WiserEarth Partners

The genetic engineering of plants and animals is looming as one of the greatestenvironmental challenges of the 21st Century!

This course is to bring awareness of the this challenge to our food supply, and how big corporations are patenting seeds, therefore owning the use of them.  Taken to an extreme if, while seeds are being transported, some blow off the truck and land in your field, that corporation can then test your field and if any of the plants from their patented seeds are growing, your field can then be acquired by the corporation by suing the farmer for fraudulently growing plants from their patented seeds.

New genetically engineered crops are being approved by federal agencies despite admissions that they will contaminate native and conventional plants and pose other significant new environmental threats. In short, there has been a complete abdication of any responsible legislative or regulatory oversight of genetically engineered foods.

The haphazard and negligent agency regulation of biotechnology has been a disaster for consumers and the environment. Unsuspecting consumers are being allowed to purchase and consume unlabeled genetically engineered foods, despite a finding by FDA scientists that these foods could pose serious risks. A number of studies over the past decade have revealed that genetically engineered foods can pose serious risks to humans, domesticated animals, wildlife and the environment. Human health effects can include higher risks of toxicity, allergic reactions, antibiotic resistance, immune-suppression and cancer.

The future of food is unfortunately in the hands of our Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) who are backed by powerful agribusiness interests. The Bush administration sought to seriously undermine the national organic standards in a number of significant ways, including creating numerous potential loopholes that allow placing unacceptable chemical materials on a list of substances approved for organic use; a number of unapproved additives to be used in processing organic foods; eliminating outdoor access requirements for poultry; eliminating the requirement that livestock feed be 100 percent organic; and forcing small-scale, farmer-based organic certifiers out of the program. If the Bush administration's policies were continued, the integrity of all organic food could be fatally compromised, and this crucial alternative to industrial agriculture would be lost.  Thank goodness we have a new administration, hopefully those practices won't be considered any longer.

While watching the documentary, please note the numerous executives who have vacillated back and forth in a revolving door between working for the corporations and working in the regulating agency ruling over these corporations.  Unfortunately as long as this practice continues I fear we protecting our crops is a losing proposition.

Please view the film and write your comments on this site, this is a major issue that many are not aware of and affects us all.