Review: The Future of Food, a must-see documentary that exposes the biotech threat to life on our planet

Thursday, May 03, 2007 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Big Agriculture, future of food, sustainable farming

There is a cabal of power-hungry corporations that are systematically destroying humanity's future. These companies have taken over the food supply, injected pesticides, viruses and invading genes into staple crops, engineered "terminator" genes that make crop seeds unviable, destroyed the livelihood of farmers and used every tactic they could think of -- legal threats, intimidation, bribery, monopolistic market practices and many more -- to gain monopolistic control over the global food supply.

One documentary brings you this astonishing story. Through the testimony of family farmers, ecological scientists, agricultural experts and numerous public documents, The Future of Food tells a horrifying, heart-stopping story of how Big Agriculture has sold out the future of human civilization for the almighty dollar.

The Future of Food is a compelling, eye-opening documentary that I consider a "must-see documentary" by anyone who eats food (which probably includes you). Even if you think you know everything worth knowing about your food, there's still a dark secret the biotech companies believe U.S. consumers should not be allowed to know: That many foods are genetically engineered with dangerous pesticides and foreign DNA, and there is currently no U.S. law requiring their labeling as such.

Do whatever it takes to see this documentary. Buy it, rent it, or view it online by clicking here to watch it on Google Video. Just make sure you watch this film.

It starts off looking a bit boring. But stick with it. The film picks up steam after the first ten minutes, and then it takes you on an outrageous ride that will have you gripping the edge of your seat, shaking your head in disbelief. Watch this entire film from start to finish, and then, when you're done watching it, send the link to your friends. This is an extremely important documentary for our time. Don't make another trip to the grocery store without seeing this film!

The future of humanity is determined by the future of food

What's at stake here is not merely control over today's food profits. The actions taken by Big Agriculture are systematically destroying the very agricultural biodiversity that will one day be desperately needed to save us from a global food crash. And at the same time these multinational agricultural giants are destroying our food biodiversity, they're also patenting seeds, then using imperialistic intellectual property law to extort profits from farmers, universities and research institutions all over the world.

The whole problem of genetically engineered crops became a tidal wave of trouble following the U.S. Supreme Court's ill-fated decision in 1980 to allow corporations to patent life. The patenting of the first genetically engineered microbe opened the floodgates to corporate greed, and it wasn't long before Big Ag firms began patenting every seed they could get their hands on (a process called "biopiracy"), stealing the inventions of nature and declaring them to be their own.

Today, an astonishing 20 percent of the human genome is now owned by corporations. The simple act of reproducing by having children is now a violation of U.S. patent law. Technically, the corporations that "own" these human genes could sue the parents of all newborns, demanding royalty payments for the use of their intellectual property.

Want to know more shocking facts about intellectual property and the future of food, agriculture and human civilization? See The Future of Food for yourself. And while you're at it, be sure to visit the Center for Food safety (www.centerforfoodsafety.org), a non-profit organization that's been doing the oversight job our own government should have been doing. But since the people who run the USDA, EPA and FDA are the very same people who occupy top positions in the most powerful agricultural organizations in the world, the U.S. government has no intention whatsoever to protect the public from financial exploitation by influential corporations (regardless of the cost to the future of life on planet Earth). It's the same story with Big Pharma, as you no doubt already realize.

The coming food bubble

Curious how modern civilization might ultimately end? In previous articles, I've discussed the coming food bubble -- a global collapse of the food abundance we naively enjoy today. Depending on who you talk to, this collapse of the global food supply could be caused by the end of peak oil, a collapse of bioversity followed by widespread crop blight, the depletion of freshwater tables, radical weather patterns caused by global warming, or the widespread disruption of global ecosystems through the continued use of synthetic chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, etc.)

Each of these explanations sounds like bad news to me. Any one of them could conceivably pose a major threat to the future of our global food supply. And yet the real news is even worse: We're facing all of these threats at once!

Biotechnology companies claim they're coming to the rescue with a new breed of genetically engineered crops that can produce more food, with greater farming efficiency, than ever before. What they don't tell you is that these GM foods contain pesticides and their use encourages the massive dumping of herbicides on croplands by farmers. Those synthetic chemicals wash right off the farms and into the aquatic ecosystems (rivers, wetlands, oceans) where they are creating "dead zones" that can't even support aquatic life.

It's all being done for the sake of the almighty dollar. Corporations (and the governments they control) are sacrificing the very future of human civilization in order to boost next quarter's profits. The food supply is now toxic, the environment is being systematically destroyed, and government departments that should be protecting the public are now operating as marketing branches of the very companies they should be prosecuting for endangering the public.

