This email from Food Democracy Now! arrived in my inbox today and is worth sharing with all of you who read my blog. It’s about Consumed, a new feature film – a thriller – about what genetically modified foods are doing to us.
GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. Other names for the technology include Genetic Engineering (GE) and Genetic Modification (GM). GMO, GE, and GM all mean the same thing. GMO is a different process from either hybridization and cross-breeding, both of which involve two related species. In genetic modification, genes from one species are forced into another entirely unrelated species. While hybridization and cross-breeding have been done successfully for centuries, genetic engineering forcefully breaches the naturally-occurring barriers between species – and its long term effects and its effects on humans, other animals, and the environment have been inadequately studied. Much of the research on its short term effects have shown cause for alarm. I recommend looking at this article if you want to learn more about GMO’s.
Here’s the email about the movie, Consumed, and how you can get to see it where you live: Help change the conversation on GMO! Attend a screening of a new movie thriller about GMOs in a theater near you! This is an amazing film, so let’s fill every seat to make sure the world knows how Monsanto controls our food supply! Dear Joan, We received some disappointing news this week and I think it’s important to remember what this movement is all about. Despite the FDA’s recent approval of GMO salmon, in the past 4 years, a national movement for basic transparency in our food supply has sprung up across the United States and inspired millions of like-minded citizens like us around the world. This massive awakening has only happened because millions of people like you have become educated about the complex topic of GMOs and decided to take massive action. From shifting to a more organic and non-GMO diet, to voting for GMO labeling to signing petitions, to supporting the organic and non-GMO companies that produce our food responsibly and with basic transparency, we’ve sparked a movement whose momentum is just getting started. From the very beginning, we knew this would be a difficult battle. But right now, even though they’re continuing to rig the regulatory system against us, major American food companies are scrambling to keep up with the growing demand that the GMO labeling movement has created for healthy, organic and non-GMO food. And now we think it’s time to get creative! Which is why Food Democracy Now! would like to bring your attention to a must-see new movie about GMOs. In case you haven’t heard about it, CONSUMED is a new dramatic thriller (not a documentary) that sheds light on Genetically Modified Foods, champions the Right To Know movement, and promotes GMO labeling of foods sold in the United States. Consumed tackles the complex issues of how corporations have taken over our food supply, bully and intimidate family farmers, corrupt science and the realities of improper safety testing from the American public. Right now, you have a chance to help grow this movement even further, by making sure your friends and family go a see this dramatic new film, which could literally be the first blockbuster to tell the story of how companies like Monsanto have consolidated power in rural America and forced their products to be sold unlabeled here in the U.S. for more than 20 years. To get tickets for Screenings in Cities Across America, click here: http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/1546?t=4&akid=1718.60187.sDPi5_
CLICK HERE to see a Trailer/Featurette on the film. CONSUMED is arguably the first narrative feature film to truly tackle the complex and controversial world of GMOs in a substantive, yet entertaining way. It features an incredible cast, including Zoe Lister-Jones (Life in Pieces), Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon), Taylor Kinney (Chicago Fire), Anthony Edwards (Top Gun), Victor Garber (Argo), Kunal Nayyar (Big Bang Theory), Griffin Dunne (Dallas Buyers Club), and Beth Grant (Mindy Project). “Very entertaining, relatable, suspenseful and informative and a real eye opener to what is going on. This film has re-inspired and educated me.” – Erin Brockovich CONSUMED has partnered with GATHR FILMS to release one night only crowd sourced screenings in movie theaters nationwide. Each screening will be an exciting community event that will generate awareness of the Right To Know movement and bring this important issue to the attention of thousands of new individuals across the country. CLICK HERE and enter your city to find your local screening of CONSUMED. We are encouraging individuals, organizations, and community groups to support screening events of CONSUMED and help sell out movie theaters across the US. Reserve your tickets to a screening of CONSUMED at the theater nearest you OR become a host of a screening and rally your friends and colleagues to join you at this important community event. Be a part of the release of this groundbreaking film! Gathr’s support team (support@gathr.us or 855.428.4787) is available if you’d like more information about how this works or how to rally local members to attend a screening. Remember, democracy is like a muscle, either you use it or you lose it! Thanks for participating in food democracy, Dave Murphy Founder / Executive Director Food Democracy Now!
REFERENCES GMO Awareness. (2015). GMO Defined. See: http://gmo-awareness.com/all-about-gmos/gmo-defined/ © Copyright 2015 Joan Rothchild Hardin. All Rights Reserved.
