Books and Documentaries
Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply
Vandana Shiva (2000). South End Press.
Monocultures, genetically modified foods and patented DNA are business practices that threaten the global food supply. Shiva uses examples from India to show that while agribusiness and pesticide corporations profit, ordinary people are losing out.
Food Wars: The Global Battle for Mouths, Minds and Markets
Tim Lang & Michael Heasman (2004). Earthscan Publications Ltd.
Provides an overview of the practices of the food industry and food policy and make suggestions for changing food practices to make the food system healthier, more secure and more environmentally sound.
Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed
Carlo Petrini, Jamey Lionette, Vandana Shiva (2007). South End Press.
While eighty thousand edible plants are used for food, only about 150 are being cultivated, and just eight are traded globally. We produce food for 12 billion people when there are only 6.3 billion people living, and still, 800 million suffer from malnutrition and 1.7 billion suffer from obesity. Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed lays out a program to ensure food and agriculture become more socially and ecologically sustainable.
Soil Not Oil: Climate Change, Peak Oil and Food Insecurity
Vandana Shiva (2008). South End Press.
Shiva shows how the global food crisis, peak oil and climate change are all linked, and how ultimately the solution to these problems is in small-scale ethical farming.
Gene Traders: Biotechnology, World Trade, and the Globalization of Hunger
Brian Tokar (2004). Toward Freedom.
Genetically engineered agriculture is spreading around the world due to global trade agreements and the aggressive tactics of international financial institutions, governments, and agribusiness corporations. In this broad and comprehensive survey, seven authors show how the interplay of trade policy, “development” politics and biotechnology increases dependency and hunger, while compromising the survival of traditional farmers and their communities.
World Hunger: Twelve Myths
Frances Moore Lappe, Joseph Collins, Peter Rosset (1998). Grove Press.
Three experts on food and agriculture expose myths that prevent us from effectively addressing the problem of world hunger. They make the argument that it is possible to advance humanitarian interests while also protecting our own well-being.
Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
Marion Nestle (2002). University of California Press.
Nestle explores the “paradox of plenty,” the state of the western world where far more food is produced than is needed to meet peoples’ nutritional needs. In response, the food industries have developed powerful lobbies and advertising to influence nutritionists, governments, health authorities and consumers to eat more.
Documentaries (most available at the SFPIRG library)
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006)
http://www.powerofcommunity.org/cm/index.php
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens.
The World According to Monsanto (2008)
Preview here: http://films.nfb.ca/monsanto/
Review here: http://www.greenpeace.org/international/news/monsanto_movie080307
Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company’s history, calling on hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts.
Today, Monsanto likes to style itself as a “life sciences” company. The leader in genetically modified seeds, engineered to resist its herbicide Roundup, claims it wants to solve world hunger while protecting the environment.
In the light of its troubling past, can we really believe these noble intentions? Misleading reports, collusion, pressure tactics and attempts at corruption: the history of Monsanto is filled with disturbing episodes. Behind its clean, green image, Monsanto is tightening its grasp on the world seed market, striving for market supremacy to the detriment of food security and the global environment.
Seeds of Change (2005)
http://seedsofchangefilm.org/ (watch for free online – plus special discounts on dvds for activist groups)
Seeds of Change examines the controversy surrounding the use of genetically modified (GM) crops across the Canadian prairies. A publicly funded project, and part of a larger, comprehensive research program examining the risks associated with biotechnology in agriculture, this documentary contributes a new voice and perspective to the debate – that of farmers.
The Fight For True Farming (2005)
http://www.onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=53662
http://www.cinemapolitica.org/node/787
In this documentary, crop and animal farmers in Quebec, the Canadian West, the US Northeast and France offer solutions to the social and environmental scourges of factory farming. Driven by the forces of globalization, rampant agribusiness is harming the environment and threatening the survival of farms. The proliferation of GMO crops is a further threat to biodiversity as well as to famers’ autonomy. In Europe as well as North America, a current of resistance bringing together farmers and consumers insists that it is possible – indeed imperative – to grow food differently. The Fight for True Farming is a film of grim lucidity but also irrepressible hope.
The Future of Food- There’s a revolution happening.. (2005)
www.thefutureoffood.com
There is a revolution happening in the farm fields and on the dinner tables of America — a revolution that is transforming the very nature of the food we eat.
THE FUTURE OF FOOD offers an in-depth investigation into the disturbing truth behind the unlabeled, patented, genetically engineered foods that have quietly filled U.S. grocery store shelves for the past decade. From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.
Shot on location in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, THE FUTURE OF FOOD examines the complex web of market and political forces that are changing what we eat as huge multinational corporations seek to control the world’s food system. The film also explores alternatives to large-scale industrial agriculture, placing organic and sustainable agriculture as real solutions to the farm crisis today.
THE END OF SUBURBIA: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream (2004)
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/
Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness.
Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.
But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Oil Peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary.
The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Oil Peak mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today’s suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia ?
Escape from Suburbia: Beyond the American Dream (2007)
http://escapefromsuburbia.com/
Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The END of SUBURBIA explored the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet enters the age of Peak Oil.
In ESCAPE From SUBURBIA director Greg Greene once again takes us “through the looking glass” on a journey of discovery – a sobering yet vital and ultimately positive exploration of what the second half of the Oil Age has in store for us.
Through personal stories and interviews we examine how declining world oil production has already begun to affect modern life in North America. Expert scientific opinion is balanced with “on the street” portraits from an emerging global movement of citizen’s groups who are confronting the challenges of Peak Oil in extraordinary ways.
The clock is ticking. ESCAPE From SUBURBIA asks the tough questions: Are we approaching Peak Oil now? What are the controversies surrounding our future energy options? Why are a growing number of specialists and citizens skeptical of these options? What are ordinary people across North America doing in their own communities to prepare for Peak Oil? And what will YOU do as energy prices skyrocket and the Oil Age draws to a close?