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89 MINUTES | BRATTLE The 19th century produced the green revolution, which tried to systemize agriculture as if it were industry. Agronomists had farmers harvest large quantities of the same crop year after year; this uniformity has led to the extinction of 97 percent of vegetable species that had existed at the beginning of the 20th century. According to Deborah Koons Garcia’s alarming documentary, that project’s misguided utopianism has given way to a far more sinister undertaking: the gene revolution. Tracing the connections between corporate big shots and Bush-administration officials, Koons Garcia outlines the financial stakes and the health hazards of genetically engineered foods. The chief offender is pesticide maker Monsanto, which patents seeds and then sues family farmers for growing crops whose organic seeds have been contaminated by its own recombinants. Food’s tone may be shrill, but you should take a bite: like the organic veggies Koons Garcia praises, it’s good for you.
BY MATTIAS FREY
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