The Future of Food

Green Revolution, Gene Revolution

  1. Describe two changes to farming in the 20th century that arose from war technology.
  1. Explain the different results to the potato blight disease in Ireland and Peru during the 19th century. What is the connection to monoculturing?
  1. What is a pesticide treadmill?
  1. Round-Up is one of the most widely used herbicides today. What does it do?
  1. What trait are Roundup-Ready crops genetically engineered with? What about Bt corn? What corporation produces seeds for these crops?

A Patent on Life

  1. Why were food crops initially excluded from patenting?
  1. The first living organism to be patented was the result of the Supreme Court case of Diamond vs Chakrabarty. What was the organism?
  1. Percy Schmeiser was sued by Monsanto when Roundup-resistant canola was found on his land. How did he claim that the canola plants got there?
  1. Why didn’t Percy settle his case like other farmers had?
  1. What was the eventual decision in the case?

GMO Safety and Regulation

  1. Briefly explain how transgenes from one organism (such as the flounder) are inserted into targeted plants (like the tomato).
  1. List two other methods for inserting genes.
  1. In 2000, a recall was issued of over 300 corn-based products. What were they contaminated with?
  1. What are the three U.S. government agencies responsible for regulating GMOs?
  1. Why don’t GMOs have to be labeled in the United States?
  1. One of the criticisms of agencies regulating food is that they are often former employees of the food corporations themselves. As an example, list Linda Fisher’s jobs.

The Food Supply Chain

  1. Why did Mexico ban the planting of GMO corn?
  1. Why do Mexican corn (maize) farmers intentionally plant their crops near wild strains?
  1. In the United States, most of the profits in the food supply chain are made by the two “ends”. Who is in the middle, what who ends up capturing most of the profit?
  1. Farmers lose about a dollar per bushel of corn harvested. How then, do they stay in business?
  1. The development and test planting of genetically modified wheat has been resisted by some places. What threats did Monsanto make against North Dakota if they disallowed this research?
  1. The documentary suggests that anti-GMO research at major universities has been discouraged. How?
  1. What is the “feed the world” argument in favor of GMOs?
  1. What are terminator genes?
  1. What is pharming?
  1. At the end of the documentary, three alternatives to industrialized, genetically-modified agriculture are given. Describe each.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) –

Farmers Markets –

Organic Farming –