All language subtitles for Seed.The.Untold.Story.2016.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC-[YTS.MX]

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(calm and earthly strings music)

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(seeds shake and rattle)

(soft and chill strings music)

- When I first came here,

we are a hippy, back to
nature, self-sufficient thing.

We were watching too many David
Crockett, Daniel Boone movies,

and reading too much Thoreau.

(man sings song in foreign
language)

We were trying to seek a
different vision.

The first time I saw
bean collections and so on,

it was like woo, a jewelry
store, lit up,

and I've always just
been dazzled by diversity.

I don't like people that are
all straight, all gay, all

communist, all Christian,

let them all be there, and
absolutely the different kinds

of seeds.

My great grandfather was a
farmer.

Looking through our family
photo album,

I just wish that I could like
somehow step into that photo,

say Hi great grandma. It's me,
Billy,

"can I have some of these?"

because I know for a fact

that 90 something percent
of the things are now extinct.

They're my family, and they're
gone.

I have this horrible vision
someday

that the creator would look down

and he'd come look around and
say,

Well, where is this,
well where did that go?

"I created this, where did it
go?"

"How come it's not here?"

I see myself as Noah, not God.

Noah didn't get to decide

whether the crocodiles
came on the Ark or not,

or the black flies.

His job was to load ‘em on,

ok, that's my job.

I have thousands of
varieties that I am maintaining,

People of the future, plant
breeders, and gardeners, they

will decide.

What the heck did Will save
that for?

I don't get to make that
decision. My job is to keep

these all on the Ark,

keep them alive for 40 days and
40 nights until the flood's

over.

I may discover 10 years from now

that that seed will be in huge
demand

because it has in its genes

some resistance to some disease

which is only now evolving.

In many many cases,

what I've got is not
available anywhere else.

She's my sweetheart.

The year that I fail to grow a
variety is the year it is lost

to me.

And in some cases
perhaps lost to the planet,

some of these things are
right on the edge of extinction.

(calm and relaxing strings
music)

We have this collection of
several hundred potato

varieties,

potatoes that are purple or
black skinned

and with yellow flesh,

some with a purple skin
hot pink flecks in them.

We have in the collection
a variety of lumpers.

Most of the Irish in the 1830s
and 40s were growing lumpers,

big yielder,

and none of those varieties

had any resistance to late
blight.

This is the potato that
killed a million Irishmen.

Because of the fact that
they were the one or two,

or three varieties that
were totally vulnerable.

This is the variety that
explains why O is the

biggest section of the
South Boston phone directory.

Genetic diversity is the hedge
between us and global famine.

(soft, somber strings music)

- The diversity in our seed
stocks is as endangered

as a panda or a golden
eagle or a polar bear right now.

We have the largest seed
shortage in history.

(moves into calm ambient music)

- It's this beautiful dance

between the plant and the
humans,

that find each other,
and make a culture possible.

In Mesoamerica over 10,000
years ago,

corn found humans, and humans
found corn.

- Corn really is this beautiful
co-creation between plants and

humans.

The domestication of corn was
centered in the Oaxacan Valley

of Mexico.

The incredible evolutionary
leaps that we took with corn is

a miracle.

It ignited this sacred
connection that we had with

seeds.

Corn seeds moved along the
entire spine of the Americas.

It became this revolution,

it became this new way of
being able to feed ourselves.

- It's what fueled you from
a small tribe to an empire.

Spies and traders and anyone
who was around

and saw what it was doing
grabbed a handful and took off.

It took 4,700 years to
get it to the U.S. border.

Then about a thousand years ago,

corn is everywhere in what
we now call the United States.

(moves into soft and melodic
music)

- [Rowen] Corn becomes
so elastic and adaptive

that now we see corn being
grown on every continent.

- As keepers of the corn,

the corn has come up with us
though our migrations,

sustaining us.

(man speaks in a Native
American language)

Our first mothers were the Blue
Corn, and White Corn women.

This is my grandmother, my
grandfather,

my mom, my dad, my brother, my
sister,

my kids, my grandkids and
myself.

We all are one.

- My father said "Son",

"never, never let go of the
corn."

"When I pass on,"

"carry on the way of the corn."

I've always been a farmer all
my life.

From the day that I can
remember,

I was out there with my
grandparents,

my uncles and my father.

The spiritual people gave us
the corn.

They say when the corn hears
you,

then they start dancing with
you with the leaves fluttering.

Crow, crow damage,
but we still bring it in.

Everything is brought in.

People are too attracted
to the big and beautiful.

But the Hopi woman and man say
that

even this little one here is
special,

because every corn seed has
life.

Everything is special.

And I'll plant these, I'll
plant this.

We don't throw them away.

We take care of them.

In the womb, human people are
seeds.

We see the seeds,

being planted into the
womb of the mother earth.

They may be calling me daddy

and say "Daddy, I'm glad
I'm here with you," you know,

'cause these are my children.

