Food, Inc. Page #8

wrote the majority opinion

in a case that allowed

these companies

to prevent farmers

from saving their own seed.

Monsanto had very close ties

to the Bush administration...

and the Clinton administration.

This goes to why we haven't had

much political debate

over this radical change

to our food system.

For the last 25 years,

our government

has been dominated

by the industries

that it was meant

to be regulating.

The challenge is as soon

as you have people

with expertise in industry, they may

turn out to be very good regulators.

It's really about what interests

they decide to represent.

You're talking about power--

centralized power

and that power

is being used

against the people who are

really producing the food

like the farmers.

It's being used

against the workers

who work

for these companies

and it's being used

against consumers

who are deliberately

being kept in the dark

about what they're eating,

where it comes from

and what it's doing

to their bodies.

Good afternoon,

Madame Chair and members.

SB-63 is a consumer

right-to-know measure.

It simply requires that

all foods that are cloned

must be labeled

as cloned foods.

These cloned animals are

a fundamentally

new thing.

But I find it incredible

that the FDA

not only wants to allow the sale of meat

from cloned animals

without further research,

but also wants to allow

the sale of this meat

without any labeling.

How many witnesses

in opposition, please?

Noelle Cremers

with California Farm Bureau.

And if I can point out--

the reason that we are

concerned with labeling

is it creates unnecessary fear

in a consumer's mind.

Until the industry

has an opportunity

to educate why we want

to use this technology

and the value

of the technology,

we don't feel that

consumers just having

a warning label

will help them.

These companies fight

tooth and nail

against labeling.

The fast food industry

fought against

giving you

the calorie information.

They fought against

telling you

if there's trans fat

in their food.

The meat packing industry

for years prevented

country-of-origin labeling.

They fought not to label

genetically modified foods,

and now 78% of the processed food

in the supermarket

has some genetically-

modified ingredient.

I think it's one

of the most important battles

for consumers to fight--

is the right to know what's

in their food and how it was grown.

Not only

do they not want

you to know

what's in it,

they have managed

to make it against the law

to criticize

their products.

Can you tell me how

you've changed how you eat?

Yeah, we--

you'll probably have to

talk to an attorney

before you would

put this in there.

What? You can say this is--

we've stopped--

I know, but--

I could have the meat

and poultry industry

coming after me

and I really--

Seriously? For saying--

that it's so--

It depends

on the context.

You're not saying

"Someone else don't eat it."

Yeah, I'm sorry,

Robbie,

but I get asked this

all the time.

Initially,

my reaction was

"I don't care.

Let them sue me.

Let them try

and sue the mother

of a dead child

and see."

It's pretty amazing

that you can't say

- how you and your family have changed--

- The veggie libel laws...

are different.

The food industry has

different protections

than other industries do.

We have a lot of questions

about this mad cow disease.

If you recall the case

where Oprah was sued

by the meat industry

for something

she said on her show.

It has just

stopped me cold

from eating

another burger.

- Good morning, Oprah.

- Good morning, y'all.

Are you glad to see

it's finally winding down?

Well, I think

I can say that, right?

I can say that, yeah.

I can see the end in sight.

In Colorado it's a felony

if you're convicted

under a veggie libel law.

So you could

go to prison

for criticizing

the ground beef

that's being produced

in the state of Colorado.

There is an effort

in several farm states

to make it illegal

to publish

a photo of any

industrial food operation,

any feedlot operation.

At the same time, they've also gotten

bills passed that are

called cheeseburger bills

that make it very

very difficult

for you to sue them.

These companies have

legions of attorneys

and they may sue even though they know

they can't win

just to send a message.

We are on record

for the deposition of Maurice Parr

in the matter

of Monsanto Company

and Monsanto Technology

versus Maurice Parr.

Mr. Parr, we subpoenaed

your bank records

in this case.

Do you know that?

I'll tell you, what really

scared me the most today

was the fact that they have every check

that I have written

from every bank account

that I've used

in the last 10 years.

Do you own any land,

Mr. Parr?

- Yes.

- How many acres do you own?

Three.

How long have you had

this Dell computer?

Which ones are soybean seed

cleaning customers?

- Mr. Kaufman?

- Beans only.

These people are not just customers,

they're personal friends.

It's extremely

heart-wrenching for me

to know that this list is

in the possession of Monsanto.

Harold Sinn?

Beans only.

This is the first case

in which

a seed company is suing

the person who does

the cleaning of the seed.

So if Monsanto's claims

are upheld in this case,

that would not only put

Moe out of business,

but it would prohibit

every grower in the country

from doing what

Moe does as a precedent in future cases.

Have any of these customers specifically

told you that

they are not going to use

- your seed-cleaning services anymore?

- Ron Merrill.

This essentially puts me

out of business.

- Max Lowe.

- I'm finished.

Jerry Kaufman.

Bill Zeering.

Robert Duvall.

We've had a food system

that's been dedicated

to the single virtue

of efficiency,

so we grow a very small

number of crops,

a very small number

of varieties,

a very small

number of companies.

And even though

you achieve efficiencies,

the system gets

more and more precarious.

You will have

a breakdown eventually.

And where the breakdown

comes in the system

we don't always know.

Modern production agriculture

is highly dependent

on large amounts

of petroleum.

Our farm,

we're going to use

about 40,000 gallons

of diesel fuel a year.

We eat a lot of oil without knowing it.

To bring

a steer to slaughter,

it's 75 gallons of oil.

So what we're seeing is

that this

highly-efficient machine

does not have the resilience

to deal with shocks

such as the spike

in oil prices.

Food prices

last month were 3.9% higher

than they were

a year ago.

Take corn, another basic

source of food,

up to a 12-year high.

For a while, we could sell grains

so cheaply

anywhere in the world,

farmers in other countries

who aren't being subsidized

could not

compete with us.

So their capacity

to grow food

for themselves

was compromised.

The world's running out of food

and nobody's talking about it.

We have no reserves.

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