Corporate takeover videos
This section contains films on how the GM corporations are heading for near-monopoly control of the seed and food supply.
Leading the pack is GM/agrochemicals giant Monsanto. Find out about the lawsuit Monsanto launched against an Indiana seed cleaner and how it plans to own all seed and what this means for global food security.
Among our favourite films in this section is Islands at Risk: Genetic Engineering in Hawaii. Read our review.
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In an excellent video, John Hilary, executive director of War On Want, explains what's wrong with the TTIP: why it's nothing to do with 'free trade' but all about deregulation of controversial and risky products like GMOs, tobacco, and hormone-treated meat; why it won't boost our economies; and how politicians know that much of what we're being told about the supposed benefits of TTIP is a lie. (Time: 14:43)
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Vandana Shiva speaking at "The Globalization Conference" in Oslo, November 2010. She touches on On Monsanto, bio-piracy, intellectual property, seed and life patenting, herbicide-resistant weeds, bt-cotton, bt-eggplant, biodiversity, the escalating cost for farmers, escalating farmer debt and suicides, the undermining of biodiversity, self-regulation and biosafety. (Total time: 18:46)
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Olivier de Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food - GMOs "have not benefitted poor farmers". although he is asked a question in Italian his answer is in English. (Time for video: 4:03)
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Since being elected in 2008 as President of Paraguay, the 'Red Bishop' Fernando Lugo has been unable, or unwilling, to deliver on promises made to the landless farmers who got him to power in the first place. Meanwhile US and Brazilian-based soya industries are rapidly expanding and taking over Paraguay's agriculture, polluting much of its land and water sources and depriving small farmers of their means of livelihood. (Time: 8:29)
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A fascinating talk by Dr Suman Sahai of GeneCampaign containing a powerful indictment of the science of GMOs. She talks about how the need to protect the money and power invested in "dominant paradigms", such as the Green Revolution, GMOs and Nanotechnology, has skewed our science. When implementing such technologies, lip service is paid to things like the precautionary principle and the social/economic effect of such technologies, but they have little influence on if or how these technologies are to be implemented. (Time: 19:57)
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Blackwater's Black Ops – This is the title of an explosive new article in The Nation magazine that reveals how entities closely linked with the private security firm Blackwater have provided security and intelligence services to a range of powerful corporations over the past several years. The companies include Monsanto, Chevron, Deutsche Bank, Disney and others. Blackwater has also provided intelligence and training services to foreign governments, including Jordan, the Canadian military and the Dutch police. (Time: 11:56)
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Abby Martin takes a closer look at the incestuous relationship between the White House and Monsanto, by calling out Romney and Obama's longstanding ties with the company. (Time: 5:14)
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Bush senior caught on film in Monsanto Inc, helping them push down the regulations that would test Monsanto's new products. (Time: 2:49)
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American and Canadian farmers speak out against seed patents and genetically engineered (GE) crop contamination in North America. The farmers express concerns that they cannot guarantee their crops are GE free. (Time: 11:30)
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The European Commission (EC) is pandering to the commercial aspirations of the biotech corporations while putting the health of European citizens at risk from genetically modified (GM) products that have never been adequately assessed, said Dr. Brian John of GM-Free Cymru. (Time 04:39)
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Many Indian farmers face ruin because the genetically modified BT cotton from Monsanto, first approved in 2002, rendered them diastrous yields. Hoping for higher crop yields and fewer chemicals, the farmers werepersuaded to purchase the genetically modified seeds at quadruple the price. Yet the anticipated bumper crop failed to materialize. Disease and insect-ridden plants forced the farmers to use even more of the expensive chemicals, driving their bank depts higher. For many farmers the only escape from these accumulated debts is suicide. In all of India over 20.000 farmers committed suicide in the last few years. (Time: 6:10)
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The year is 2022. After a decade of world famine and food riots, the Mendelian Corporation now bioengineers the world’s entire commercial supply of genetically modified seeds. This comes at the expense of outlawed natural “heirloom” seeds, with their susceptibility to disease viewed as a threat to a stable food supply. The Mendelian Corporation’s control of the food supply gives it great political clout, and it has used it to consolidate great power. Rural areas and farm country are now under a corporate marshal law, and the ban on “heirloom” seed has resulted in a black market, with “seed-runners” emerging to satisfy the underground market. (Time: 15:37)
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Ãrpád Pusztai and Ignacio Chapela have two things in common. They are distinguished scientists and their careers are in ruins. Both scientists choose to look at the phenomenon of genetic engineering. Both made important discoveries. Both of them are suffering the fate of those who criticise the powerful vested interests that now dominate big business and scientific research. (Time: 3:19)
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Percy Schmeiser is a Canadian farmer and seed breeder who has become world-famous by standing up to the Monsanto corporation, which charged him with illegally using its patented GMO canola seeds when his fields were actually contaminated by winds blowing from nearby GMO crops. He’ll discuss his experiences and the dangers of losing biodiversity of our crops and the domination of our food supply by industrial agriculture. (Time: 29:29)
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India could be the first country to take legal action against agribusiness giant Monsanto for so-called "biopiracy" – or taking indigenous farming knowledge to develop genetically modified crops. Are biotech corporations trying to monopolise and patent the world's food supply? (Time: 33:41)
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Moe Parr is a seed cleaner in Indiana, USA. In February 2007, Monsanto initiated a lawsuit against him. The biotech company claimed that Moe had encouraged GM soybean farmers to save their seed. Moe is one of many farmers in North America who've faced coercion from Monsanto through legal and economic pressure. (Time: 2:13)
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A year in the making, this film from the award-winning German film maker Wilfried Huismann will dispel the green image of the WWF. Behind the organisation's eco-facade, the film uncovered explosive stories from all around the world. This documentary seeks to reveal the secrets of the WWF. It is a journey into the heart of the green empire and may shatter public faith in the panda forever.
