Plow to Plate Movie Series Presents: FED UP!

After several years of reviewing films about the food production system for this website, I thought there was little left for me to learn from documentaries of this type. Yet FED UP!, a movie that focuses on genetically modified foods and is brought to us by Wholesome Goodness Productions, served up (often amusingly, using old, archival footage) some information that was new to me—unappetizing morsels that are not so easy to digest.

For example, the film challenges an idea that I had regarded as indisputable—that modern industrial farming is more efficient than traditional small farms. It may be true that Concentrated (or Confined) Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) raise animals more cheaply and that farmers have dramatically increased yields for corn, soy and other commodity products.

However, sustainable and organic farmers actually enjoy much higher revenues per acre than their industrial counterparts. While a big commodities producer can earn $20 per acre, a small, sustainable farm can bring in several thousand. The comparatively paltry earnings-per-acre of the large farms explain why they are so big and require government subsidies.

Through interviews with farmers, scientists, government officials and activists, FED UP! explores in great detail the potential harm of genetically modified crops to human health, the collateral damage to bees and butterflies, the contamination of traditional crops, and laments the splintered and weak regulatory oversight by the EPA, USDA and FDA which does not require GMO labeling and disclosure. 

About 70 percent of food contains genetically modified ingredients and is not labeled. That we know anything at all about the content of the food sold at the Co-op is thanks to the painstaking work of the GMO Labeling Committee whose members literally called hundreds of manufacturers.

Unfortunately, this situation is not about to change anytime soon. Many of the industry regulators are former employees of major agribusiness, biotechnology and chemical companies, and vice-versa (a fact disturbingly illustrated in the film by a revolving door).

FED UP! leaves you pondering the paradox of plenty. The Green Revolution, meant to feed the world, left a planet hungrier than ever. The film makes a strong case that the answer to this dilemma is not to bioengineer more seeds, but to encourage more people to become farmers who will be able to feed themselves.

Now that idea tastes good and is easier to stomach.

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 Park Slope Food Coop – 2^nd Floor

7 p.m.  Refreshments will be served.