(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Something is wrong with seed production in the world. Sure, the tomatoes on the counter look great. Nice color. Even and firm in the flesh. No spots. Similar in size, and they keep well, of course. But what do they really taste like? In fact, almost nothing. But why do the tomatoes taste so little?
The fact that you and I could get sicker is not something the big seed companies seem to take very seriously.
according to Linda Bendali#s documentary Industry Scandal: The Loss Of Nutrients (2019) it is because there are hardly any nutrients in them anymore. Shelf life has come at the expense of taste and nutrients. The film is now available on YouTube, and it is well worth the hour it takes to watch it. This is an informative film and good investigative journalism. There is not much effort put into the aesthetic experience, so to speak. You will find few seductive photos or great soundtracks. But an important film, that is it.
Vitamins and minerals
As early as 2006, a research group at The University of Texas, led by Donald Davis, published a study showing that the content of vitamins and minerals in all planter has been alarmingly low since the 60s. Thirteen years later, director Bendali and her team find similar results. They compare a 70-year-old food table, which describes the exact nutritional content of fruits and vegetables at that time, with fresh data from modern nutritional levels. All XNUMX fruits and vegetableThe ones they analyzed, among other things, appear to have lost an average of 16 percent of calcium and 27 percent of vitamin C. The situation is even worse with iron, where they found that the current level is 50 percent lower than before. So we have to eat twice as much to get the same amount of iron in our food. Or take kosttilskudd, as many actually have to.
Seed dictatorship, GMOs, monocultures, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, soil depletion, heavy machinery, Yara and Monsanto
After the introduction from the French archives and a general overview of nutrient levels in various plants, the film narrows down, and the spotlight is directed towards tomatoone. It's understandable. A film that purports to examine industrial food production can quickly lead you into a labyrinth that's hard to get out of. Then you encounter the greed of multinational corporations, seed dictatorship, GMOs, monocultures, pesticides, artificial fertilizers, soil depletion, heavy machinery, Yara, Monsanto and the goat and the sack of oats – and you run the risk of getting lost in the labyrinth. So yes, that's understandable, but it also makes the film somewhat simple, because the themes are hyper-complex.
Do we have to eat twice as much to get the same amount of iron in our food?
The film's main theme is the hybridization of seed, using the tomato plant as an example. The point of hybridizing seeds is increased yield and increased profits. To achieve this, large yields and plants with the longest possible shelf life must be produced. The fact that the nutrient content is greatly reduced is of course something that the large French company Limagrain is keen on. Limagrain is one of the four largest seed companies in the world and is interviewed in the documentary. The fact that you and I can get sicker is not something they seem to take very seriously. I don't think the other three largest multinational companies, which deal in seeds and industrial agriculture, are significantly concerned about people's health either. We are talking about Bayer, which acquired the not-so-unknown Monsanto in 2018, Corteva (formerly DuPont) and SyngentaThese four companies control two-thirds of the world's seed production. This has enormous consequences for variation in biodiversity, seed prices and exploitation of cheap labor, to name just a few.
Hybridized tomato seeds
The filmmakers stop by the US, where they chat with the aforementioned scientist Donald Davis, before traveling further to Israel and interviewing a company that develops hybrid tomato seeds. The goal is tomatoes that can withstand a lot of pressure and have a long shelf life, preferably an everlasting tomato. With a hybrid tomato in the luggage, the team returns to France and performs a simple experiment comparing the shelf life of this tomato and a tomato from an old variety. The Israeli tomato shows no signs of decay until after three weeks. Specimens of the old variety become unsellable after one week. It goes without saying that if you increase the shelf life in a store by several weeks, the profit increases. But quantity does not equal quality.
India
After the trip to the seed hybrid mecca of Israel, the tour continues to India, where they investigate in more detail how Limagrain's seed production takes place. Hybrid tomato seeds cost twice as much as gold per kilo, so the profits for the producers are insanely high. But as is well known, it's important to keep costs down anyway, so the workers don't earn much. The dark side is big, and the film crew mostly found only women and children in the fields. The pay is too low for the men to want to work there. The women are only paid $2,80 per day, which is 40 percent below the legal minimum wage in India. Child labor is also illegal, something Limagrain denies that they participate in, although the film crew refers to their visit where they saw this with their own eyes.
Hybridized tomato seeds cost twice as much as gold per kilogram.
The conditions for agriculture today are grim. Seeds and food are like industry and chemicalsIt is scary that the food we eat contains so little nutrition, and hair-raising that the future of food production lies in the greedy hands of a few multinational corporations.
Fortunately, there are counter-forces. The film refers, among other things, to French Kokopelli seeds, which works to preserve old seed varieties. I myself open the site to American Rare Seeds right after I watch the movie and order tomato seeds. In Norway we have Sunbonnet, and in Sweden there are good old Runåberg's seed. Seeds are politics. And you can help drive that politics. If you are going to grow tomatoes this year, buy organic seeds of old varieties.