How goes the food, so goes the nation

Modern agriculture has literally and figuratively lost its roots. Seeds that were created by nature are now patented and owned by corporations; genetically engineered crops that never passed any sort of rigorous safety testing have long since been approved as G.R.A.S. by the FDA (meaning safe for use in foods); governments continue to use taxpayer dollars to subsidize the growing of genetically engineered corn (coated with Monsanto herbicides, by the way); and the FDA continues to insist that the U.S. public has no right to know which foods are genetically engineered because it might "confuse them."

That's how the U.S. government views the average American these days -- as a stupid, misinformed "feeder and breeder" who has no capacity to read labels or make informed decisions about what's in their food. Just pay your taxes, buy your junk food, put your babies on Prozac and shut the heck up, okay?

And the situation looks like it's only going to get worse. In America, at least. Europeans, Canadians and practically everyone else in the world is way ahead of the game on this. In Europe, genetically engineered foods must be clearly labeled, and many countries have actually banned GM exports from the United States (about which the U.S. screams like a carjacking victim, citing international trade sanctions and promising economic retribution towards any country that doesn't swallow genetically engineered U.S. crops).

American consumers have remained in the dark on this issue for so long that it's frankly a little embarrassing to me, as an American, to admit. But this documentary, The Future of Food can help educate consumers around the world and rally them to support an outright ban on genetically engineered crops in the food supply. After all, who wants viruses in their corn? Who wants the entire food supply owned and controlled by evil corporations that have clearly demonstrated they have no concern whatsoever for public health or sustainable farming?

What you can do right now

So how do you, as a consumer, combat the evils of these out-of-control corporations and failed government regulators? Here's a quick list of action items that will help you stay informed and empowered:

1. View the documentary. Make sure you watch The Future of Food.

2. Shop for NON-GMO foods. Buy organic, and look for non-GMO labels on the foods you purchase. If you're not sure what's genetically modified and what isn't, rest assured that most of the brand-name products made by the largest food corporations contain one or more genetically modified ingredients. The most common are corn and soybeans. So buy food and food products from small, local companies or "natural" food manufacturers. Visit your local food coop. Eat local!

3. Support legislative efforts to require the labeling of genetically modified food ingredients. I'm not aware of any such pending legislation that's anywhere close to a vote, but if such legislation appears on the horizon, you can count on NewsTarget to rally readers to the cause. Make sure you're a subscriber to receive our email alerts. Click here to subscribe (free).

4. Read the Center for Food Safety report on pharmaceutical rice. Click here to download the report now (PDF). This is an important report to read if you want to understand how drug companies are now trying to turn nature's crops into pharmaceutical factories, placing the safety of the entire national food supply at great risk.

5. Share information with others. Spread the word on our CounterThink cartoons. Just click on any cartoon you see on this page, then you can send it to a friend or post it on your website (please include a link back to us). Take part in consumer activism by posting your own blog or articles on this topic. Help spread the word about the dangers of genetically engineered crops!

Together, we can fight the corporate takeover of our food supply. If we stay informed, focused and committed to protecting nature, we can end the secrecy and get GM crops either labeled on foods or banned outright. In time, we may even be able to overthrow modern patent law and ultimately ban the patenting of seeds, genes and living entities. In time, I hope to see the ending of patent law on all medicines, too.

Patents on genes, seeds, foods and medicines should have never been allowed. These things belong to the people (actually, they belong to no one except nature). They certainly do not belong to any corporation. Personally, I refuse to recognize these invalid patent laws which are artificially constructed by the U.S. patent office. There is no such thing as corporate ownership over a seed, there is only the illusion of such ownership. Patent law is a social and legal construct, and it can be demolished just as easily as it was fabricated. In time, if enough consumers join in these efforts to save themselves from corporate tyranny, we can take back ownership and control over our food, our genes and our lives.

It will not be an easy task, and it will require a lot of information and grassroots advocacy. The Future of Food is a great ally in this fight, and the Center for Food Safety deserves your goodwill and financial support. Please consider donating to this organization to help fund even more pro-consumer action that challenges the regulatory failures of the USDA, FDA and EPA.

Stay tuned to NewsTarget for more pro-consumer news. We're fighting to protect life on many fronts, including challenging Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Oil and Big Government. We believe in consumer rights, open-source intellectual property and the protection of nature. We're radical thinkers who support radical changes to create a sustainable future founded on consumer freedom, liberty and education.