(seeds rattle softly in jar)

- Indian people, we talk in one
language,

the language of the seeds.

The most important thing in my
heart

it's taking seeds anywhere I
can go.

My grandfather tell me one time,

"This is very important for
life,"

and he put me before he died,

before he died he put me,

full of the seeds in my
hand and he said this is life.

And put always in your pocket.

Because if you have seeds in
your pocket,

you can walk and eat the seeds

and if you have money,
you cannot eat the money.

This is gold! Seeds, they
are our own medicine.

When we have to eat, we
give a little bit to the earth.

I am working now for seven
years in Tesuque Pueblo.

We lost our seeds,

we lost our food.

Pero, when you losing the seeds,

you losing completely your
traditional ways of eating.

I bring some of the crops

to these Pueblo people.

Quinoa, Amaranth.

The lost crops of the Incas.

It's part of this prophecy,
the condor and the eagle.

Exchanging seeds, exchanging
knowledge.

In all these bags you see,

we have different type of the
seeds.

These seeds,

they're not very happy because
they're one on the top of the

other one.

They are beginning to tell
us We need a new house.

A place where they can have a
home, like us.

(soft and calm flute music)

- Native Seeds/SEARCH is a seed
bank.

(seeds crackle off husk)

Most of the seeds came to
us through Native Americans.

As modern creatures, we're in
debt to that.

They are the last expression of
these stewards going back

thousands of years

that took care of these things,
and made sure that we got them.

I had somebody the other day
call this Fort Knox. (laughs)

There's just so much wealth in
here.

There's about two thousand
different varieties of

invaluable agricultural crops.

All 38 generations,

all this energy comes down into
the seed,

you get to hold it and then all
the future

and the millions more
that can come out goes out.

And you are at that point when
you hold those seeds in your

hands.

Right here is the mother corn.

This is the ancient ancestor
from which all corn came.

And that's what we're losing.

I mean we just don't
have the time left again

on this small planet
to recreate all this stuff.

That's why it's so invaluable.
Once it's gone, it's gone.

Seeds are living embryos.
They do have a life span.

(calm but melancholy music)

We try to grow everything
out every 10 years,

that's why we have the 60 acre
farm here.

We are hugely vulnerable
with all of those seeds.

You think about crimes against
humanity,

blow up a seed bank in war.

(loud explosions)

It becomes an immediate
target to weaken a country.

(loud explosions)

- When we invaded Iraq,

we destroyed that seed bank
and we destroyed that garden.

And we destroyed that repository
of the great ancient seeds

that had been collected by that
government

for the benefit of mankind.

(machine gun clanks and fires)

(bomb explodes)

(cannons explode)

(metal creaks)

- During World War II,

Hitler was aiming to conquer

Nikolai Vavilov's seed
bank in Saint Petersburg.

And the people associated
with that seed bank

holed themselves up in the
building

and kept those seeds protected,

even though they were starving
to death

and missiles and bombs
were landing all around them.

(moves into soft and
relaxing strings music)

- I remember gardening
with these little hands.

Now they have gardens of their
own, and children of their own.

If there's no one to pass that
seed onto,

that living link and
that living seed is lost.

These are grandpa's Morning
Glories,

the seed that started the whole
movement.

When we started Seed Savers in
the 70's,

we didn't have anything,

we just had an idea and a dream

so we had thousands of
beans in my living room.

It was now our responsibility
to keep all those bean varieties

alive

what we've saved over
those years is irreplaceable

and if we hadn't started then,
we would've lost a lot more.

It's always amazing to me

when I started out
with two varieties of seed

and now I'm here looking at
over 24,000 accessions of seed

that we're permanently
maintaining at the seed vault.

All of our seeds are
in air tight foil packs,

so they're not maintaining any
moisture.

We also store a backup
collection at the seed vault

off the coast of Norway, at
Svalbard.

- Svalbard has been called
the doomsday seed vault.

The idea is that if one
of these asteroids hits,

and causes a tsunami that
wipes out part of the world

or there's catastrophic
cultural and economic collapse.

You know, we see all the seed
banks in the world looted, just

for food.

The idea was to have a backup,

like the ultimate backup just
in case

the seed bank is destroyed
and they need their seeds back.

But the problem with it is that
we think that we don't have to

worry about this now.

It gives a false sense of
security.

- All the gene banks, they're
all arks.

Ultimately, life does not go on
in an ark.

I'm not confident that any of
us.

Have got something long term in
place

that can weather the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune

that might come our way

(rain pours intensely)

- We're now facing
severity of climate change,

the most radical we've
had since the last ice age.

This is happening at an
unprecedented rate

and it's putting pressure
on the diversity of life forms.

- You know this is the
driest they have seen

since 119 years.

- The Golden state's drought
the worst in over 1000 years.

- In northern New Mexico,

we have a series of drier and
drier years.

Normally, this time of the year,

we're going to get ready for
planting,

but there's not any moisture.

Usually, you'll hit a wet spot.