Update June 2012: The German broadcaster ARD has been forced to remove access to this film on the internet pending the outcome of a lawsuit brought by WWF against the film maker, Wilfried Huismann. Therefore it is not currently viewable. We will keep you updated.
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Democracy Now interviews, Vanity Fair's James Steel who co-authored an article called Monsanto's harvest of fear, profiling some of Monsanto's controversial corporate practices. (Total time: 17:55)
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At the GMO-Free Europe Conference 2010, Vandana Shiva takes stock of resistance against the takeover of agriculture by the biotech industry. A great roundup of the GMO battle. (Total time: 19:49)
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US courts have ruled that even if a farmer's plants are accidentally pollinated by Monsanto's GM seed, the resulting seeds and plants are the property of Monsanto. Monsanto budgets $10 million each years to investigate and sue farmers who are not paying royalties. (Total time: 9:55)
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Michael Hart is a conventional livestock family farmer based in Cornwall, England. He investigates the reality of farming genetically modified crops in the USA ten years after their introduction. He travels across the US interviewing farmers and other specialists about their experiences of growing GM. For nearly thirty years Michael has actively campaigned on behalf of family farmers for over fifteen years, travelling extensively in Europe, India, Canada and the USA. (Time: 23:31)
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In this 4-part series, journalist, environmentalist, and author of Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, Claire Hope Cummings speaks out on behalf of the natural world, and for a new approach to solving the environmental, social, and philosophical problems inherent in our present food system.
In this section we have parts 2 and 3 of the series. (Total time for parts 2 and 3: 13:34)
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A selection of intellectual greats – Fritjof Capra, Paul Hawken, and Vandana Shiva – explain the biotech companies’ agenda of controlling the food supply and why it’s a recipe for worldwide famine. (Time: 6:38)
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The Future of Food, a groundbreaking documentary released in 2004, distils the complex technology and key regulatory, legal, ethical, environmental and consumer issues surrounding the troubling changes happening in the food system today – genetically engineered foods, patenting, and the corporatization of food – into terms the average person can easily understand. It empowers consumers to understand the consequences of their food choices on our future. (Time 9:49)
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Farmers are attracted towards GM crops because of reduced maintenance, but farmers who plant Monsanto's GM crops probably don't realize that when they sign the Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement that it transfers ALL liability to the farmer or grower. (Time: 9:47)
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Vandana Shiva talks about the patenting of seeds by Monsanto. (Time 8:38)
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Percy Schmeiser has been growing canola for 40 years. He's been experimenting, developing his own varieties, using his own seed. Then Monsanto, the giant multinational agro-chemical company that is at the forefront of developing genetically modified foods, accused him of patent infringement and demanded restitution for its seeds. They stole his plants, seeds & research because of cross pollenation with GMO plants that other people had planted within pollenaton range. If GMO's touch your crops... Monsanto owns your crop and will sue you. Pollenation is not containable. "I never put those plants on my land," says Schmeiser. "The question is, where do Monsanto's rights end and mine begin?" (Time 13:28)
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There are 2 million farmers and 300 million consumers in the US. Standing in between are a handful of companies who control how food gets from one side to the other. (Time 7:25)
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Talk by Percy Schmeiser, the Canadian farmer who was sued by Monsanto for having its patented genes on his land. A must-see for all farmers considering growing GM crops. (Time for all 3 parts: 45:05)
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A 3-part series of interviews with Dr. Vandana Shiva about the future of food. This is more than about the safety of biotechnology; its about the ability of all of us to have a choice of the foods that we eat, and for our farmers to be able to freely use their own seeds, and grow food in the manner that they choose. (Total time: 19:49)