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May 10, 2016Curiouskind rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This documentary by Jeremy Seifert is an eye-opener and exposes serious health implications that's not well known or documented (outside of films like this) of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) due to misinformation and backdoor dealings of international corporations like Monsanto. Shady scary, you say? You're right. Consider one of the film's central points is the lack of accessible documentation to Monsanto's studies which are limited to 3 months on lab rats. But when independent studies extend the duration of the research, it reveals large tumor growths by the 4th and 5th months, particularly in the mammary glads of female lab rats (as studied by Gilles-Eric Seralini, Ph.D., professor, University of Caen). Robert Belle (Ph.D., French National Center for Scientific Research) continued the study, using the same lab rats that Monsanto used in his studies beyond Monsanto's 3-month study, and concluded that Roundup is highly toxic (and not biodegradable, as Monsanto falsely advertised and as determined through court challenges, in 2 countries) and promotes cell division dysfunction, although it has a latent effect. Monsanto continues to refuse the release of their research documents for peer review and public scrutiny. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has fast-tracked the approval of GMOs, which normally would require 1) numerous published peer review studies, and 2) an overwhelming consensus among the scientific community. Neither of which GMOs have. This is possible through attorneys like Michael Taylor who bounces from post to post in government agencies like FDA, USDA (regulatory agencies) to Monsanto, or as a representative of Monsanto, and then back again to the federal agencies, essentially approving policies he substantively crafted when he represented Monsanto and bypassing scrutiny by considering GMOs 'substantively equivalent' and Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) as non-modified crops. And I haven't even discussed Clarence Thomas, US Supreme Court Justice and former Monsanto employee, the patenting of living organisms, the contamination of non-GMO crops, crops registered as herbicides but are raised for mass human and animal consumption, or Monsanto's smear campaigns, by using false identities within the scientific community that are traceable to Monsanto's office, to discredit legitimate scientist who disagree with the findings of Monsanto scientists. It's difficult to have any faith in these regulatory agencies, and even dims the word justice when referring to entire branches of government like the US Supreme Court, that were created to protect the consumer, public from conflict of interest concerns that cost actual lives. So when you hear 'there's blood on their hands,' know that it is not a benign statement. Ultimately, this may be the cost of not supporting legislators, etc. who try to do the right thing, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) who is featured in this film for standing up to profit-at-any-cost corporations like Monsanto. Other posters have cited 'The World According to Monsanto' which delves further into details (and is certainly worth viewing), but Jeremy's decision to add human touches to 'GMO OMG,' such as his family's experience of fishing for what turned out to be GMO-contaminated rainbow trout in the pristine ponds of the Sequoia National Forest in California (don't you hear the strangled last gasps of Prop. 37?), because it not only affects but harms human lives makes this subject much more widely accessible to general audiences and makes a dense, complicated subject matter more easily understandable and tangible. And isn't one of the essential tests in civil and criminal courts the harm it actually causes -- just imagine how many lives were affected (yes, I'm referring to a global scale) because of non-disclosure, obstruction to disclose, and intentional contamination of non-GMO crops? Truly staggering, a revealing and important subject.