Topic genetically modified
Cloning The First Human
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Ever since February 1997, when genetic scientists first unveiled 'Dolly' the cloned sheep, has genetic engineering pushed towards the desire to clone and genetically modify human beings. Since then, cloned cattle, pigs, goats and mice have been produced amongst other things, fuelling the belief that humans can be next. But what are the problems with this manipulation? Cloning The First Human follows the latest research, which not only shows complications from an ethical position, but much more dangerous ones too...
Who’s Afraid of Designer Babies?
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After many experiments with cloning and genetically manipulation on other species, technology and genetic science is now turning to the frontier of the human. Every parent wants their child to be healthy, but does this extend to picking their genes for them? What about those who are unable to have children naturally for whatever reason, who turn to artificial insemination or genetic modification? Is this designing children? What are the repercussions in a world dominated by genetically modified people? Will we evolve into a new species and transcend our history to one of inclusion and harmony? Or, will we simply end up in a world that is further divided -- by genetic apartheid?
Life Running Out of Control
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The controversies of corporations owning DNA, enforcing patents on life-forms, and pushing Genetically Modified seeds and crops into countries like India, comes to a head in Life Running Out Of Control. The battle between corporations and farmers is on with companies like Monsanto making claims that they "are improving upon nature with size and resistance to disease", only to be met with fierce opposition from farmers and others on the ground that show this is not true. From the loss of biodiversity to health scares about Genetically Modified food, the effects of genetic manipulation are prompting more and more debate...
Unnatural Selection
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A failed GM cotton crop prompts farmer suicides in India. Windborne GM canola contaminates organic and conventional farms in Canada. One farmer fights Monsanto in the Supreme Court. A company seeks approval for giant GM salmon that may threaten the survival of the natural species. GM pigs are born with ghastly mutations. And experts reveal how inadequate testing and regulations put us at risk. Featuring interviews with Vandana Shiva, Andrew Kimbrell, Percy Schmeiser and others, this documentary reveals several harsh consequences of genetic engineering worldwide...
Genetically Modified Food — Panacea or Poison?
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In the "race to feed the planet", scientists have discovered how to manipulate DNA and produce what they claim are stronger, more disease-resistant crops. However, fears that Genetically Modified Food may not be safe for humans or the environment has sparked intense protest. Are we participating in a dangerous global nutritional experiment? This film asks is the question -- is the production of genetically modified food a panacea for world hunger or a mass poisoning of the worlds food supply?
Bullshit
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Bullshit follows environmental activist Vandana Shiva as she travels around the world to in her quest to eliminate the use of genetically modified foods and seeds in her home country of India and other developing countries. Shiva argues that the “ownership of life” through the patenting of natural products, namely grains altered through genetic modification (GMOs), is not in our best interests, and is in fact harmful to agriculture in developing countries...
Monsanto — Patent For A Pig
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Patent applications for the "Monsanto Pig" were published in February 2005 at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva. A Greenpeace researcher who monitors patent applications, Christoph Then, uncovered the fact that Monsanto is seeking patents not only on methods of breeding, but on actual breeding herds of pigs as well as the offspring that result. And as the seeds of the world are slowly being taken over by Monsanto, the company is aiming to extend its control to animals by patenting and thus privatising gene sequences -- all of which are found and occur naturally and are not invented...
The Future of Food
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"The Future of Food 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 corporate takeover of food. In 2010 as we take note of where we stand and look toward the future, the issues raised in The Future of Food are more pressing than ever. The corporate control of agriculture and the seed supply is meeting more and more resistance all around the world"...
Fed Up With Genetic Engineering
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As the biotechnology industry spends more than $50 million a year to convince us that 'genetic technology' is our only hope for feeding the world and saving the environment, toxic agricultural chemicals continue to poison the air, food and water and put farm workers in serious danger. So what's the real problem? Using archive footage and interviews with farmers, scientists, government officials and activists, Fed Up With Genetic Engineering presents an overview of the current food production system, exploring the impacts of pesticides, the resistance of biotechnology companies to food labelling and the links between government officials and major biotechnology and chemical companies...
Paraguay’s Painful GMO Harvest
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Paraguay's Painful GMO Harvest reports on a nationwide peasant uprising against farmers of genetically-modified soya who are seen as colonists partly responsible for the almost total deforestation of the eastern provinces...
Food Inc.
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What does the corporate-controlled food industry look like? Film-maker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on today's food industry, exposing the underbelly that has been hidden from view of the consumer with the cooperation of government regulatory agencies such as the USDA and FDA. The food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the farmer, the safety of workers and of course, the environment...
The Corporation
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What kind of person is the corporation? Since the current day legal status of the corporation is a person, what would happen if it sat down with a psychiatrist to discuss its behaviour and attitude towards society, culture and the environment? Explored through specific examples, this film shows how the modern day business corporation has developed into the dominant institution of our time...
The World According to Monsanto
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Monsanto seems to be stopping at nothing: Corn, Wheat, Soy Beans, Canola, Mustard, Okra, Bringe oil, Rice, Cauliflower -- once they have established the norm, all these seeds can be owned as their property, royalties will be collected and enforced by patent law. If Monsanto controls seed, they control food and they know it. It’s strategic. It’s more powerful than bombs, it’s more powerful than guns. This is their way to control the populations of the world...
David vs Monsanto
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Imagine that a storm blows across your garden - and that now, without your knowledge and without your consent, foreign and genetically-manipulated seeds are in your vegetable patch which you have nourished and maintained for over 50 years. A few days later, representatives of a large multi-national corporation secretly visit your home, only to return later and demand that you surrender all your vegetables and seeds. Then, they file a lawsuit against you for the illegal use of patented and genetically-modified seeds that you never planted or used and, what's more -- the court rules in favour of the corporation...
The Genetic Conspiracy — Following the Trail
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Is genetic engineering really dangerous? The manufacturers claim that genetically modified food "produces higher yields, fights world hunger, and reduces the need for pesticides." But at what cost? Following the Trail questions whether any solid testing has been done to determine the safety and risks of genetically engineered foods and examines evidence to test the veracity of the claims made by genetic engineering corporations that the foods produce 'higher yields, fight world hunger' etc...
The Quantum Revolution
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The 'quantum revolution' spouts claims of turning many ideas of science fiction into science fact -- from metamaterials with mind-boggling properties like invisibility through limitless quantum energy and room temperature superconductors to Arthur C Clarke's space elevator. Scientists even forecast that in the latter half of the century everybody will have a personal fabricator that re-arranges molecules to produce everything from almost anything, yet how will we ultimately use our mastery of matter? What are the risks?
The Biotech Revolution
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The vast majority of scientists working in genetics and biotechnology repeatedly promise "unprecedented health benefits and longevity for all", amongst other things, while justifying their work in the "biotechnology revolution". But isn't this "revolution" simply the prospect of a Frankenstein-style future that is dominated by genetically modified people? Will we evolve into a new species and transcend our history to one of inclusion and harmony? Or, will we simply end up in a world that is further divided -- by genetic apartheid?
The Way of All Flesh
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The Way of All Flesh traces the story of Henriettta Lacks as she dies of cancer in 1951. Before she died cells were removed from her body and cultivated in a laboratory by scientists in the hope that they could find a cure for cancer. The cells known as the HeLa line have been growing ever since, and the scientists found that they were growing in ways they could not control. The cells transformed modern medicine -- the Polio vaccine -- but they also became caught up in the politics of our age, shaping the policies of countries and of presidents and even becoming involved in the cold war, as scientists were convinced that in her cells lay the secret in how to conquer death...