July '08 | Light GM relief
Feel like a little light relief? With a bit of education on the GM issue thrown in, incase it makes you feel too decadent?
The World According to Monsanto is a must-be-seen documentary. Described by reviewers as an “extraordinary”, “scrupulous, thorough and damning” “exposé which will freeze the blood in your veins”, which presents “a cogent and horrifying enough picture of the world's leading seed manufacturer to warrant concern and fury”. Get the DVD (€23.99 by credit card only, Ref. K8188, ask for the English version) at www.arteboutique.com/HomeEn.action?lang=en
(or you'll find it on-line if you hunt around).
There's also an on-line interview with the journalist, Marie-Monique Robin, who created The World According to Monsanto using only information publicly accessible on the internet. Watch it here.
Or you can watch it directly on The Real News website.
Then perhaps, while you're feeling a rising tide of anti-Monsanto resentment, your might like to have a look at Jeffrey Smith's eye-opening on-line documentary, Your Milk on Drugs – Just Say No! The story of dairy cows injected with an artificial growth hormone extracted from GM microbes is put in a nutshell by the author: “There was a corporate takeover at the FDA. Monsanto's former attorney was in charge of FDA policy, Monsanto's former researcher ran the FDA department that evaluated her rBGH research, and Monsanto's former subcontractor became chief review officer for rBGH. Independent science didn't stand a chance.” Check it out on the Institute for Responsible Technology website.
If you're not already familiar with the tale of the two US journalists who tried to blow the whistle on Monsanto's rBGH 'speed' for cows, check this out:
Or watch it directly on the YouTube website.
For those of you who prefer to put their feet up with a cup of tea and a good book instead of getting square eyes and pressing buttons, check out Bee Wilson's Swindled, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7195-6785-8, hardback £16.99.
This is a fascinating account of the apparently timeless history of food fraud: the social currents in which it flourishes and the incredible imagination, greed and callousness which are its vital ingredients. The culmination of food fraud is, of course, gene adulteration. The book may leave you with an uncomfortable feeling that modern food fraud is only different from all that has gone before in that it is now high-tech and, not only legal, but considered desirable. Bee Wilson also “suggests some small ways in which we can all protect ourselves from swindles and learn to trust what we eat again”.
If you crave variety and breadth, there are a number of websites which link to good compilations of short films on GM and related issues. For example try the list of links at nogmospaces.
and, more links at nogmospaces.
or, http://www.planet-diversity.org/storiesandvideos/video-playlist.html
Enjoy.
OTHER SOURCES
GM Watch
www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/rB=GinDairyProducts/index.cfm