Lot of the animals begin to
feel the effects of the drought.

They consumed probably a third
of our corn

and all of our beans.

It's tough for everybody.

(calm but somber woodwinds
music)

- Our corn is among the few
places

that is environmentally adapted
to drought.

The Hopi grow corn with no
irrigation.

All of our ceremonies are for
rain.

(drums beat in unison)

You petition the clouds
to come and bless us.

We say in our prayers,
may the cloud people come.

(thunder claps)

May the Cachina people come
and visit us and bring us rain.

May the corn grow up and
produce their young ones.

You never lose faith in the
cloud people.

This is a way that my
prayers have been answered.

One day,

our corn will become very,
very valuable to human survival.

- It was very, very
fortunate when I was a child,

there was a fantastic tree.

My tree began from a tiny
little seed

and I spent hours and hours
up in the branches of that tree.

And how magic that it could
actually grow into a big tree.

That tree is still in the
garden today.

(moves into calm, upbeat music)

Seeds are so crafty.

There is a power, it's a magic.

To me it's magic.

It's a life force is so strong.

There are seeds that rely on
fire

There are seeds that tangle
up in the hair of an animal

They get carried for miles

There are seeds that can't
germinate

unless they pass through
the gut of an animal.

Darwin was amazed that a seed
grew

after it had been 21 hours
in the stomach of an owl.

- A seed is a doorway

between the life of the old
plant

and its gift to the new plant.

Our teachers are the plants.

And they're teaching us

that they have to sacrifice
themselves

in order to be able to give
something

to the next generation.

It's a form of reincarnation.

(moves into serene and calm
violin music)

- [Patrick] Come on in.

- Come on in.

Hello Hello.

- Come on in, welcome.

- Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh this is amazing!

- Check it out, Check it out.

This is how we roll.

That's why they call me the
corn,

they call me the corn hippie.

- Guys, This is unbelievable.

- There's so much corn here,

I mean, right here in
these bags right here.

This one has 87 different kinds
of corn

from Urubama Vale. - Oh my God.

- This is from the sacred
valley.

It has to get certified
with the phytosanitary

with the Peruvian government.

And once we get it certified,

then we're ready to ship it
wherever we want to send it.

- That's astounding.

Look at that fava.

For all the crazy people
like me who sit there at night

and look at bags of beans,

it leaves us a mystery.

This is so precious.

No one even has an idea

how much they look like jewels.

They look like polished
agates, look at this one.

It must be artistic genius of
nature

that allows this to happen.

(soft, relaxing strings music)

I've gotta sleep with this one!

When I was six years old,

my parents asked me what
I wanted for my birthday,

and I said, Well I want squash.

I didn't want a G.I. Joe

and I didn't want a baseball
bat,

I wanted squash.

And I wanted those because I
wanted to save the seeds, and

grow ‘em.

My seeds are my kitchen table.

My seeds are my way of sharing
food

with people all over the world.

I've been to over a hundred
countries,

collecting thousands and
thousands of seeds

Here from Bolivia, looking
like a speckled Robin's egg

This bean here from Tanzania.

One that's coming from Zimbabwe.

A variety raised by the
West Virginia hillbillies.

It's exquisitely sculptured seed

of a trichosanthes gourd from
Vietnam,

The seed is a time capsule.

It's preserving things from the
past

but it's also bringing
things for the future.

And this is, uh.

I feel I have an obligation to
the world,

whether that's unbalanced or
not,

to bring this appreciation

to as big a swath of humanity
as possible.

This tiny little skinny
tree with really large leaves

is in the cacao family,

same plants that produce
chocolate.

And this is just a
distant relative of cacao

that still hasn't been
commercialized.

What if there's all kinds
of other seeds in nature

that have the potential
for food production?

- Way down there.

Feel the end of it?

- Yeah.

- [Man With Scarf] Can you hold
him? - This is what we just

harvested.

(soft, relaxing strings music)

- [Patrick] You know that these,

these have been known
to make grown men scream.

They say that you can
have a fever for several days

if they bite.

- [Jason] ‘Kay, this is called
Pietrina.

And it's for being used on cuts
and sores

and almost has the look of
iodine.

There's about 300,000
species of plants on the planet.

We come down to 30,000
different edible plants,

- You put 'em in your mouth
and just kinda suck on them.

- 120 are used on a really
regular basis

and most of humanity subsists
on a mere 10.

Beans, corn,

wheat, barley and rice.

Virtually nothing compared
to the bigger picture.

We should put particular
attention

to the seeds of wild plants

and figure out how we
can get those into cultivation

because they're part of the
biodiversity heritage that will

feed the world.

- Pick ‘em out of there,
Patrick. - There's a good one?

So we're getting a meal
on a wild plant here, dali dali,

which is one of the finest
roots in the world to eat.

Top chefs would go crazy over
dali dali, absolutely crazy over

it.

- So why don't we grow it more?

