Civil Eats

For months, I’d been planning to see the French television documentary The World According to Monsanto (Le Monde selon Monsanto, also to be released in spring 2009 in book form), made for the French-German network Arte by the journalist Marie-Monique Robin, which premiered in France March 11, 2008.  Having plenty of reasons to despise Monsanto (Agent Orange, PCBs, global food domination) I thought that this film would only confirm what I knew about the giant agribusiness firm, which controls between 70%-100% of the GM market share for various crops.  Well, I was wrong.  There was more to fear, and seeing it all on film made it more concrete.

Marie-Monique Robin spoke to people in government at the time GM seed was given approval and granted “substantial equivalence,” to farmers in the fields in India, Paraguay, Mexico, and Iowa, and to anyone she encountered in her research that could explain the story on rBGH, seed contamination (The part on Mexico’s corn crop contamination is particularly sad and ominous – I was left wondering whether contamination was part of Monsanto’s plan in the first place), the legacy of Agent Orange, and PCB contamination in Anniston, Alabama.  She leaves not a stone unturned in the Monsanto cabinet of curiosities.  And, folks, we should be scared, very scared about the implications of these details on the future food security in the world.  I left the film certain that Monsanto was responsible for perpetrating a slow and conscious modern holocaust, and should be no less than tried for crimes against humanity in the International Criminal Court.  Sound extreme?  70% of food on supermarket shelves contains GM food, and scientists in government and university research programs have been fired for speaking out against treating human beings as guinea pigs, aside from all of Monsanto’s other trespasses (Wonder why you didn’t know that 70% of supermarket food contains GMOs? lobbying against labeling).

During this holiday lull, do yourself a favor and watch this film.  It is the most important and fundamental documentary about the future of our food system, and it is available to watch here, or can be bought here.  (Also, here is a great review from Truthout.org last November.)  If you are new to these facts, this movie will convert you to food security issues.  If you know all there is to know about why our food system is broken, this will reinstate your food fighter’s fervor.

Paula Crossfield is the managing editor of Civil Eats. She is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post's Green Page and is a contributing producer at The Leonard Lopate Show on New York Public Radio where she focuses on food issues. She is currently tending a vegetable garden on her roof in the Lower East Side. You can follow her on Twitter.