This new video was written and directed by Deborah Koons Garcia (yes, Jerry's widow) but it is quite typical of anti-GMO documentaries. In fact I recently screened a new one by Bullfrog Films, Life Running Out of Control, that covered much of the same ground and even had some of the same farmer footage.
This is not an objective look at GM crops, but rather a multi-pronged attack. In Garcia's defense, she did ask Monsanto representatives to appear but they did not reply. In Monsanto's defense, they may have thought she would put their comments into a bad light. (I asked Monsanto's media dept. and also the Council for Biotechnology Information for any presentation that presented pro-GM arguments but they didn't reply to me either.)
It does a fairly good job of drawing attention to many of the diverse objections to GM crops and food, including industry control over the regulatory process and agencies, patenting of genes and life forms, genetic contamination of non-GM fields, the perverse economics of industrial agriculture, corporate influence on academic research. Needless to say, all of these issues are more complex than the film suggests, and we will look at most of them in greater detail.