- [Jason] Back in 1700s,

Thomas Jefferson wanted
to get seeds of risotto rice,

And it was thanks to slyness

that he was able to carry out
some of this contraband seed

and raise it near
Monticello in the new world.

- To feed this expanding
continent

that immigrants were streaming
into,

we needed a diversification of
food crops.

In the 1890s, over a billion
packets of seed were distributed

for free

to farmers around the country.

The American Seed Trade
Association hired the very first

lobbyist

to stop the federal seed
giveaway as they called it.

They saw seed as a commodity,

something that could
be quantified, measured,

bought, sold, and traded on
stock markets,

just a number on a spreadsheet.

By 1924, the federal government
seed program would cease.

- These great industrialists
said, the only way we can

really make profit

"on American agriculture
is to invent a seed"

"that they can't save."

- And that gave birth to
the hybrid seed industry.

Hybrids were bigger and
better and produces more.

Success is yield.

Hybrid companies fueled that
fever to get the biggest and the

best.

Corn contests was rampant
throughout the midwest.

You were measured not by how
many times you went to church,

it was how good of corn you
grew.

Everybody was winning that had
hybrid corn!

If you save the seeds from
a hybrid and plant it again,

you get what I call Mr. Toad's
Wild Ride.

Recessive genes that
were hidden in the parents

express themselves again.

This is like the grandparents,
the grandkids start coming out

with all sorts of weird traits.

- A little more like the mom, a
little more like the dad, like

old uncle Harry.

Farmers took it for granted
that we go to a shelf in a store

to buy our seeds.

A profound change ‘cause seed
is the beginning of all of it.

If you're relying on
someone else for your seed,

then it's like you're relying
for someone else on your soul or

something.

This is like this
is where it all starts.

To not control that part of it

is a major abdication of
control and responsibility,

and yet we did it wholesale.

- It destroyed the natural seed
banks

and the seed practices of the
farmers.

(exhilarating but melancholy
music)

Hybrid corn was the
atom bomb of agriculture.

(bomb rumbles and explodes)

- Right after the Second World
War,

the Green Revolution starts in
Mexico.

When you hear about the Green
Revolution, people sometimes

think,

well you know that's about
windmills, and tofu powered

sandals or whatever it is.

The Green in the Green
Revolution

was never about
environmental consciousness.

The Green was meant to be the
opposite of a red revolution.

The visions of the Rockefeller
Foundation

kicked off the Green Revolution.

To provide cheap food,

so that people would remain
capitalism

and would not riot and become
communist.

This is about developing
kinds of seed that matter

for large scale commercial
farmers wherever they are.

The Green Revolution was taking
this rich knowledge of peasant

farming

that evolve over millennia

and tossing into the dustbin of
history,

replacing it with modern
industrial agriculture.

All of sudden, men in white
coats become the champions

and the sole arbiters of
knowledge about seeds globally.

- Seeds of the green revolution,

what are called the miracles
varieties.

They were bred for
taking up more chemicals.

The hungry industry of war
chemicals

wanted to deploy these
chemicals as agrochemicals,

trying to push chemicals into
agriculture.

- 90% of the seed that
we use to grow our food,

is owned by chemical companies,

by pesticide and by
pharmaceutical companies.

Now there's a huge conflict of
interest.

When the chemical companies own
the seeds,

they not only want you
dependent on the seed as a

farmer,

but they also want you
dependent on their chemicals.

We use 80 million
pounds a year of Atrazine,

just in the U.S.

Atrazine's demasculinizing
frogs and fish,

it can completely cause
males to develop into females.

Atrazine leads to promoting
breast cancer.

It's associated with
miscarriages and birth defects.

We should've learned this
lesson way back with DDT.

And we're just learning it over
and over, and over and over and

over again.

The big concerns are Cancers

that pesticides are associated
with.

My whole entry into this
area was because of Atrazine.

The actual manufacturer
hired me to look at Atrazine.

Novartis told me I couldn't
talk to people about my

research.

I couldn't publish it and I
couldn't write it, and I

thought, what do you mean?

Then they started
trying to manipulate data.

And that's when I realized,

I've helped the chemical
industry

keep this chemical in the
market that I know is bad.

And go home to my wife and kids

and go "Oh, guess what I did
today."

I did a study that
confused all the sciences

and now people don't
know that this chemical's bad.

Novartis and Syngenta
spent millions fighting me.

And when you look Novartis
and Syngenta's strategy,

the first thing that they
say is discredit Hayes.

They couldn't prove my science
was bad. They wrote down a

checklist of things

they were going to do to me,

to hurt my students,
to investigate my wife.

They actually wrote it down!

The first page in the
secret spy evil handbook

is don't write it down

or you eat it or it self
destruct, right?

I do everything I can
in a position that I'm in.

But you know what some of the
dangers are,

being an academic and
speaking out for what's right.

We all have to do it.

(waves crashing calmly)

(soft, relaxing music)

- We live in the most self
sustainable place on earth.

