The Future of Food
The Future of Food
| 30 May 2004 (USA)
The Future of Food Trailers

Before compiling your next grocery list, you might want to watch filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia's eye-opening documentary, which sheds light on a shadowy relationship between agriculture, big business and government. By examining the effects of biotechnology on the nation's smallest farmers, the film reveals the unappetizing truth about genetically modified foods: You could unknowingly be serving them for dinner.

Reviews
KnotMissPriceless

Why so much hype?

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2hotFeature

one of my absolute favorites!

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GazerRise

Fantastic!

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Stephanie

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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Cosmoeticadotcom

The Future Of Food, an 88 minute long documentary, released in 2004, and directed by Deborah Koons Garcia, wife of the late founder of the 1960s rock band, The Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia, is a film that rehashes many of the same points made in the earlier films, yet also goes a bit more deeply, penetrating into the web of how Monsanto, and other agribusiness giants weave a web of control and oligopoly that reverberates up and down the food chain, and puts the squeeze on the small, family farmer, even waging a war on them. The film shows how a Canadian farmer named Percy Schmeiser stood up to Monsanto and was ruined by a corrupt Canadian judiciary (although, if one follows the link provided, it seems that Schmeiser actually got the upper hand in 2008!).The film also details how these corporate thugs, mostly in the petrochemical and insecticide and herbicide industries, have cornered the market in the seed industry, and how ridiculous patent laws have allowed the first company with the idea to patent natural plants to do so, and how they have tried to standardize patent laws worldwide so that an American or French company could somehow dictate the agricultural and food policies of developing and Third World nations, in a sort of corporate colonialism that is bound to engender not only health, but political, problems in the future. The destruction of native cultures is just part of the problem, for the larger issue is the absurdity of patenting life itself, and stating that Crop X belongs to a foreign company, thus allowing foreign interests to lay economic and legal rights to products they had no part in cultivating, while also allowing these unevolved and monoculture crops great range and susceptibility to droughts and pests they cannot fight off, for even Monsanto's Round Up Ready soy beans are showing their limitations as a food source, whereas Mexico's natal and diverse forms of corn, which occasionally remix with wild and progenitor breeds prove hardier and more resistant than the genetically modified corn from north of the border.The film also brings to light what is called the Terminator Gene that has been developed in certain crops, which was designed so that limits on crops could more easily maintain crop process. The utter folly of this, were these strains to become dominant, is that famine would be rampant, and the very development of such a gene, alone, should be enough to convince any legislative body of the folly of allowing corporate empty suits to have any say in the vital national security issue of feeding the masses. All in all, The Future Of Food is likely the best and most information rich of these documentaries in conveying the scope and depth of the issues surrounding America's insane agricultural process.

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reneealarie

This documentary is a terrifying eye opener that every American should watch. The future of our food truly depends on the educating of American citizens. Our food is being tampered with in an unnatural way and the long term ramifications are unknown. We deserve to know what is in our food and it is our job to DEMAND it! This film opens your eyes to the risks of GMO's in our food, the corruption that is our food industry, the injustices small farmers face at the hands of corporations, and the danger of tampering with mother nature. If we don't fight for the complete elimination of GMO foods we may wipe out any indigenous agriculture we have left. Please watch this and any other informative documentaries on food. Tell your friends and loved ones. Sign every petition you can, and contact your local legislature to share your voice!

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ClayDeaver

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.

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louknees

"The Future of Food" is a documentary that deals with the history of the agricultural industry and the development of genetically engineered food. It delves deep into the topics of patenting these genetically engineered creations by huge corporations and how the FDA's and EPA's regulations aren't strict enough and how food that has been genetically engineered in the United States does not have to be labeled. This is all valuable information.Then the movie spends the rest of the time bashing a corporation "Monsanto" for destroying the lives of all these farmers and potentially they will bring the end of the world. Phrases like "if 60 genetically altered salmon are entered into the mainstream population, the salmon species COULD be extinct within 40 generations," are all fine and good, but there's no flip side of the coin. There's no one from Monsanto backing claims. There's no one saying, "Genetically engineered salmon could increase population growth." It seems that many documentaries recently have become witch hunts against multinational corporations, which I think are great if both sides are presented. Maybe Monsanto didn't want to talk to the filmmaker, but if that was the case, let the viewer know that at least they tried to show both sides of the story. Show the filmmaker calling or have a graphic saying "They declined comment." "The future of Food" is a great idea, with a lot of great information, but it ultimately fails because it only shows 50% of the story, hence my 5 out of 10 rating.

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