Monsanto Develops Fact Site Before Release of Movie, Food Inc May 20, 2009
Food, Inc. is a one-sided, biased film that the creators claim will “lift the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer.” Unfortunately, Food, Inc. is counter-productive to the serious dialogue surrounding the critical topic of our nation’s food supply.
http://www.monsanto.com/foodinc/
Julie’s notes: If you go see Food, Inc. this summer, get the facts first. Otherwise don’t waste your money. There’s a movement to send farming back to the 1950s. I’ve said this before, American agriculture is the only industry not permitted to engage technological advances or be profitable. We’re stuck in the American Gothic portrait of a time gone by. If the public wants to stick us there, fine, but our food prices will go up, globally people will starve and your food supply will not be as safe.
- Posted in : General
- Author : freshair
Updates
Comments»
Julie, as you note, FOOD, INC. has yet to be released. Have you actually seen the film? If not, how can you say that it’s “one-sided, biased”? If you have seen it (I have, in the only way possible to date, an invitation-only advance screening), you’d know that the main reason that the film seems to be one-sided is that virtually all large agribusiness companies contacted refused to be interviewed.
You state, “agriculture is the only industry not permitted to engage technological advances or be profitable.” You’re wrong on both counts. Agribusiness is hugely profitable (ADM net inc $1.8bln FY08, Monsanto net inc $2 bln FY08 to give just two examples) and is permitted to suck regularly at the taxpayers teet. That technology has advanced is self-evident from your “send farming back to the 1950s comment.” One place where technological advance has been stifled is GMOs but that’s for a good reason — GMOs are unique in that they are just about the only technology that has the capability of reproducing itself. Ergo, it’s virtually impossible to pull a faulty GMO technology out of the system once it’s been introduced.
I agree with you that the local/organic/sustainable movement does not recognize the price and supply consequences of rolling back the clock. However, if “Food, Inc. [sic] is counter-productive to the serious dialogue surrounding the critical topic of our nation’s food supply,” then oppositely biased presentations such as yours are equally damaging.
For my review of FOOD, INC. see bit.ly/1bye77. My impressions from an interview with FOOD, INC. director Robert Kenner at bit.ly/EQx3X.
How can we “get the facts” as you so casually state when no one from industry would be interviewed for the film? The commenter above has some great points.