We can grow any plant
from Kakela to Hanalei.

It's such a cycle of life
around here

with the ocean and the land.

Hawaiians knew from the
beginning of time.

Our whole world revolves
around Aloha A'ina,

giving back to the land
because the land gives to us.

- Native Hawaiians have this
incredible agricultural system

able to sustain three
times today's population.

In the 1800s, plantation
agriculture happened in Hawaii,

and what you see is private
land ownership

happening in Hawaii.

(moves into calm and serene
music)

The original missionary families

are still the primary private
landowners.

The descendants of
the original missionaries

open up the first sugar cane
plantations.

The last sugar cane mill
on this island closed down

eight years ago.

And in its place biotech
chemical seed companies came in

and took over agriculture.

They say sugar ruled
Hawaii, sugar was king.

Well, now I would say the
biotech industry,

these chemical companies
are king in Hawaii.

(sings in Hawaiian)

I live in a community that
consists of

pure Native Hawaiian native
speakers.

I have waited for an
opportunity to own my own home.

And not just own my own home,

but a space as a single
mother to raise my children.

Many Hawaiians die waiting

for their opportunity

at an Hawaiian homestead.

I moved out here and at the
time sugar was just moving out

and the fields around us were
fallow.

I started to see different
fields pop up

that I've never seen before.

It alarmed me.

I had no idea what was, what
was happening,

what was taking the place of
sugar.

Then I started to
experience very bad allergies,

migraines and illnesses,

just not being able to get over
colds.

My doctor said, Oh you
have full blown adult asthma.

What I started to see

that the farmers were spraying
pesticides.

(moves into calm but somber
music)

They are spraying things at
night while we are sleeping.

My two daughters wake up with
blood-soaked pillows.

There's hundreds and hundreds
of acres

where these chemical
corporations test their seed.

18 tons of restricted
pesticides being dumped,

right next to schools and
neighborhoods.

- I'm a teacher at Waimea
Canyon Middle School

for the past 18 years.

There's ag lands adjacent to
our campus.

It is literally 100 yards
up wind from our school.

That's the field that they were
spraying, and we can actually

feel the mists.

I contacted Syngenta and said

we believe that drift is
occurring.

During PE,

a cloud of gases came over them

and kids just started dropping.

(car horn honks)

There was chaos on campus, it
was horrific.

(emergency vehicle sirens blare
out)

There wasn't enough
room in the health room.

About 140 children were seeking
assistance.

There was this effort by
administrators and politicians

to whitewash it over,

and immediately in the
newspaper,

you know, school evacuated
because of stink weed,

and that became the specious
explanation,

that became the story.

Teachers came together and
stood up.

Stop poisoning our children.

- Monsanto, Dow, Dupont,
and Hawaii and elsewhere,

they've got a blank
check to experiment with

any chemical they
want on these test plots.

You've got the most toxic
insecticides virtually

unregulated

by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.

(calm but serious strings music)

- The seed companies,
the chemical companies,

especially Monsanto,

use every means of control

to manipulate our government
and other governments.

They pour huge amounts of
money into political campaigns.

They pour huge amounts
of money into lobbying.

They have many of their own
people embedded

in the key decision making
roles in the U.S. Government.

- In 1992,

the approval of
genetically engineered crops

was done by Michael Taylor,

who was a lawyer for Monsanto

and went right from Monsanto
to working for the government.

Tom Vilsack was named

the Biotechnology Industrial
Organization's

governor of the year.

His law firm defended
Monsanto in the Supreme Court

and he became the Secretary of
Agriculture.

Here you have somebody who's in
control of agricultural policy,

absolutely linked to the hip
to the biotechnology industry

and to Monsanto's interests

The revolving door between
Monsanto and

government is going to
fast, it's almost dizzying.

- The corporations,

they said we wanna really own
these seeds.

We want patents on life.

It was fast tracked to the
Supreme Court.

It was a five-four decision
with Clarence Thomas,

in the lead of the five,

saying "Yes, you can patent
seeds, you can patent life."

Very few people know, but
Clarence Thomas was a Monsanto

lawyer.

- When I first heard about
the idea of patenting a seed,

or any kind of plant,

I was absolutely horrified and
I thought,

surely that'll never be allowed.

You can't own nature.

(soft and calm violin music)

- Under section 101 of the
Patent Act,

which defines what can be
patented in the United States,

you can only patent a
machine, a manufacture,

or an inventor's composition of
matter.

And I fail to see how a
seed can be either of those.

Monsanto takes one gene out
of tens of thousands of genes,

changes that, and says "No,
no, now we own the whole plant."

It's one of the most
extraordinary giveaways,

giving corporations
the natural reproduction

of all life forms,

saying you can make a profit

on every one of those
reproductions.

So they don't just own the
seeds,

they own all of the offspring
of those seeds, and patent them

forever.

(calm and somber music)

- The threat is there by
conglomerates to patent our

seeds,

legally saying they own it

because they're the first to
patent it.

