Review of Documentary: Future of Food

The Future of Food. That is something I have always thought of. I feel that from watching this film, our ancestors who spent there lives gathering and planting seeds would be disgusted if they learned that today we live in a world of genetically modified foods.

That's what this documentary, Future of Food, mainly focused on. A company by the name of Monsanto. One of the largest agricultural companies that has had a history of selling genetically modified seed. This has not always been a problem. The history of seed gathering and planting dates back many of years. The events of WWI, with the production of Nerve gas led to a use of this gas for crops. It was classified as an insecticide and would help crop yields. The start of nitrogen for a fertilizer was also being used. This made a great move into the market. Greener crops were being produced. This technology would increase production and bring down the purchasing price. It seemed that many people liked this, of course if you can get food cheaper with the same great taste who wouldn't love it. The era of new technology being used for agriculture was labeled as the "Green Revolution," but what people didn't see coming next was a new era that would be called the "Gene Revolution".

The company Monsanto produced a genetically modified seed that would already be injected with a gene to make it Roundup ready. Roundup is a herbicide that is usually used to kill weeds and help plant growth. Because Monsanto did this they would be able to patent that seed as their own. What was happening was that Monsanto's product would get blown or somehow placed in a large farmers field. When a Monsanto tester would take some of this crop and conduct a study on it, they would find it to be Monsanto's seed. This resulted in Monsanto filing lawsuits against many farmers, even thought these farmers had no idea how that seed got there. This situation would devastate the farmers. Some farmers were able to fight back with enough support that Monsanto would simply drop the case but make them agree to never talk about the details. Two of more popular Monsanto lawsuits were against Percy Schmeiser and also against Greg Nelson. As one said in the film Monsanto was a large enough company that they were filing lawsuits to scare other farmers into buying their seeds.

Monsanto would change the genes of these seeds by means of injecting the seed with a virus or bacteria that simply replaces a part of the gene and copies itself. This led to the first genetically modified food, the Flavr savr tomato. This hit the market huge but after studies done on rats found that this food was showing signs of lesions, which is a abnormal tissue found on an organism. The product was then removed from the market.

Due to farmers concerns the government set up an agency called the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. People were proud of this happening but in the end it would be disappointing. The EPA was practically controlled by Monsanto. So decisions that were to be made would be made by a corporation that has been destroying the old farms of America. When I saw this sections in the film that listed all the members of the department I was stunned. Practically every seat in the agency is filled by a Monsanto member.

The starting point of genetically modified food has severely impacted farmer. The passing of the law that allows patenting of foods may have been one of the worse turning points for many farmers in America as well as other countries that import our seed. If that law never would of been enacted I feel it would be a much brighter present for everyone.

My Thoughts

I found this documentary absolutely interesting. I think everyone did. I can recall people shaking their heads during the section when the listing of EPA members was being shown. I was doing the same thing. I can't believe the government creates an agency to help out farmers concerns but yet basically puts it in control of the people the are harming these farmers. I lived on farm for 10 years. My father farmed 80 acres of land for most of his life until calling the quits in late 1990's. He grew mostly corn, but also wheat, and barley to feed the livestock. I remember he used to gather his own seed from the harvest and replant it the next year. I can't recall the exact time but I remember a following year he had switched over to purchasing seed. I hope that the future outlook for farmer is better than what it has been. To many people don't appreciate the few we have left. I know I am going to plan on shopping more at places like the Co-Op to support Americas farmers.

Terms

Herbicide - an agent used to destroy or inhibit plant growth

Gene Modification - The chemical repair of a gene's defective DNA sequence.

Nerve Gas - an organophosphate chemical weapon that interferes with normal nerve transmission and induces intense bronchial spasm with resulting inhibition of respiration

Nitrogen - a colorless tasteless odorless element that as a diatomic gas is relatively inert and constitutes 78 percent of the atmosphere and that is a constituent of organic compounds found in all living tissues

Virus - the causative agent of an infectious disease

Bacteria - are a large group of unicellular microorganisms

Review of Reading 27: Seeing Green: Knowing and Saving the Environment on Film

Seeing Green: Know and Saving the Environment on Film, this was quite an interesting piece of reading. I believe what this article was trying to accomplish is to give the reader a sense of how the mass media depicts its role in establishing and conveying environmental problems and solutions. It goes into depth on the topics of natural processes, environmental degradation and solutions from filmmakers making these documentaries. Because mass media plays a large role on our society many of these documentary films are going to affect the viewers.

