Our seeds and food are being deliberately contaminated by genetic pollution. Organics are the antidote.
Producer: Maria Gilardin Uploaded by:
Organic Food VS Genetic Engineering Part A: Peter Rosset, Brewster and Kathleen Kneen The program begins with a list of myths about genetic engineered food presented by Peter Rosset from Food First. Brewster Kneen, former goat farmer and publisher of the Ramshorn says that our foods and the systems by which they are grown and distributed are being deliberately contaminated by genetic pollution. Genetically modified plants cross-pollinate with organic cultivars and related wild species. Such a process once set in motion cannot be contained.
His wife, Kathleen Kneen, reminds us that we have separated eating of food from growing it. Even farmers think they are making commodities for the market. Eating is very personal. The food becomes our body. Food is the basis of culture and community. Our grandparents ate whole foods, we eat manufactured commodities. Hoof-and- mouth disease was a warning the extent to which our food system has been industrialized.
GMO foods are part of this industrial system. They are not tested. There is no regulatory process, only approval. At the very least we need to insist on independent testing.
Part B: Vandana Shiva and Brian Leahy Vandana Shiva heads the Research Foundation for Science and Technology in New Delhi, India. She reminds us of the impact of the Green Revolution that was imposed on the Third World. She found in her research that this "revolution" did not produce more food, but poisoned the land with chemicals and created population explosions of insects. Indira Gandhi, she says, was assassinated because she initiated the Green Revolution.
Corporations in 1987 predicted that by 2000 they would reduce hundreds of seed companies to only 5, by employing three tools: mergers and acquisitions, genetic engineering, and patenting. They have accomplished their goal.
Brian Leahy is the Executive Director of California Certified Organic Farmers, CCOF. He invites us to take a closer look at the food in a supermarket, to see that this is food for a dead culture. Organically grown food gives us the nutrients we need; chemically produced foods are empty.
Farmers across the world are hurting. Tribal peoples, like farmers from Nebraska, are no longer able to provide sufficiently for their own lives by supplying food. We can change things by changing our buying choices. That's how the Europeans stopped GMOs. We can stop this technology by insisting that stores become GMO-free, and even carry organic food.
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