Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food produced by Britt Bailey, written by Marc Lappé, The Video Project, (831) 336-0160
Building on their book of the same title, Lappé and Bailey show planes laying down clouds of pesticide on green fields marked with Keep Out signs. The message is that almost half of the genetic engineering of food crops is dedicated to making them tolerant to herbicides, not to improved yield. If a greater volume
of the poisons can be sprayed, companies that make the herbicides will prosper.
This, they say, explains why chemical giants such as Monsanto have bought up many of the nation’s biggest seed companies.
Contrasting the European resistance to biotech food with Americans’ general indifference, they show angry British activists digging up altered plants and placing them in bags marked with hazardous-waste warnings. While most Americans probably aren’t inclined to take such aggressive steps, stories like this might jolt them out of passive acceptance of biotech “wonders.” --Bob Schildgen
