What Does It Mean to Patent Life?
Image from The GMO Film Project sizzle reel.When Haitian farmers began burning seed donations from biotech giant Monsanto after the country’s 2010 earthquake, director Jeremy Seifert went in search of answers for the farmers' perplexing decision. What he learned compelled him to make a film to shed light on the scary facts of seed manipulation and the patenting of life.
A few weeks ago, we interviewed Seifert about his film-in-the-works, The GMO Film Project. At the time, he was fundraising on Kickstarter to generate intial financing for the film. He’s since secured the money, but he’s not stopping there—even if some of the companies he outs in the film try to shut him down.
“We haven’t had to deal with anything like that as of yet, but plenty of people with experience have warned us that it might be coming,” Seifert tells TakePart. “That’s part of the budget for a film like this, having the necessary legal counsel and protecting ourselves in advance.”
We polled our curious Food, Inc. fans on Facebook to find out what burning questions they have for Seifert. Here are a few that came in.
Craig Kopra asked: What other big name companies out there, other than Monsanto, are responsible for poisoning us?
JS: Dow Chemical, Dupont/Bayer (owner of Pioneer), Syngenta. Those are the biggies, but there are plenty of smaller companies engaged in crop technology on this level. And it’s not just these companies that are “responsible for poisoning us,” because it is in collusion with our own government that this food gets passed off as “substantially equivalent” and isn’t tested fully or labeled. And then, as we begin to educate ourselves and wake up to what we are eating, we then bear responsibility for poisoning ourselves or not.
Even though I am so awake to this issue and learning more every day, I can attest to how difficult it is to avoid GMOs—both because I love a good old-fashioned BBQ and sometimes crave Krispy Kreme Donuts, and because they are so ubiquitous and hidden in minute ways in things you would never think of.
Nuno Oliveira asked: Would you say that mandatory visible labeling of all products that contain GMOs is the most important priority on this issue?
Jeremy Seifert: I think that it’s the most obvious priority and something that everyone, no matter their political leaning or level of interest in good food, should be able to agree on. It is a failure of democracy when 96 percent of people polled say they want GMOs labeled, but they aren’t labeled and haven’t been for over a decade. It’s also a failure of agencies like the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] and EPA [Environmental Protection Agency], who prove to us on an issue like this that they can’t be trusted and aren’t looking out for the health of the general public. This is an infringement on our consumer rights, the right to know.
Maybe it’s a failure on our part, we the people, to participate in our democracy and in our collective lives together. How much will we take before we stand up, march through the streets, shout from the mountain tops: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!”?
As I said, this is the most obvious priority and should be the easiest to attain—if any democracy still exists in our corporate-controlled puppetocracy.
But I’d say the most important priority would be an all-out moratorium until real Environmental Impact Studies have been conducted, and until there have been definitive, peer-reviewed, long-term studies proving that there are no negative health effects from GMOs.
JoeNjen Passalacqua asked: If I’m trying to start an organic garden to grow my own vegetables, where can I buy seeds that have not been genetically modified? (I don't feel comfortable buying seeds from Home Depot’s garden center, etc..)
JS: I’d start with a place like Seed Savers Exchange, located in Decorah, Iowa. You can find them online and know you’re supporting an amazing operation devoted to increasing and proliferating biodiversity. But there are other companies out there devoted to organic and heirloom seeds. We just connected with Sustainable Seed Company in central California, and Farmer John gave us 100 percent of an entire day’s sales to support the film!
Image from The GMO Film Project sizzle reel.Miriam Estrada asked: I saw the Seed Savers catalog highlighted on the trailer. Recently I read a very disturbing article concerning Seed Savers. What are your thoughts on this?
JS: I talked to Diane Whealey (cofounder of SSE) about these concerns and the supposed scandal surrounding it. I basically asked her, “I guess I don’t really understand this very well because can’t Monsanto or any other company out there order every single seed you sell every year in your catalogue? So then, why would they want to gain special access to your seeds over in Svalbard?”
She said, “That’s exactly right! They can order our seeds right out of the catalogue.” So, even though it’s unsettling that Monsanto and the Gates Foundation gave money to Svalbard, it doesn’t give them special access to the seeds preserved within. But it does stir up controversy.
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