We're the custodians of
this knowledge and the corn,

and how dare others take it
away.

- Once these corns get
contaminated,

there's no way you can breed it
out.

The only safe thing to
do is actually incinerate,

y'know I wouldn't feed it to
animals,

I wouldn't compost it
because it's in the DNA,

it's an abuse to seeds and
to us as indigenous people

- With the GMO seeds that are
out there.

We need to protect our seeds

We need to save our seeds
and we need to plant them

for the survival of our
communities

and survival of Earthmom.

- Our people know that
where there is wild rice,

there are Anishnabe.

It is our most sacred food.

We have harvested this
rice for thousands of years.

This wild rice doesn't grow
anywhere else in the world.

We engaged in a battle
with the corporations,

and with the University of
Minnesota.

(moves into calm but intense
drum music)

The University of Minnesota
wanted to genetically engineer

wild rice.

We were very concerned

That would potentially
contaminate our wild rice

so we fought them.

The first opposition
witness out of the gate

for three years in a row was
Monsanto.

They came out every time we
testified.

They said if the Ojibwe were
able to stop

the genetic engineering of wild
rice,

it would send a chilling
message to the biotech industry.

When they go and take that
dignity of that food from you

and turn it into something
else it is offensive,

it hurts our people, it
hurts us economically,

and it hurts us spiritually.

Wild should mean something.

And I would assume that that
would mean not genetically

engineered.

- Genetically modified plants,

it's doing something which
isn't natural in the plant

world.

(calm but exciting strings
music)

Genes from a completely
different species

are being introduced into these
plants.

And the plant fights.

The plant is not happy
to receive an alien species.

- You can put a pig in a room
with a tomato

and you can turn the lights
down low

and play some nice music
and you serve some wine,

but no matter how hard you try,

you're not going to get the
pig to mate with a tomato.

But the genetic engineers

can take genes from the pig
and force it into the tomato.

They've taken genes from
spiders and put them into goats.

They've taken human genes
and put it into rice and corn.

They're eliminating the
natural species barriers

and in a sense playing God.

- You shoot gold
particles laden with genes.

But it's a very unreliable
process,

so you have to also add
antibioresistance markers.

You also have to add viral
promoters.

And every genetically
engineered seed

is a bundle of bacteria,
toxins, viral promoters.

As we remove the barriers
between species,

mixing these genes and viruses,

the threshold also gets broken

for the spread of new
infectious diseases.

- A genetically modified seed
is the sorcerer's apprentice.

We have the capacity
to start all this stuff,

but we don't have the capacity
to stop it,

and when we manipulate a
species,

that is a kind of hubris
that we will pay for.

You can't see the difference
between genetically engineered

corn,

and non-genetically engineered
corn.

This is not seeable by a
consumer.

Independent scientists were
beginning to see indications

that consuming genetically
engineered foods

could have kidney and liver
damage.

We are seeing possible
reproductive issues

in laboratory animals,
these are peer reviewed science,

and now we're beginning to see
problems that could come from

them.

(moves into upbeat and rhythmic
music)

Wheat was the holy grail
for companies like Monsanto.

If they could have had all the
wheat in the United States be

genetically engineered,

that was really the holy grail.

- Monsanto spent ten years
developing the genetic modified

wheat.

Wheat farmers decided we did
not want them

to release a genetically
modified wheat.

We said "No, we're not doing
that."

We don't have to take the
chance to fool

with the genetic modified
plants.

We said "Nope, we don't
want it," and now we've got it.

- We thought that this had been
put to bed.

We thought those wheat
seeds had been destroyed.

Apparently not.

- The Department of Agriculture
had told us don't worry,

we can keep these seed trials
confined

and time and time again
they have failed to do so,

and they have escaped.

- Once you take that
stuff out of the laboratory,

there's a thousand things that
can go wrong

that lets that seed get away.

- As far as a duck can fly,
they eat seed,

and they excrete that seed,

and seed grows in place where
it wasn't intended. You can't

pull it back.

You can't put the
toothpaste back in the tube.

- International wheat
markets shut down for months.

That cost farmers hundreds
of millions of dollars.

USDA opened an investigation.

They've never been able to
discover

how the genetically engineered
wheat

got in the farmer's field.

- We're fooling with
Mother Nature in a way that,

quite frankly,

may end up not being
near as rosy of a panacea

as these seed companies want to
point out.

If our wheat is contaminated,
I'm out of business.

(calm but worrying guitar music)

- In 1998,

we were just beginning
harvesting canola

in the middle of August.

My neighbor had grown GMO canola

and our fields were
contaminated.

And a bus station phoned up

and I thought that's unusual

and they said there's
a parcel here for you.

Later on that evening, open it,

here's a lawsuit from Monsanto,

and I didn't think much of it!

What's this patent infringement?

Didn't even know what that was.

Our family lawyer looked at me
and he says,

Percy, I think you're in
trouble.

