GMO OMG
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''GMO OMG'' is a 2013 American
pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable cl ...
documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...
which takes a negative view towards the use of
genetically modified organism A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...
s used in the production of
food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for Nutrient, nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or Fungus, fungal origin and contains essential nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein (nutrient), proteins, vitamins, ...
, in the United States. The film focuses on
Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...
, a multinational
agrochemical An agrochemical or agrichemical, a contraction of ''agricultural chemical'', is a chemical product used in industrial agriculture. Agrichemical typically refers to biocides (pesticides including insecticides, herbicides, fungicides and nematicide ...
and agricultural biotechnology corporation, and their role in the food industry alongside the effects of GMOs and how they are generated. Directed by
Jeremy Seifert ''Dive!'' is an American documentary film directed by Jeremy Seifert. Premise The film follows director Jeremy Seifert and his friends as they dumpster dive behind several grocery stores in the Los Angeles area to demonstrate the massive amount ...
and produced by Elizabeth Kucinich, it was given a
limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few cinemas across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...
in the United States on September 13, 2013, and received negative reviews from critics. ''GMO OMG'' follows Seifert's search of answers: how do GMOs affect people and the
planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...
. These and other questions take Seifert on a journey from his family’s table to
Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
,
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
,
Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
, and agra-giant Monsanto. The sole study specifically cited was widely discredited; see Séralini affair.


Film content

Jeremy Seifert’s goal in ''GMO OMG'' is to say that citizens of the U.S. are inadequately informed about the corporate manipulation of the food supply. Seifert travels to Haiti, Norway and Paris and interviews commercial and private farmers in order to understand more about their use in these industries. In Haiti Seifert explores the Peasant Movement of Papaye’s resistance towards the help of Monsanto and continues his travels to the
Svalbard Global Seed Vault The Svalbard Global Seed Vault () is a secure backup facility for the world's crop diversity on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago. The Seed Vault provides long-term storage for duplicates of seeds fro ...
that contains 700,000 samples of seeds from every country on earth to prevent the
extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
of certain plant species. Seifert ends his world travels in Paris where he talks to scientists about the effects of GMOs on humans. While at home in the U.S. Seifert travels through
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
to different farms with his family to emphasize how important it is to him that people be more concerned with what they are eating themselves and feeding their families. Seifert also travels to a Monsanto location where he is rejected.


GMOs and farming

GMO stands for
Genetically Modified Organism A genetically modified organism (GMO) is any organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. The exact definition of a genetically modified organism and what constitutes genetic engineering varies, with ...
and includes any organism whose genes have been artificially altered to modify their characteristics in some way or another.
Genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of Genetic engineering techniques, technologies used to change the genet ...
does not occur in nature and involves a scientific process including isolation and removal of
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
encoding in a single gene from one organism, manipulating it outside the cell and reinserting it into the same organism or into the genetic material of another organism. The main goal for this process is to introduce a new or altered characteristic to the target organism for desired traits such as resistance to insects and GMOs can even be found in helping with the production of certain medicines and vaccines. ''GMO OMG'' outlines two types of GMOs used in farming, pesticide producers and herbicide resisters. Pesticide producers are plants that can kill insects with an introduced
toxin A toxin is a naturally occurring poison produced by metabolic activities of living cells or organisms. They occur especially as proteins, often conjugated. The term was first used by organic chemist Ludwig Brieger (1849–1919), derived ...
while herbicide resisters are immune to weed killer which allows farmers to use herbicides on crops leaving the plant unharmed. Seifert claims that commercial farmers utilize GMOs to produce crops faster for more profit while private owned farms continue to use traditional farming methods because of their dedication to maintaining the most natural process of growing food.


