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FitnessProsBooks.com - The Future of Food
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List Price: $24.95
Our Price: $19.50
Your Save: $ 5.45 ( 22% )
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Manufacturer: Cinema Libre
Starring: Deborah Koons Garcia, Sara Maamouri, Percy Schmeiser, Andrew Kimbrell, Dr. Charles M. Benbrook
Directed By: Deborah Koons Garcia
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781595870391
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 1595870393
Label: Cinema Libre
Manufacturer: Cinema Libre
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Cinema Libre
Release Date: 2005-12-06
Running Time: 88
Studio: Cinema Libre
Theatrical Release Date: 2004
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Companies control all food
Comment: I've noticed when I eat non-organic produce, upon slicing it open, my fingers where the juices get on itch tremendously. Non-organic produce sometimes make me feel more tired or irritable almost as bad as junk foods. Organic food always increases my energy, my mood, etc.
Here are some points I've jotted down quick (excuse the short-hand, I didn't have any intention to review until after the fact) from this film in the order of which is was presented:
Non-organic food has pesticides in it, worms & insects die when they eat it. We all know what kills insects will also kill us, just at a slower rate.
Monsanto put a patent on genes, so it owns it if it goes into plants, perhaps animals & who knows the future.
Normal organic seeds can now be patent as well, whoever gets there first. Farmers are no longer able to share, trade them like they did in the past thousands of years, saving seeds for the future years from their crops. This will cost farmers more. Companies now control the food.
Many years ago there were hundreds of different kids of apples, etc. but a large percentage of these different varieties have died out to only a few.
Farmers used to have many different kinds of crops in small amounts so that if there was a blight, drought, etc. all their crops would not be lost. But due to farming styles now, they only have one type & the economic devastation to that farmer is total.
Monsanto does stealth tests on farmer's land trying to find out if there are ANY GMO plants even if only a handful. If found any, they sue. The courts ruled in favor of Monsanto even if it was proven the GMO crops got there by birds, animals or wind. Many farmers had to destroy ALL their seeds, even the non-GMO ones. Anytime farmers did not want to fight, they had to pay a settlement & were not allowed to talk about the details.
In order to make GMO plants, they have to get the genes in there using VIRUSES & BACTERIAL, mostly E. COLI to invade the plant cells to cause tumors in the plants or electricity to create holes or even use gold laced with viruses.
There are ANTI-BIOTIC gene markers in pants.
The first Genetically-Modified Organisms produced sold in markets for humans were Flavor-saver tomatoes which consumers disliked the taste & was found to cause tumors in rats.
IN the US, the use of GM organisms is not needed to be labeled at all unlike all the European Union countries.
Major GM ingredients in packaged foods include corn syrup (causes diabetes & increased hunger) & soy lecithin (natural is from egg, soy type goes through a chemical process.)
Quayle gave Monsanto the same oversight as natural seeds/crops which is almost none. Ashcroft helped Monsanto win lawsuits. The FDA is run by many Monsanto executives.
Mexico runs smaller race crops near wild plants to keep their corn as viable & help the evolutionary process which has worked in keeping their crops from normal disease, etc. issues. They refuse to use GMO corn, but US seeds are half the price of non-GM corn due to agricultural subsidiaries.
The agriculture subsidiaries Bush signed in years ago mostly only helped to raise soy, wheat, corn & cotton the most GM crops.
60% of food is now GM.
Rats have depressed immune systems & growths from GM potatoes.
40% of the Monarch butterfly caterpillars died when fed BT corn.
There are many GM produce in the market: corn, rice, soybeans, tomatoes, rape seed, broccoli, sugar beets, barley, sunflower, pepper, etc.
The BREAST CANCER GENE has been patentent so that universities & other scientists looking for a cure have to pay a large fee to do their studies.
80% of the beef in the US is controlled by four companies.
There are only about four seed companies.
6 companies control almost all the retail food sold today, only one in the US - Wal-Mart.
Crops are now being tested that have the suicide gene - so that they can only be used one time, one year & the seeds from those crops are sterile and farmer would have to buy more seed for each planting. The US government owns that patent.
Certain GM plants actually NEED pesticides in order to make it grow at all.
Monsanto used the idea of starving people to say it will increase food supply to starving people since it will increase crop yields. This has not been proven to help starving, second, the crops were never tested at all in less ideal conditions like drought, disease, etc. Some GM plants actually has 25% less roots which means it would not survive drought as well as organic plants.
The first standards/guideliness that the US government listed for a product or plant to be considered ORGANIC included: irradiation, sewage sludge & genetically modified organisms.