I said What for?

Well, he said,

They're charging you that
you have their GMO seeds,

and I said, What are GMO seeds?

The judge's stated that it does
not matter how you're

contaminated.

You violate the patent and
you no longer own your seeds.

That right should never be
taken away from a farmer.

You are taking seed that has
been there

for thousands of years
and put a patent on it

and say you own it.

Basically it's robbery.

To me, that's really a
violation of human rights.

Henry Kissinger said, "if you
want to control the country,

control the oil,

if you want to control
the people, control the food."

Vandana Shiva says, "If
you want to control the food,

control the seed."

(moves into soft, foreboding
music)

- When seed started to
become a patented product

sold by corporations,

you destroy seed freedom.

When a company as powerful
as Monsanto enters a country,

it starts to control that
country's decision making.

Monsanto started to buy
up Indian seed companies.

60 Indian companies can
only sell Monsanto seeds.

The companies will take
video vans into the villages.

They had every Indian epic.

And they would, very
cleverly, sell the seeds.

So Hanuman is carrying white
gold seeds

of Monsanto.

So when Hanuman comes
as a salesman of Monsanto,

they believe in them.

So that was the first trap
through which they took over.

Then they also told the farmer,

why are you using these
old seeds? Sell them to us.

A farmer has always had seed,

and a farmer would say, oh,
they're giving me some money for

the seed.

"I'll just get it from
my neighbor tomorrow."

Not realizing the neighbor has
also been approached in the same

way,

and the next village, and the
next village.

In one season,

this thing they called seed
replacement

has destroyed the
entire native seed supply.

You have a seed dictatorship
established,

then the farmer can't get out.

Farmers will be forced to come
back to buy seed every year.

We could have very,
very large scale famine.

But unlike all famines of
the past, no resurrection,

because every famine of the
past, seed was always there.

This time's famine will
be based on a seed famine.

What this free-trade system has
given us is

instead of seed being Of
the farmers, by the farmers,

"for the farmers and all
citizens,"

it is now seed For the
corporations, by the

corporations,

"of the corporations".

- NAFTA will create the
world's largest trade zone,

and create 200,00 jobs in this
country.

- When NAFTA was introduced

between United States and
Mexico,

all of the sudden the US was
selling

subsidized corn into Mexico

that was below the cost
of production in Mexico,

forcing a couple million
farmers off their land.

(soft, somber strings music)

- We are destroying the basis
of the world's agriculture.

(moves into simple and peaceful
music)

- Oaxaca is the region of Mexico

where subsistence agriculture
holds on.

The subsistence agriculture
is slowly being phased out.

But if that agriculture is gone,

we have lost that resources for
our future.

(women sings in Spanish)

(church bells chime)

(moves into soft, festive
guitar music)

(waiter speaks in Spanish)

(calm and relaxing sitar music)

- [Vandana] We have lost
over 270,000 farmers to suicide.

(somber orchestra music)

- Pioneer Dupont and DOW
chemical,

they have all the acreage leased

all the way up from the
mountains,

all the way down to the ocean,

and this is where all the
experimentation goes on.

This is the dust

that's blowing in the fields.

It blows over the cliffs and
into our homes

and we breathe this stuff.

The neighborhood is filled with
people who have passed away

of some form of cancer.

So many people back here have
died.

My wife, she got breast
cancer. She almost died.

We just could not gamble
with her life. She had to leave.

Then I started getting worse
and worse.

I would gasp for air.

If I stay here much longer, I
might die.

I have to move.

I'm getting weaker and
weaker and I can feel it,

that's the warning sign for me.

- These chemical corporations
occupy lands

that are considered very
sacred to native Hawaiians.

Our land, our aina, and
everything that comes from it,

that is our ancestor.

As a native Hawaiian, it's,
well,

it's a disgrace to our culture.

There really will be
nothing left for our children

if no one is willing to speak
up.

- The future of Hawaii is all
at stake.

Everything I love is being
threatened.

(protesters speak in Hawaiian)

I'm fighting for the whole
island.

Say something, or die.

(festive music)

Six thousand people, there
out of the love in their heart.

For our children, for
our land, for our ocean.

- I met with the chemical
companies.

They would say

No, we are not
experimenting with pesticides.

And they would tell me, this
is safe, there's nothing wrong

with this stuff."

Could you tell me what you are
spraying?

And they refused to tell me.

The more these companies would
lie to me,

I had to do something.

And that's when we started
piecing Bill 2491 together.

To get disclosure.

Could any of you disclose to me

the amount of general
used pesticide that you use

on an annual basis?

With all due respect, I
asked you an hour ago,

if you would tell me today

how much general use
pesticide you are using

and you said no with your
silence.

- I would say that I don't
think I would want to comply

with the bill as is.

- My second son here, Pa'
akatanao,

was born with an
extremely rare heart defect.

Because our son was dying,

his heart unable to pump
his own blood through his body

and endured nine surgeries
during those months.

