporations have the right to patent genes?
What are the long-term effects on humans of consuming genetically engineered food, which is still largely unlabeled in the United States?
Can the crossbreeding of wild and genetically modified plants be controlled?
Might genetically engineered food be the answer to world hunger?
And finally, could the reduction of biodiversity, which has quickened since the introduction of genetically modified plants, lead to catastrophe?
The film's answers to these five questions are: No. Possibly damaging. Probably not. Probably not. Possibly
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: September 14, 2005
The heroes and villains in "The Future of Food," Deborah Koons Garcia's sober, far-reaching polemic against genetically modified foods, are clearly identified. The good guys, acknowledged in the film's cursory final segment, are organic farmers along with a growing network of farmers' markets around the United States that constitute a grass-roots resistance to the Goliath of agribusiness and the genetically engineered products it favors.
The bad guys, to whom this quietly inflammatory film devotes the bulk of its attention, are large corporations, especially the Monsanto Company, a pioneer in the development of genetically engineered agricultural products. In recent years, Monsanto has patented seeds that yield crops whose chemical structures have been modified to ward off pests.
The film poses many ticklish ethical and scientific questions:
Since genetic material is life, should corporations have the right to patent genes?
What are the long-term effects on humans of consuming genetically engineered food, which is still largely unlabeled in the United States?
Can the crossbreeding of wild and genetically modified plants be controlled?
Might genetically engineered food be the answer to world hunger?
And finally, could the reduction of biodiversity, which has quickened since the introduction of genetically modified plants, lead to catastrophe?
The film's answers to these five questions are: No. Possibly damaging. Probably not. Probably not. Possibly
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