Contaminated

There are currently over 786 million hungry people on planet Earth. And while few would deny that world hunger is one of the most important issues facing mankind today, if the solution is left to companies like Monsanto, Aventis, Dow, and DuPont, we may face even greater challenges to the security of our global ecosystem.

With the second Green Revolution well under way, the world’s food supply is slowly being transformed by a radically improvised agricultural paradigm. Genetically engineered crops have been introduced into the market without the rigorous testing that many scientists feel is required. The history is instructive:

In 1986, U.S. biotech companies began testing the first genetically engineered food products. In 1993, the FDA declared that GM food was “not inherently dangerous,” which gave a green light to biotech corporations who had been developing GM seeds. One year later, the first GM food product, Flavr Savr tomato, was released to enthusiastic U.S. consumers.

But in Europe, GM food did not win such easy converts. Groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth protested the new “Frankenfoods,” galvanizing public outrage and the eventual policy mandate requiring all modified produce to be clearly labelled.

Despite the highly publicized battle over genetically engineered food, many people are still unaware that many of the products they consume on a daily basis are GM. In Contaminated, Fritjof Capra, Paul Hawken and Vandana Shiva explain the evolution of the new biotech agribusiness and its potential dangers to the sustainability of the global food supply.

Credits

Directed / Produced by:

Josh Shore

Co-produced by:

Anthony Lappé

Edited by:

Meghan Eckman

Posted by anthony
Anthony Lappé is GNN's Executive Editor. He's written for The New York Times, Details, New York, Paper, The Fader and Vice, among many others. He has worked as a producer for MTV and Fuse. He is the co-author of GNN's True Lies and the producer of their Iraq doc, BattleGround.