Deborah Koons Garcia's new movie, "The Future of Food," documents the way that genetically engineered foods have entered into most of the American food supply, mostly from corn and canola. Genetically modified products are present in the great majority of all processed foods. Nationally, 100 million acres of GM crops were under cultivation by 2003, according to the film.
Though Garcia has made films for more than 30 years and runs her own production company, she is better known as the widow of legendary Grateful Dead lead singer and guitarist, Jerry Garcia.
The movie has attracted notice on the film festival circuit, and activists have been showing it across the country, often as part of campaigns to ban GMO crops.
Originally, Garcia had intended to make a film about pesticides. But her research led her to investigate genetic engineering. The 90-minute documentary takes a strong stand against allowing new life forms loose on the land without long-term testing of the health effects and real government controls, especially food labeling.
"The Future of Food" goes through the history, science and politics of GM foods, including how the chemical companies have succeeded in patenting life forms for the first time without any vote on the subject, the uncontrollable spread of GM plants beyond the fields where they were planted, and why the U.S. government hasn't required GM foods to undergo rigorous testing or labeling. It also debunks the idea that GM foods will solve world starvation.