These filmmakers are able to display a rain forest disappearing or wildlife in danger and get people into taking action on these problems. A lot of it is due to the dramatic feeling that can be captured from watching these films. Think of the difference, if you are simply told that over in the Amazon Rain Forest trees are being cut down by the hundreds each day. Is this going to have the same effect on you as if you were to view it happening on film and tied in with dramatic music?

The Fantasies of Natural History Film

Much of us will watch a film on the environment and only take in and believe what we see, not what may really be there. For example, the article states that a film that shows a cheetah in dead sprint to catch a gazelle in an open field looks secluded from the world but do we really know what surrounds that area. There may be a van of tourists, roads nearby, or even power lines. So when we view this film we get a sense that the scene is taking place in an untouched, unpopulated, and uncivilized area. It seems as if they do this to mislead us in how our planet really looks like. Possibly the point of them doing this is to comfort us so that we THINK that environement is what it use to be and not becoming.

Framing Environmental Degradation

I would like to go over one of the many films this section talks about. The film is called On Natures Terms (de Graaf 2001). This film shows the life of large predatory mammals in the United States. The main point for this film is that mammals such as wolves, pumas, and bears are "keystone species," which means they are critical indicators to a healthy ecosystem. They get this label because these mammals require so much land and are able to regulate the population of other animals. Due to government polices and suburban sprawl is contributing to the decline in population levels of those three animals, causing a domino effect into ruining the ecosystem health. This film shows just that and how citizens are taking actions into conserve the land and preserve the species but doesn't show any change in attitudes of Americans thoughts on predator loss. You have to be able to show attitude in order to have an impact on others to change thier attitude about the problem and commit to finding a solution. Another interesting point I found in this section was about a Malaysian logging company is cutting and exporting tropical timber on a Solomon Island called Rendova. It goes on to talk about a group called Haforai Development Corporation, villagers of this group are not sure whether to resign a contract to allow them to continue cutting down trees basically because there has been a steep decline in the tropical tree resources on the island. It confuses me to think that these people must have not thought what may happen after continous exportation of thier resrouces. According to one logger interviewd "the devestation of logging is obvious and what once use to be a clear river is now muddy." Such continous acts of degradation will be very detrimental to our planet.

Visualizing Green Crusades

The green crusades reference the films that are entirely up to saving the environment or atleast raise questions about what strategies will work. These films try to illustrate that knowledge on environemental practices are based on social orders and hierarchies, and the role of individuals promoting structural change. The film Save the Panda (Birch 1983) says it all in the title. The goal is to catalyst individuals to take there own actions on saving China's pandas which are still on the road to extinction. It sets the path for people to take action but many people just aren't sure how to go about that path. Setting up signs to tell poachers about the consequences won't get us anywhere. Although these films may encourage peope to act, I just don't feel many people do, they think others will take action. This section didn't give to much insight into solutions that would hopefully lead to green crusades.

I Pondered...

This article contained quite a bit of information so I had to read through it twice but I stil don't think I fully understand everything on the pages. What really made me think was the section about the Malaysian logging company and the villagers of Rendova. It seems to me that this still occurs in our world today. We are cutting down trees and its like DUH!, we don't even get what were doing. The villagers only realize the damage to there environment when its to late. Also I guess I never thought of what may be cut out of scences when I view a documentary like Planet Earth (A MUST SEE) or any othere, there may be roads or power lines or a town nearby. We accept to much of what we see and not the reality. That has made me to be more aware of what mass media is feeding us.

Welcome to Noah's Greenlicious Environmental Blog!

Hey! Welcome to my Greenlicious Environment!

Hi! Welcome to my Greenlicious blog! My name is Noah, I am majoring in Healtcare Management at UMD. I created this blog for my Environmental Health class and it is going to be used to talk about environmental issues as well as a place for NON-PAPER ASSIGNMENTS!

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