2008 French Documentary—banned in the USA until now

What about genetically modified organisms (GMO) in our food supply? What do they mean for our health? What do they mean for our planet?

These are good questions that deserve a lot of attention. Far more attention than I have been giving them up to this point. My entire focus up until now has been regarding the dual topic of:

• The power of whole, plant-based foods to reverse chronic disease and promote vibrant health
• The incredible harm, waste, cruelty and sheer unsustainability of our toxic western diet of meat, dairy and highly processed foods three meals a day

But there is another elephant in the room and it appears to be quietly and systematically in the process of taking over the world’s food supply. At least that is the message in this powerful documentary. So what prompted my interest in this topic? A professor at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven.

Southern CT State University

Professor Rosalyn Amenta, PhD, sent me a link to the video that I have provided below. It is entitled, “The World According to Monsanto” and was produced in France in 2008. She said that she was going to show it to her students and thought that I would find it interesting.

FYI, I will be speaking to one of her classes on July 17, 2012. My topic for that lecture is: The Right Food for the Human Race — with particular emphasis on three topics  of particular interest to women. Professor Amenta specifically requested that I tailor my presentation for a mostly female class.

As for the 2008 documentary

The French documentary called, “The World According to Monsanto” and directed by independent filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin, paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes and health scandals.The two hour long documentary that aired on French television was never going to be aired in America.

Originally banned in America, it is now available and provided here for your convenience. Since it’s almost two hours long (108 minutes), you should schedule a time for yourself to view this important film sometime soon.

My reaction. After watching the above documentary, I wrote the following note to Dr. T. Colin Campbell. He had told me earlier that a French film team had visited with him in Ithaca several years ago but that he had never seen their documentary.

Dear Colin, Just finished watching The Monsanto video. You did not appear in it and were not mentioned.

Unlike our issue with meat, dairy and eggs, there doesn’t appear to be a clear solution for how to deal with the GMO, transgenic revolution that is wiping out the small farmer all over the world.

After the “intentional transgenic contamination” takes place, the small soybean farmer in Paraguay, for example, is forced to buy the GM seeds from Monsanto—and along with them, the fertilizer and herbicides that enable them to grow. As they point out, this is taking place to grow soybeans to feed the pigs, cows and chickens of Europe and other faraway markets.

It’s scary to think that Monsanto can quietly contaminate the local seeds around the world such that the locals can’t make a living with their own seeds anymore. It would seem that Monsanto is on track to own the “food” of the world—and thereby control the world. The whole situation sounds very scary. I look forward to hearing your take on things. And what can be done about it? A sad story taking place around the world to be sure.

Dr. T. Colin Campbell — author of The China Study and the world’s leading authority on health promoting, plant-based nutrition.

Dr. Campbell’s reaction after watching the film himself.

As of today, I don’t have his full statement on this troubling matter but he did agree that this is a “helluva” situation and that my “take on control is right on. It’s sick.”

The Bottom Line. We should all learn more about what’s going on here. Google can help you find millions of documents, like this 2-7-12 piece in the New York Times (see link below) It turns out that we’re already eating a whole lot of GMOs:

Last year, according to the Department of Agriculture, about 90 percent of all soybeans, corn, canola and sugar beets raised in the United States were grown from what scientists now call transgenic seed. Most processed foods (staples like breakfast cereal, granola bars, chicken nuggets and salad dressing) contain one or more transgenic ingredients, according to estimates from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, though the labels don’t reveal that. (Some, like tortilla chips, can contain dozens.)

Common ingredients like corn, vegetable oil, maltodextrin, soy protein, lecithin, monosodium glutamate, cornstarch, yeast extract, sugar and corn syrup are almost always produced from transgenic crops.

In the USA, the GMO products have been approved based on the concept of “substantial equivalence,” a definition that has not been very thoroughly tested. Likewise, we remain one of the few developed countries that doesn’t require GMO labeling. I look forward to hearing your reaction after watching the videos and reflecting on the following:

• New York Times article (Feb., 2012) A Suit Airs Debate on Organic vs. Modified Crops
• OpEdNews.com. The Next Battleground: The World’s Food Supply.
• NewsVine.com article: Banned In America – French Documentary Film Pulled from YouTube and Google
• Monsanto Acquires World’s Largest Vegetable Seed Company and about fifty of the other large seed companies in the world. (January 2005)

Short Video posted by Max Keiser (March 2012). In case you didn’t have time to watch the full-length documentary, here is a 4-minute summary of the Monsanto Monopoly:

Max Keiser is a TV presenter, radio host, entrepeneur, broadcaster and journalist. He is the inventor of the  virtual specialist technology / prediction markets, Hollywood Stock Exchange,  Karmabanque, and Pirate MyFilm (PMF) He is presenter of “The Oracle with Max Keiser” on BBC World News, which aired every Friday from 9 January 2009 through March 2009. Max also presented films for AlJazeera English and is a blogger for Huffington Post.

The narrator in the above video is Dan Dicks (not Jim Hicks). In 2006, Dan started an alternative media group based in Toronto known as Press For Truth. On the website pressfortruth.ca, they describe their mission, “We are dedicated patriots who are committed to covering issues which the mainstream media is not willing to touch. We make documentary films and also videos for youtube in an effort to educate the public about a variety of issues.” Email: dan@pressfortruth.ca

Handy 4-piece take-charge-of-your-health kit—from Amazon.com

• The movie that’s changing the lives of millions: Forks Over Knives DVD 
• Healthy Eating, Healthy World, The “big picture” about food (our book)
• An essential scientific resource: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell
• Dr. McDougall’s new book, The Starch Solution, with lots of great recipes.

Want to find out how healthy your family is eating? Take our free 4Leaf Diagnostic Survey. It takes less than five minutes and you can score it yourself. After taking the survey, please give me your feedback as it will be helpful in the development of our future 4Leaf app for smartphones. Send feedback to jmorrishicks@me.com

International. We’re now reaching people in over 100 countries. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter or get daily blog notices by “following” us in the top of the right-hand column. For occasional updates, join our periodic mailing list.

J. Morris Hicks, working daily to promote health, hope and harmony on planet Earth.

For help in your own quest to take charge of your health, you might find some useful information at our 4Leaf page or some great recipes at Lisa’s 4Leaf Kitchen.

Got a question? Let me hear from you at jmorrishicks@me.com. Or give me a call on my cell at 917-399-9700.

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Blogging daily at hpjmh.com…from the seaside village of Stonington, Connecticut – Be well and have a great day.

—J. Morris Hicks, board member, T. Colin Campbell Foundation