The GMWatch video collection

Tuesday, 25 May 2010 14:53

1.Introduction to the GMWatch video collection
2.Alphabetical list of contributors to the videos

NOTE: We've trawled the web in search of the best videos on GM and related issues. You've sent us your favourites, and together we've created a fascinating and informative collection.

Please let us know anything we've missed!

The 'Introduction' below is best read online for the multiple embedded links.
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1.Introduction to the GMWatch video collection
http://www.gmwatch.eu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12211
http://bit.ly/ao3jWd

We've divided the videos into categories (like Agriculture, Corporations, Latin America) and created an 'Index of speakers', where you can check out who's in the videos, and an 'Index of GM crops and foods'.

Here are the different categories.

MUST-SEE (currently 14 videos)

This section contains some of the most compelling videos we've come across. They cover a wide variety of topics as we've cherry picked from all the different categories.

Among our absolute favourites is this extract from the film The Corporation about how Monsanto got Fox News to kill an investigative news report into its genetically engineered cattle hormone.

Another treat is hearing razor-sharp economist Dr Raj Patel put the case against globalized corporate agriculture, including GMOs, and its efforts to marginalise the planet-wide push for a more environmentally sensitive approach to food production (agroecology).

AGRICULTURE (13 videos)

This section contains films that place GM in the wider context of corporate control of agriculture and food production and that show how farmers and consumers' interests are being overridden.

Look out for The Future of Food, a groundbreaking documentary released in 2004, that distils the key regulatory, legal, ethical, environmental and consumer issues surrounding the troubling changes happening in the food system today.

Farmers Speak: Bust Up Big Ag features passionate presentations by US farmers who find themselves caught up in the profiteering of giant agribiz companies.

At GMWatch we've focused more on GM food crops than GM trees. But GM trees are a serious threat to ecosystems and to tree crops, like fruits. The award-winning film, A Silent Forest, is a real eye-opener.

CORPORATIONS (23 videos)

We have a compelling collection of films in this section which act as a guide to the terrible record of the leading GM corporations in relation to public and employee safety and protection, regulatory compliance, and customer care. Look out too for some vibrant and colourful protests.

The big daddy of all the films about the GM corporations is The World According to Monsanto. If you haven't seen this superb documentary, check out this great review.

CORPORATE TAKEOVER (18 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.

CONTAMINATION (8 videos)

Contrary to the claims of biotech companies, GM crops do not mean more choice: they mean that choice is taken away as everyone's crops get GM-contaminated.

Among the films documenting a few of the many cases of contamination around the globe is an interview with Cathy Holtslander of Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, Canada about GM contamination of organic crops.

And an excellent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news broadcast takes a revealing look at how GM crops are researched and monitored for safety (or not) – and how GM genes can't be contained.

LATIN AMERICA (6 videos)

In Latin America, GM soy production has caused the destruction of millions of hectares of forest in Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay. It has poisoned humans, livestock, and ecosystems.

You can get a very simple, short introduction to the problem from Farmers Struggle in Paraguay against Soy Cultivation. Killing Fields: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, goes into this important story in more detail.

INDIA (14 videos)

India is another of the key battlegrounds over GM crops. Monsanto's GM cotton has been commercialized there but has provoked considerable controversy. And a huge public and scientific outcry stopped GM Bt brinjal (eggplant/aubergine) from being commercialised as India's first GM food crop.

A Disaster in Search of Success: Bt Cotton in Global South is a superb film about the failure of Bt cotton not just in India, but in the Philippines, and South Africa too. Read the review.

Bt Cotton Adoption in Vidarbha also shows the disastrous failure of Bt cotton in some parts of India, where it has left farmer debt and suicides, poisoned soil, and even reports of sickened and dead livestock in its wake.

FOOD SAFETY (9 videos)

Look out for an interesting interview with researcher Prof Gilles-Eric Seralini. Jeffrey Smith, author of the books Seeds of Deception and Genetic Roulette, is one of the best communicators on GM food safety - or the lack of it. His trilogy of films on the topic are all worth watching and provide a great introduction to the subject for friends, educators, and decision-makers. Here's a review of the set, under its alternative title, Hidden dangers in kids' meals.

MYTH OF BIOFUELS (8 videos)

Not all biofuels are GM, but GM technology is often critical to the development of biofuels, and Monsanto has been at the very heart of the biofuels lobby, particularly for ethanol and biodiesel. The videos in this section explain why biofuels have been criticised for hurting the poor, for causing major deforestation and for stealing agricultural land essential to farmers in the developing world. Studies also suggest biofuels may be far worse in terms of greenhouse gas emissions than even fossil fuels.

