What I Watched -- Food Evolution

S and I had a marathon day on the final day of SLIFF.  Our fourth movie (the first of three for the day) was Food Evolution, a documentary about the activists in support of and opposed to genetic modification in the food supply.

The first realization that one must have in order to meaningfully participate in this conversation is that we all eat a lot of genetically modified food, whether we know it or not, and whether we like it or not. Genetic modification of plants has been happening since Gregor Mendel cross-bred pea plants 150 years ago -- and even before that, because he was only studying and quantifying what farmers were already doing.

Okay, glad we got that out of the way.  Now, on to the movie. The pro-GM spin (which was the dominant one) focused on genetic modification as a way to feed the planet's ever-growing population, even in the face of disease and drought.  It also addressed the question of whether the use of GM crops has caused an increase or decrease in the rates of pesticide use, and the toxicity of those pesticides.

The anti-GM spin was more diffuse -- probably intentionally so, given the angle of the movie. Some of them were in favor of organics, some were opposed to scientific meddling, some were just confused. Overall, the goal was to combat misinformation.

I was surprised that Monsanto played such a large role in the film. Though it would be hard to make a movie about genetic modification in the food industry without discussing Monsanto, merely saying the company's name inspires such vitriol that I thought they might try to avoid it, and just refer to Monsanto and their ilk as "Big Ag," or something like that. Not the case; it was dealt with head on.

Bottom line: a public win for the GM food movement.

Oh, and it was narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson, who is one of my faves! And if he doesn't inspire confidence, who does?