The Future of Food

A very watchable documentary suitable for all ages. We took our 3 kids (as young as 6) and they all got something out of it, even tho the content was serious.

Shows effectively how we are losing diversity in the seed / gene pool; that agricultural ownership is being concentrated in fewer hands; and that large conglomerates (such as Monsanto) are aggressively pushing genetically modified seed and chemical herbicide, as well as driving the family farmer out of business.

Like you'd expect in something like this there's a sort of relentless one-sidedness, and some of the scientific explanations seem a bit superficial. But well worth the time & price of admission.

There is probably nothing that we can do to change things as we have given up the oversight of our elected leaders by not voting or by voting on single issues at the direction of our preachers, but we should at least have some knowledge of what is being done to us by politicians and chemical companies in bed together.

97% of the varieties of vegetables that were available at the turn of the 20th century are gone. The food we now have - corn, soybeans, etc. - had been genetically modified so that there is only one or two varieties. There is no testing or oversight due to the negligence of the FDA and the US Dept. of Agriculture and the fact that members of both these organizations, as well as other politicians, including at least one on the Supreme Court, have been or are members of the boards or in the employ of of the chemical companies. In fact Monstanto said it didn't matter who won the 2000 election, they were covered.

The chemical companies have bought all the seed companies and now you buy from them or you do not plant. They have, with the help of the government and the courts, usurped private property to their benefit.

As I say, there is nothing that can be done, save buying organic or at farmer's markets; but this film contains information you should know, especially since as a taxpayer you are contributing $20 billion dollars a year to the chemical companies.

If the rest of the world does not accept our frankenfood, why should we?

Every American needs to see this movie, I have purchased copies and given them away, I feel it's that important. Here on Oahu Monsanto has purchased an additional 2500 acres for genetic experiments on the food we eat. The information in this movie is suppressed in our country to say the least. If you say anything bad about genetically modified food in the press you are generally sued by Monsanto, and like some fox reporters fired for your story.The plight of those reporters is told in the movie as one of many events studied to give the viewer a picture of the conspiracy at hand. Although this film is becoming a bit outdated it is still a great foundation everyone should see about the corporate plot aimed at dominating and owning the world food supply at the cost of corrupting and polluting it forever.

I'm just curious as to why some of the negative reviewers sound like they may be working secretly for Archer Daniels Midland or Monsanto. Their bleating objections strike me as being pseudo defensive and very similar to those expressed by the tobacco industry when they're charged with deception and killing people with their product or when "An Inconvenient Truth" broke open the Global Warming debate and conservatives denied its veracity. Someone should check on those guys and how they earn a living. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed "The Future of Food" and felt it did us a great service by expressing another viewpoint OTHER than what we get from the big corporations and our government. I wish it were our government.

It's an important film and well worth seeing and further discussion.

THE FUTURE OF FOOD (TFOF) skillfully takes on the task of describing the constellation of large, hard issues relating to modern food production. What a task! In its analysis TFOF correctly and importantly ties together the relationships among the 3 factors of production - land, labor, and capital - in getting at an accurate description of the modern enclosure movement at work in our fast food world.

TFOF's coverage extends to the many spatial and historical dimensions of farming, to the legal, intellectual property of "pharming," to some of the technical aspects of the genetic modification, and shows where we are headed.... But that's up to you!

TFOF compares to THE CORPORATION in its potential impact. It could be even bigger. My local store was selling it at the checkout counter yesterday - 12/6/2005!