What can you do?
Buy as much organic food as you can afford, it tastes better & will keep you healthier avoiding doctors & high cost drugs in the process. Supports your local farmers or add into a Community Supported Agriculture subscription where they grow smaller plots of many different kinds of produce & deliver to you baskets of produce on a weekly or monthly basis.
I read in the newspapers a couple of years ago of peas spliced with beans genetically & given to rats. Almost all developed tumors & other digestive issues & conditions.
There has also been studies that proven that pesticides cause cancer & that organic plants have 40% more anti-oxidants then ones that have been sprayed with pesticides.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: A movie worth sharing - discussion provoking
Comment: Provides information into the politics and policies behind "Organic" and makes you take notice of the foods you are provided to eat in the grocery store.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Inconvenient Food (with Jerry Garcia's widow,Deborah)
Comment: "The Future of Food" is a moderately interesting documentary about the complicated world of biotech. Biotech companies such as Monsanto and Cargill are explored in-depth, especially when it comes to their bullying of small farmers. A chilling example is a farmer who's never planted "Round Up Ready",but the plants are growing on his land. Monsanto decides to sue him since they have "trademarked" the organism. The Canadian farmer is still in court, trying to keep financially afloat while the corporation treats him like... dirt.
"The Future of Food" is educational. I learned a lot about the biotech industry, but it has many problematic aspects- the other side,such as Monsanto&Cargill,isn't allowed to speak for itself. It is very one-sided. Only the drawbacks of biotech are shown,not the potential for good. It doesn't help that Jerry Garcia's widow, Deborah Koons, is uncharismatic&has bland,bored narration. She doesn't sound half-asleep;she sounds completely asleep. Quite the yin to Jerry Garcia's dynamic yang. A disappointment.
"Future of Food" is a good defense for local farmers, organic farming, and looking carefully at what we eat. It's a fitting companion for books like Michael Pollan's "Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food." The ideas in this documentary are worth digesting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Buy, borrow, or steal this, but WATCH IT!!!
Comment: Whatever you do, WATCH THIS VIDEO!!! Then decide for yourself.
After borrowing a library copy, I'm buying my own to show anybody who will watch it.
I earn my living designing biotech instruments and so have a financial bias in their favor, but I'm also a human being and a parent. This was a real eye-opener. No longer do I sit on the fence!
The negative reviewers are correct: the film does not allow agri-business to rebut the arguments. Yes, there is bias. And it's a bias that is desperately needed after our being brainwashed by all the clever dishonest ads about solving world hunger or not burdening your poor local farmer with red tape. BUT don't let that dissuade you from watching this! This movie is an extremely precious and uncommonly clear presentation of the anti-GMO stance.
These are not cranks or fringe conspiracy theorists. Listen to researchers who understand the science as they risk their careers to issue dire warnings in opposition to multi-billion dollar corporations in hot pursuit of maximal profits.
This issue is much bigger than you think. We're not 'only' talking about healthy food. It's about a handful of corporations controlling global agriculture and eradicating native crops (not by replacing them but simply by windblown seeds). It's about corporations owning patents on living organisms--even on ancient heritage crops. It's about corrupt politics. It's about immoral, ungovernable, unaccountable Corporatocracy. It's about third world repression and displacement of poor farmers. It's about creating global monocultures that could repeat the Irish Potato Famine on a global scale. It's about unleashing dangerous genes (herbicide resistance, drought susceptibility, allergy-inducing, inedibility, etc) that can carry through cross pollination to literally drive our existing food crops to extinction.
Whatever you do, WATCH IT! Then, by all means, listen carefully to rebuttals and decide for yourself. Your grandchildren are relying on you.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What we need is permaculture, not monoculture!
Comment: If your friends and family do not believe you about the public health and ecological dangers of genetically engineered foods, then try to convince them to watch this highly educational and disturbing documentary as it clearly explains how the biotech industry is threatening food security, destroying family farms, polluting the environment, undermining democracy, and contributing to world hunger. It also presents sustainable alternatives like community supported agriculture, school farm programs, and tips on how to preserve heirloom seeds. While labelling GMOs is an important start, it is not enough. What we need to do is ban them entirely and purchase only locally grown, organic food. Better yet, why not start your own backyard, rooftop, or community garden?
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Editorial Reviews:
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One of the best-reviewed documentaries of 2005 is now available on DVD in this deluxe two-disc edition. There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America, a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat. This documentary explores the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade. It also examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multi-national corporations seek to control the world's food system. "One of 2005's must-see documentaries" -San Francisco Chronicle.
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