Peasant movement of Papaye

''GMO OMG'' includes a brief segment on the earthquake that hit
Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...
in 2010 with a 7.0 magnitude, not only destroying the homes of Haitian's but also their food crops. Monsanto offered Haiti's citizens 475 tons of seeds for farmers to regrow these crops that were destroyed in the process. Haitian farmers and citizens of the Papaye Peasant Movement, an alliance of people who fight to provide unity of all the peasants of Haiti and promote cultural and economic growth, did not consider this to be helpful, according to the film. The Haitian peasants believed that Monsanto had ulterior motives. Monsanto is a well known corporation in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
known for their involvement in the agricultural industry, however, the Haitian's believed their gratuities were only due to corporate greed and in the interest of obtaining more profits. Consequentially, this friction between the Peasant Movement and Monsanto created unrest among the Haitians. Haitians showed resistance towards the company by burning thousands of pounds of seeds and refusing to use their GMOs. Executive Director Chavannes Jean-Baptiste, who is also the spokesperson for the National Peasant Movement of the Congress of Papaye, called Monsanto’s donation of seeds an attack on small agriculture, farms, biodiversity, Creole seeds, and on the remnants of Haiti’s environment.


Monsanto

Monsanto The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best-known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed ...
is a corporation involved in the bio-tech and agricultural industries. The bio-tech industry is an industry that specializes in the production of GMOs. Monsanto is most known for their developments in GMOs, however, their success has affected private industry farms and legislation in certain states because of its superiority in biotechnology, according to ''GMO OMG''. In the film, Seifert highlighted that Monsanto has been involved in lawsuits over matters such as
patent infringement A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
due to cross pollination of GMOs in commercial farms to plants in private farms. This cross pollination happens when pollen from GMO crops is carried for miles by insects, birds, and the wind to other crops that are then pollinated with the GMOs creating legal crops containing GMO embryos making seed saving a patent issue. Monsanto also threatened to sue the state of Connecticut for wanting to instill a GMO labeling provision that would require products using GMOs to be labeled. Seifert made an attempt to speak with Monsanto and traveled to one of their locations but was immediately kicked out when he asked if he could speak to them about their GMOs.


Reviews and criticisms

The documentary received mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes rated the documentary at 56% approval rating based on 16 critics' reviews, with an average score of 5.25/10. Jeannette Catsoulis of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' calling it, "a gentle, flyover alert to obliviously chowing-down citizens ... without hectoring and with no small amount of charm".
RogerEbert ''RogerEbert.com'' is an American film review website that archives reviews written by film critic Roger Ebert for the '' Chicago Sun-Times'' and also shares other critics' reviews and essays. The website, underwritten by the ''Chicago Sun-Time ...
.com claims that ''GMO OMG'' is an advocacy film inspired by Michael Moore's "'' Roger and Me''", a documentary in which Moore sets out to find the answer to why General Motors closed all of its plants in Flint, Michigan beginning in 1978. Simon Abrams, the writer of "''GMO OMG''"'s review on the Roger Ebert website, states that "Seifert's arguments are dependent on unconvincing testimony and leaps in logic" and that "Seifert is apparently mistrustful of scientific terms, studies, and concepts". RogerEbert.com gave "''GMO OMG''" a one star rating out of a possible five. Michael Specter of the New Yorker wrote a scathing review of the documentary in which he dubbed the film "aggressively uninformed". Specter furthers Abram's notion that the documentary is based on the unreliable testimony of witnesses who are not actually scientists, and that Seifert's film is characterized by intellectual laziness. ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
'' wrote a review titled ""GMO OMG" SRSLY? An #EpicFail in Exercising Our Right To Know", which debunks Seifert's verdict of "science is still out" on whether GMO's are harmful or not. Ferris Jabr, the author of the article, claims that ''GMO OMG'' utilizes biased research and statistics that are taken out of their original context.


References


External links

* * * {{rotten tomatoes, gmo_omg 2013 films Anti-GMO movement American documentary films 2013 documentary films Documentary films about agriculture Documentary films about environmental issues Pseudoscience documentary films American independent films 2013 independent films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films English-language documentary films English-language independent films