INDEX OF SPEAKERS (see below)

If you want to know exactly who features in these videos or if you are a fan of a particular commentator, our speaker index is for you. It will even give you the time at which each of the speakers start talking in the videos they contribute to.

Two experts who give exceptional value are Dr Vandana Shiva and Anuradha Mittal. Check out their various contributions on topics as diverse as feeding the world and Monsanto's culpability in the high suicide rate among poor cotton farmers in India.

Someone else to look out for in the index is Andrew Kimbrell of the Center for Food Safety, particularly when he talks about the cultural context that gave rise to corporate globalisation and risky technologies such as GM and nanotechnology.

INDEX OF GM CROPS AND FOODS (a-z)

If you want to know which videos deal with a specific GM food or product, this is the place to look. From papaya to wheat, from milk to pigs – the relevant videos are identified here.
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2.Alphabetical list of contributors to the videos

This is not an exhaustive list!

Go to our 'Index of speakers' to see which films these speakers contribute to.
http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12105

It will even give you the time at which each of the speakers start talking in the videos they are in.

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr Rene Van Acker, Professor, Associate Dean External Relations OAC, University of Guelph, Canada

Jane Akre, award-winning investigative reporter

Britt Bailey, Center For Ethics and Toxics, talks about

Larry Bain, Chef, San Francisco

David Baker, president, Community Against Pollution, Anniston, Alabama

Hanny Van Beek, farmer and chair, Dutch Arable Farming Union

Prof Robert Bellé, National Centre for Scientific Research, Pierre and Marie Curie Institute, France

Dr Charles M Benbrook, Former Director, Board of Agriculture, National Academy of Science

Dr Pushpa M Bhargava, founder director, Center for Cellular & Molecular Biology

Mahesh Bhatt, filmmaker and social activist

Brent Blackwelder, Friends of the Earth

Terry Boehm, Vice-President, National Farmers' Union, Canada

Melanie Bondera, GMO-Free Hawaii

Jose Bove, MEP and farmers leader, France

Beth Burroughs, Executive Director, Edmonds Institute, talks about

Richard Burroughs, veterinarian at the US FDA in charge of reviewing Monsanto's data on its GM bovine growth hormone Posilac

George H. Bush, then Vice President of the United States, later President

Dr Elena Alvarez Buylla, National Ecology Institute of Mexico

Dr Neil J Carman, Clean Air Program Director, Lone Star Chapter of Sierra Club

Dr David Carpenter, MD, professor, Environmental Health and Toxicology Division, School of Public Health, University at Albany

Kirtana Chandrasekaran, Friends of the Earth, UK

Dr Ignacio Chapela, Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkley

Dr Shiv Chopra, former scientist at Health Canada

Aziz Choudry, organizer, GATT Watchdog

Dr Eric Cleveland, UHH College of Agriculture

Ken Cook, president, Environmental Working Group

Claire Hope Cummings, journalist, environmental lawyer, and author

Tanya Datta, journalist

Dr Patrick Dixon, futurologist

Steven Druker, lawyer and director, Alliance for Biointegrity

Dr Samuel Epstein, head of the Cancer Prevention Coalition

Nancy Evans, Communications Consultant, The Breast Cancer Fund

Dr Stanley Ewen, former co-researcher with Dr Arpad Pusztai

Roberto Franco, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Paraguay

Deborah Koons Garcia, film director

Dan Glickman, former US secretary of agriculture

Aldo Gonzales, president of an indigenous people's organization, Mexico

Diane Joy Goodman, Farm Box, Products Consulting

Mamadou Goita, civil society activist, Mali

Prof Richard Gray, agricultural economist, University of Saskatchewa

Michael Hansen, senior scientist at the Consumers Union of the United States

Peter Hardin, Editor and Publisher of the Milkweed

Simon Harris, Organic Consumers Association

Brad Hash, Native Forest Network board member, talks about

Margaret Haydon, Health Canada scientist

Karen Heisler, US Environmental Protection Agency, Agricultural Initiative Program, talks about

John Hoffman, vice president of the American Soybean Association (part-funded by Monsanto)

