I will NEVER eat again

(I really love outrageously exaggerated post titles.)

Last night Jon and I went to the Brattle (a classic independent/art house theater in Harvard Square--two weeks from now: a week of samurai films) and saw The Future of Food. In the words of one reviewer: "If you eat food, you need to see the Future of Food." This documentary looks at the controversy over genetically modified food. Controversy, you ask? Most of the world, from the European Union to Japan to Mexico, has resisted the idea of GM food. The U.S.--urged by Monsanto, DuPont and other "upstanding" industry leaders and then-VP Dan Quale (there's a reputable source)--barreled ahead with its usual "act now, think later strategy" (aka "business first, people second"), encouraging farmers everywhere to embrace GM corn and soybeans (I suspect one reason this hasn't got a lot of prime-time news coverage is because this impacts first farmers of the midwest, plains, and the south... areas the bi-coastal media tend to ignore, unless there's an exciting natural disaster, of course).

GM food is not the same as creating new varieties of apples or tomatoes by cross-pollinating existing types; this has been going on for hundreds of years. (Or think of roses, for another example. There are hundreds of varieties, some more fragrant or colorful or with more petals or withstand cold weather, hot weather, etc. These are natural alterations. Or, to bring it to a another level, it's like breeds of dog mixing.) But GM food starts at the cellular level - at the DNA level, even. Scientists in labs have to manufacture special DNA sequences and force them into a corn kernel. In order to break into nucleus (which, for good reason, are very impervious to outside "pollution" so to speak) scientists had to devise a way to break in, to pick the lock on the nucleus's door.

Guess what's really good at picking locks on a cellular level: bacteria and viruses. Especially e coli. So the e coli break in to the nucleus, not to steal but to leave the genetically modified genes (resistant to pesticides, not the bugs or diseases themselves) behind. In order to turn the GM gene on in the nuclei the scientists have to introduce something else into the cell: the antibiotic of e coli. So not only is corn being laced with bacteria but also with antibiotics (and I think we've all heard of super-viruses and bacteria who have built up tolerances to our existing antibiotics and medications... this doesn't help things at all).

And none of this was properly tested (in fact, the few studies done in the lab showed negative effects in rats and mice) before being put on the market. Monsanto -- the "villain" in this unabashedly biased documentary (but I think a multi-billion dollar international corporation is well-equipped to defend itself) -- convinced the FDA that GM corn was not any different that traditional methods (therefore not needing extra testing or labeling on food). However, at the same time, it was rushing to the patent office to patent their technology (only slightly hypocritical, no?). And not just the technology but the gene sequences, in fact, the seeds themselves are now patented. Farmers now have to not only pay for seeds but pay for the right to use them and grow them.

I could go on and on and on, but what you really need to do is go see the film--if you can. I am so disgusted by the greed and corporation that I hardly care about the possible health risks. The U.S. constitution explicitly did not give the right to patent "life" (i.e. seeds) but the Supreme Court overturned that in the 1970s. Technically speaking, Monsanto could patent your DNA now if they wanted to. You can now patent anything as long as you're the first one to do it. Monsanto owns the patents not only to GM seeds but "regular" seeds simply because they did it first. And now they can charge farmers whatever they want, and farmers lose a $1.00 on every bushel of corn and soybeans they sell. And that's why farmers depend on government subsidies (heavily backed by corporations such as Monsanto). And don't even get me started on the lawsuits... apparently because Monsanto owns the genes, they own subsiquent generations of the corn, so farmers cannot cultivate seed like they used to.

I'm so disgusted right now... it's just awful. It's worse that our current administration's cozy relationship with the oil industry. Even Donald Rumsfeld has ties to Monsanto (he used to be president of one of it's subsidiaries). Other government officials with ties to Monsanto: the head of the EPA the FDA... it goes on and on.

Monsanto claims GM food will stop world hunger. GM food has been around for about ten years; I haven't seen any improvements yet.