Screenshot from movie showing GMO products being harvested.
Genetically modified organisms. It’s what you get when you tinker with—or, to use the jargon of the trade, genetically engineer—a living creature’s DNA to change aspects of that creature’s development. Glow-in-the-dark goldfish and mice with a human ears on their backs are a couple of the most visually striking examples of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
But that’s not why you know the term “GMO.” You’ve heard of GMOs because of the increasing frequency with which they are included in the food you eat, and because this development sparked a movement to put Proposition 37—a hotly contested measure that would require many (but not all) food products to inform consumers that you will be putting GMOs in your body when you buy this or that food product—on the November ballot.
Just in time for Election Day comes the Conscious Cinema screening of Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives, a film that none too subtly weighs in on the perceived dangers of ingesting GMOs.
“When my good friend and ‘Yes on Prop 37’ organizer Susie Simon invited me to a house party screening of Genetic Roulette, I happily attended with no intention of doing a screening of my own,” Conscious Cinema founder Leonard Baric says. “However, by the time the movie was over, I was angry and determined that more people would see it. It contained a wealth of information about the effects of genetically modified food and the unethical practices of GMO giant Monsanto and government health and regulatory agencies. This movie exposes the truth about GMOs.”
Although approximately 90 percent of all corn and soybeans produced in the United States is genetically modified (to be insect-resistant, for example), because such technology was created only 40 years ago (and put into wide use much more recently than that), there is little data available concerning the long-term effects of the ingestion of GMOs. And for many, that is enough to raise the proverbial red flag high enough to signal the need for consumers to be at least informed of the presence of GMOs in their foodstuff.
It is for just this reason that screenings of Genetic Roulette have popped up all over California. The “Yes on 37” faction has been outspent by biotech companies, et al., by a 6:1 ratio, with genetically modified seed giant Monsanto singlehandedly contributing more money to defeat the proposed law than the entire Yes campaign could muster.
Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of Our Lives screens 7PM Saturday, October 27, at Hellada Gallery (117 Linden Ave., LB 90802). Admission: $5.