DISCLAIMER: Nothing on this site or blog is intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Comments submitted prior to 8/25/2021
This is really a serious problem, Joan. Using salmon as an example, they mix eel in with the salmon to create a GMO salmon. They say there is no data that disproves there is any problem, so it is safe and they don’t need to tell me. Have they tried to collect any data? (there isn’t any data if they haven’t tried to collect any) There are many fish that I am violently allergic to. I have a right to know that I’m not eating a fish that consists entirely of salmon. Yet they’ve passed regulations saying they are not required to tell me this.
Harriet Rzetelny
In reply to Harriet Rzetelny
Harriet,
Thanks for your comment. You point out one of many ways GMO salmon is a bad idea. Yet the FDA went ahead and approved it for public consumption last week, on 11/19/2015. Here’s an article about this misguided action: GMO SALMON APPROVAL TURNS UP HEAT IN U.S. LABELING BATTLE
By Tom Polansek, Reuters November 23, 2015 | 7:03 am EST A battle over whether the U.S. government should require special labels for genetically modified foods is set to heat up after a type of salmon on Thursday became the first biotech animal approved for human
consumption. Activists who argue that the farm-raised salmon poses risks to the environment and public health say its clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will galvanize opponents to press for the fish to be labeled as genetically engineered. Friends of the Earth and other environmental groups plan to send letters to the FDA and members of Congress calling for a law that requires labels. The groups have already successfully lobbied major companies like and Kroger Co and Safeway Ltd to say they will ban GMO salmon from their stores. “The labeling battle is a particularly big deal,” said Dana Perls, food and technology campaigner for Friends of the Earth. “People have a right to know what they’re eating.” Companies that produce food with genetically modified (GMO) ingredients worry that mandated labels could reduce consumer demand and increase costs. The first supplies of GMO salmon, which will be engineered by AquaBounty Technologies Inc to grow faster than conventional fish, will likely arrive in U.S. supermarkets in two years or more, after being
raised in facilities in Canada and Panama, Chief Executive Ronald Stotish told Reuters.
He said the company will follow the FDA’s rules, which do not require special labeling because the agency says the salmon is nutritionally equivalent to conventional, farm-raised Atlantic salmon. If a company opts to label GMO salmon, the agency suggested wording
such as, “This salmon patty was made from Atlantic salmon produced using modern biotechnology.”
Sellers of other salmon may want to label products as being not genetically engineered (GE) if they “want to assist consumers in avoiding confusion about the limited scope of fish products on the market that are genetically engineered,” the FDA said. The agency is accepting public comments on its voluntary labeling guidelines for 60 days starting on Nov. 23. “We recognize that some consumers are interested in knowing whether food ingredients are derived from GE sources,” said Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. The FDA’s clearance of GMO salmon “will energize people to fight and demand more labeling,” said Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist for the Consumers Union, who opposed the approval. In July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a hotly debated measure that blocks any mandatory labeling of foods made with genetically engineered crops, including pre-empting a state law set to take effect next year in Vermont. The vote was a victory for food and agricultural companies that say mandatory labeling would burden them with unwieldy costs and requirements. Since 2005, a state law in Alaska has required GMO fish to be “conspicuously labeled,” although the measure never needed to be used. Fishermen would like to see a similar federal law so that consumers know what they are eating, said Tyson Fick, communications director for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. More grocery store bans on GMO salmon would help ensure that
customers do not unknowingly eat the fish, said Patty Lovera, assistant director for Food & Water Watch. “It’s an imperfect way, but it’s what they leave us with when they don’t require labeling,” she said about the government. See: http://www.agprofessional.com/news/gmo-salmon-approval-turns-heat-us-labeling-battle GMO labeling is required in many other countries but Monsanto and other big corporations have successfully fought such a labeling
requirement in the US. Some other posts explaining why this has happened here:
MORE ON THE REVOLVING DOOR BETWEEN MONSANTO & THE GOVERNMENT
http://allergiesandyourgut.com/2015/04/05/more-on-the-revolving-door-between-monsanto-and-the-government/‘SAFE’ IN THE US WHILE BANNED ELSEWHERE
http://allergiesandyourgut.com/2015/06/27/safe-in-the-us-while-banned-elsewhere/
Joan Hardin
Wow! Frankenfoods are truly frightening and I’m glad this will open some eyes and minds. Thanks for sharing this info.
Sonnische
In reply to Sonnische
Thanks, Sonnische.
The news about the FDA’s approval of genetically modified salmon seems finally to have gotten people’s attention. Now let’s hope they’ll get interested in the amount of glyphosate they’re consuming & other scary things in the many other GM foods they’re eating.
Joan Hardin