The Future of Food
There's a documentary out called "The Future of Food", which someone loaned to us recently. While I'd known about the creeping dangers of GMO and agribusiness, this documentary really makes it clear how systematic and organized the system is: the government, the courts, and Monsanto and the rest of agribusiness are setting up a system that will make it virtually impossible for farmers to not live indebted or owned by big chemical companies, and give us no choice about what's available for the consumer to eat. I have a renewed mistrust of any bit of food that I didn't grow myself; organic food is better, but it's still probably not a good idea to trust anything. And what about eating when I'm away from home? I don't eat fast food, but even at nicer restaurants: what's really in the corn chips or the tofu?
It seems to be much worse in the US than other countries; other countries have wisely rejected or required labelling on GMO foods. I think we are so out of touch with where food comes from, and have had our taste buds dulled if not killed outright by fast food (I read recently that one quarter of all meals in the US are fast food), that we are more vulnerable to the transformation of our food supply into something that does not fill the needs of healthy support for our bodies, nor healthy support for the land, and utterly ignores the future in favor of making a little cash today.
I strongly recommend everyone try to see this documentary, although it's pretty depressing. We all need to be aware of what we eat and vote with our food dollars against this evil.
Comments
What's even creepier is the report in this film of the Terminator gene Monsanto is putting in their seeds. It disables the seeds' ability to reproduce. I can understand that they want to own all food production everywhere, but what are they thinking with this?? Do they have some trick up their sleeve to keep that gene from escaping into the wild and their own crops???? EEEEEEESSSSSHHHHH!
Posted by: Jill | January 18, 2006 02:25 PM
Hi, I write the Toughsledding blog and comment about similar issues. I'm having my composition students at the university write on these topics. We'll see what they find out in a week or so. I enjoyed Michael Pollan's book BOTANY OF DESIRE in which he discusses the New Leaf potato registered as a pesticide rather than a food. Corporations wanting to own everything is creepy -- the fact that we allow the patenting of seeds and genetic material is going to be our downfall while our attention is directed at war weapons, etc.
Posted by: Penelope | January 29, 2006 10:05 AM