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Awhile back, I sat down for 90 minutes and watched the movie The Future Of Food. I think it’s a great watch for all of us that actually care about what we put in our bodies. It could be a good introduction to family and friends that don’t quite understand why they should care about where they buy their food or how it affects them.

I highly recommend that you watch this or put it on in the background while you work.

The Future Of Food

The Key Points

Here are a few of the things from the movie that jumped out at me. Feel free to discuss and, of course, add your own.

Loss Of Farms

Only 2% of our population farms. That means each farmer is providing food for 50 people (counting themselves). This is a sharp turn from 100 years ago when 1/3 of the labor force was farming. I’d speculate a few reasons for this:

• Better technology means farmers can farm more land
• Kids leaving to chase other occupations
• More centralization into industrial farms

Is this good or bad or unimportant?

Loss Of Crop Diversity

We’ve lost 97% of the crops that we had at the turn of the 20th century. That includes over 5000 types of potatoes, 2000 types of rice, and thousands of types of apples. And of course, there are the big three that provide a hefty majority of our calories: corn, wheat, and soy

GMOs

• Round-Up Ready corn is registered as an insecticide. Catch that? A food is registered as a way to kill insects.
• Monsanto is not afraid to sue farmers for having patented seed, even if they didn’t plant it. Should we let a company own our food supply (especially once “their” seeds start evolving and spreading, as organisms do)?
• Is this another case of man trying to beat Mother Nature? How has the worked out for us in the past?
• Do we have a right to know if our food is GMO? 80-90% of the population thinks so, but Congress hasn’t voted on it though the bill was introduced in 1999.
• Do they cause allergic reactions? It seems so.
• Here’s one that really irks me: genetically-modified plants that require spraying with proprietary chemicals to germinate.

Government-Industry Ties

Check out the discussion of the Government-Industry Revolving Door around 43 minutes in. There are numerous stories of people back and forth between the major food corporations and the EPA, FDA, and USDA (and even the Supreme Court). Is it possible for the government to be unbiased and work for the public good when high-level officials have direct ties to the industry they are regulating?

The Free Market And The Food Bill

If the Food Bill subsidizes the big three crops mentioned above, is the market really free? The Food Bill is why we are so overrun with products filled with corn, wheat, and soy, which is in turn a major reason why crappy processed foods cost less than whole fruits and vegetables. Now you know why people say “it costs more to eat healthy than to eat crap.” (Of course, there are further government regulations that keep the market from truly being free too.)

Intellectual Diversity

We’re also losing intellectual diversity throughout our university systems and government due to control by the large biotech corporations. Due to research dollars funneled into states and school systems, Monsanto and others can strong-arm legislators into not opposing GMOs. It is pretty well assured that no question-raising research will be conducted at schools relying on biotech dollars.

And check this out…it’s not just in the food supply that it matters:

They allowed the patenting of one of the genes responsible for breast cancer. And many researchers working on a cure for breast cancer were no longer allowed to use that gene in their research because another company had patented it and charged them very high fees.

Food Consolidation

If you buy your food at the grocery store, you have no idea just how few food suppliers that comes through. Here are a few stats from the flick:

• 80% of our beef products come from just 4 companies
• Nearly all of the seeds our farmers use come from 4 clusters of companies
• It’s projected that by 2018, all retail food by 6 firms, only one of which is based in the US (Wal-Mart)

Are you willing to give up that much control to someone whose main motivation is profit, not your health?

Discuss

So give me your thoughts on a few things:

• Is it a good idea to be able to patent food? Is this a key element of capitalism? Should life be patentable?
• Is the control of food interests by a few major companies a good idea?
• What, if anything, can/should we do to change things? As the last line of the movie says, “It’s up to you.”

Is there anything else that struck a chord with you?

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