Cathy Holtslander, Saskatchewan Organic Directorate, Canada

Rick Howard, Professor of Biology, Purdue University, Indiana, USA

Makiko Irisawa, environmental activist

Takar Kate, Indian agronomist

Prof. Masaharu Kawata, molecular biologist, University of Nagoya

Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director, Center for Food Safety,

Rajesh Krishnan, Greenpeace, India

Dennis Kucinich, US Democratic Party Congressman

Renate Künast, Former German Minister for Consumer Protection

Kavitha Kuruganti, member secretary, Coalition for GM-free India

Toivi Lahti, organic farmer, Hawaii

Marc Lappé, Center for Ethics and Toxics, speaks about

Marc Loiselle, Canadian organic farmer

James Maryanski, former head of the biotechnology department of the US FDA, talks about

Richard Matteis, Executive Vice President, California Seed Association, California Grain & Seed Association

Jonathan Matthews, director of GMWatch

Jason McKenny, Purisima Greens Farm

Martina McGloughlin, Director, Biotechnology Program, University of California, Davis, talks about

Joe McGonigle, Vice President, Aqua Bounty Farms

Anuradha Mittal, First Institute for Food and Development Policy, talks about

Dr L Mohan, director, Dept of Animal Husbandry, AP, India

Pat Mooney, executive director, ETC Group

George Monbiot, journalist, broadcaster and writer

Monica Moore, Pesticide Action Network

Surendra Nath Naik, Minister of Agriculture, Orissa, India

Dr. Ricardo Navarro, president of Friends of the Earth El Salvador (CESTA)

Nell Newman, Newman's Own Organics

Getulio de Oliveira, Leader of Guarani Kaiowa people, El Dorado, Brazil

Tomas Palau, Sociologist, Instituto Base IS, Paraguay

Dr Lorrin Pang, MD, MPH, Maui District Health Officer (speaking as a private citizen)

Mike Papantonio, attorney

Moe Parr, seed cleaning contractor, Indiana, USA

Raj Patel, economist and author

Keith Pavo, organic farmer, Saskatchewan

Jeff Pera, Live Power Community Farm

Ann Peterman, co-director, Global Justice Ecology Project

Mike Phillips, Executive Director for Food and Agriculture, Biotechnology Industry Organization

Dr Ian Pryme, University of Bergen

Dr Arpad Pusztai, former scientist at the Rowett Institute, Scotland

Dan Quayle, former vice president of the United States

Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, India

H.H. Yogrishi Swami Ramdev, founder, Bharat Swabhiman Trust

Jairam Ramesh, Environment Minister, India

Mullakkar Ratnakaram, Minister of Agriculture, Kerala, India

H.H. Sri Sri Ravishankar, founder, Art of Living

Silvia Ribeiro, ETC Group, Mexico

Jeremiah Ridenour, CEO, Wildwood Natural Foods, talks about

Jeremy Rifkin, author and president, Foundation for Economic Trends

Aruna Rodrigues, social activist

Peter Rosset, Food First, Institute for Food and Development Policy, talks about

Troy Roush, US farmer

Kiran Sakhari, Indian agronomist

William Sanjour, former toxic waste expert with the US Environmental Protection Agency

Prof Dwi Andreas Santosa, Molecular Geneticist, Indonisia

Percy Schmeiser, Canadian family farmer

Prof. Gilles-Eric Séralini, president of CRIIGEN research group, France,

Robert Shapiro, former CEO of Monsanto

Devinder Sharma, food policy analyst talks about

Dr Vandana Shiva, activist, and founder of the farm NGO Navdanya,

Rajkumar Singh, farmer, Mehtawali, Bathinda, Punjab, India, talks about

Hartej Singh, farmer, Punjab, India

Yudhvir Singh, coordinator and member secretary, Indian Coordination Committee of Farmers' Movement, India

Jeffrey Smith, author

Gerson Smoger, lawyer representing Vietnam veterans

James Steel, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist

Martin Stephan, Rainforest Action Network

Dr David Suzuki, geneticist

Venkat Swamy, farmer, Medipally, AP, India

Michael Taylor, former Monsanto attorney who oversaw the introduction of the FDA's biotech policy (some say he wrote it)

Dr Christoph Then, Greenpeace

Kishore Tiwari, farm activist

Brian Tokar, Institute for Social Ecology and Author

Prof Terje Traavik, Institute of Gene Ecology, Norway

Dr Colin Tudge, biologist and science writer

Petrona Villasboa, a mother from Paraguay

Steve Wilson, award-winning investigative reporter

All taken from: http://www.gmwatch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12105