See ‘Genetic Roulette’ At Next Week’s Plow To Plate Event At The Coop

On the second Tuesday of every month, the meeting room above the Park Slope Food Coop fills with neighbors interested in the industry, politics, and culture of food. They gather to watch a thought-provoking film, take part in a Q&A, and enjoy some delicious refreshments — all for free, and for members and nonmembers alike — and it’s called Plow to Plate.

Review by Adam Rabiner

Last November’s Plow to Plate screening of GMO OMG raised a lot of questions about GMOs such as what are they, why don’t we know more about them, are they bad for you, and are they immoral. The film was a critical investigation and exploration of GMOs raising important scientific, political, ethical, and health concerns. If GMOs were on trial, GMO OMG would be the opening salvo of the prosecuting team — a junior lawyer stirring up the pot with innuendo but light on the hard evidence.

January’s follow up, Genetic Roulette, on the other hand, resembles a big gun expert lawyer such as Alan Dershowitz prosecuting until the jury is left with no choice but to convict. If GMO OMG mixes inquiry with outrage and a dose of uncertainty, Genetic Roulette lays all questioning aside and argues without a trace of doubt that GMOs are the root cause of Americans’ current health problems.

And the list of problems that Genetic Roulette lays at the feet of GMOs is quite a long one: food allergies, inflammations, leaky guts, gluten intolerance, gastro-intestinal digestive disorders, diarrhea, autoimmune deficiencies, kidney and heart disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, autism, cancer, Alzheimer’s, premature aging, asthma, eczema, birth defects, fertility issues, miscarriages, and behavioral and other problems. While these illnesses have always existed, their prevalence drastically increased in the early- to mid-1990s, exactly the time that GMOs were approved by the FDA and started to become part of the food system. Coincidence? Not likely.

Genetic Roulette’s core argument is that GMOs are foreign, alien bodies never before seen in nature that are sickening and killing humans and animals alike. At the time of GMOs’ approval by the Food and Drug Administration, there were internal concerns and divisions about their safety, but these reservations were overridden by the then head of the agency, Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto lawyer.

After Genetic Roulette finishes its closing arguments, jurors will most likely have decided that GMOs are guilty as charged, and also to have kicked their own gambling habits. Fortunately, much of the damage attributable to GMOs is reversible. A sustained diet of organic, non-GMO foods frequently brings about a clean bill of health.

But let’s not leave the decision about GMOs to consumers alone. GMOs are prevalent in most of the food we eat and difficult to identify without clear labeling. Genetic Roulette would argue that just as New York State recently banned hydraulic fracturing (fracking) due to its uncertain health effects, the same political courage is necessary to end a similarly dangerous scientific experiment in which American consumers play an unwilling and unacceptable part.

Genetic Roulette: Tuesday, January 13, 7pm
Park Slope Food Coop, 782 Union Street, 2nd Floor
Free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.