All I know is that while
pregnant,

I took every precaution to grow
a healthy baby inside of me.

By not passing this bill, you
are telling me that I don't have

the right to know.

If I had known,

I would have chosen to
not expose my unborn child

as I innocently worked day
in and day out in Kai'kaha.

- If I seem a little emotional,
it's because it really hits home

to me

speaking on behalf of unborn
son.

My son has a condition
called gastroschisis,

basically the stomach is on the
outside.

I don't blame anybody but I
just want to stop the poisoning!

I have a baby in the world that
has to get cut open right away.

Consider this,

that something might be
wrong on this island, 'kay?

Something might be wrong ‘cause
children don't deserve this.

(speaks in Hawaiian)

- The trust is gone for these
companies.

The trust is gone.

And I don't know how they are
going to gain the trust back,

other than backing this bill,

and working with the
communities, you know what I

mean?

And you know, like I said
before,

It's time to put human
health over corporate wealth.

- They are suing the county of
Kauai

for the right to spray
poisons next to schools,

and these are the largest
companies in the world.

So we're gonna have a huge
battle.

- [Protesters] OMG, GMO,
people have the right to know!

OMG, GMO, people have the right
to know!

OMG, GMO, people have the right
to know!

- This is a historic battle.

They're fighting for a profit,
we're fighting for our lives,

(audience applauds)

and those who fight for
their lives do not give up,

do not let down, never say no.

- [Protestors] GMO has got to go

because we need to know!

GMO has got to go!

- No one said give me GM food,
anywhere.

This has never been
voted for by any community

anywhere in the world.

The reason Americans
are being condemned to eat

GM food is they've been
denied the right to know.

(exciting and festive music)

- 64 countries around the
world have some form of labeling

of genetically engineered foods.

The United States does not.

Monsanto and the other companies

are so frightened of labeling

because once people have a
choice,

why would they choose a product
that only offers them risks and

no benefits?

(calm but suspenseful music)

- I started Navdanya in 1987.

I named it Navdanya which means
nine seeds,

but also means the new gift.

Oh look at the birds. Going
above you.

I took inspiration from Gandhi.

Gandhi had dealt with a smaller
imperialism

of the British by taking
out the spinning wheel.

He said We will be free,
we will spin our own cloth.

And I said we will save our own
seed.

The seed will be the
spinning wheel of our times.

When I heard these companies
talk about patenting seed.

We will refuse to obey laws

that force us to accept GMOs
and patents.

We have launched a campaign
this year

for a global alliance for seed
freedom.

We need to protect
the diversity, integrity,

and freedom of life.

Give seed its own freedom

so that we as humans can have
our freedom

and the work we do for Navdanya

is to encourage farmers to
grow enough for themselves,

to bring respect back for their
own seed,

for their own farming.

Our community seed banks

are both the networks of the
farmers

as well as the distribution
network

for moving seed wherever it's
needed.

More than 110 community
seed banks have started.

If there's a drought, getting
drought-resistant seed.

If there's a flood, getting
flood-resistant seed.

So these are seeds of hope.

These are seeds that
do not lock you into debt.

And we are training the young
people to spread seed saving.

Because that freedom is tied-up
to our duty to the planet

and our duty to the future.

- For the farmer,

they're going to honor the
land and make it beautiful,

and you can only make it
beautiful through biodiversity,

and only when we have
the seeds of biodiversity

will the landscape be beautiful.

(people applaud and laugh)

- Y'know, there's that Garth
Brook's song The Rodeo.

Well for me,

the rodeo is going out into the
wilderness, and finding things

to eat.

It's like an obsession that
never ends.

Big, huge treasure hunt.

(calm and soft strings music)

When people say How
do we feed a hungry world?

What about the wild things?

- The devil's claw.

- We don't wanna get the sap.

Holy Moly! This is a male plant!

So this baby is pollinating
somebody else,

let's see who it's pollinating!

Look at the little nara melons!

Look at them! I've never seen
them before!

I've been waiting to get these
seeds

for probably 15 years.

And you would not imagine that
this would grow out in the

desert.

We get just a few of these
growing in a few places,

it won't be but a couple of
years and the people themselves

will be able to start growing
their own.

So a seed in this case
is extremely precious.

And what does that mean,
it's worth as much as gold.

You get up there and rub and I
am going to hold this tight. Get

up and rub it.

You let the wind catch it.

We're getting them out though.

We did good.

Acanthosicyos naudinianus, it's
called the gemsbok cucumber,

and these are one of the
treasures of the desert.

It should be edible.
Now if they are green,

what I've heard is they're
gonna burn the crap

out of your mouth.

You gonna try the first
one? Do we have a spoon?

- Oh look at that. - Okay.

Sweet?

- [Cameraman] What's it taste
like? - Tastes terrible.

- Does it taste bad?
- Yeah. (laughs)

(woman speaks in foreign
language)

- So, they're cooking them.

That gets rid of the hotness in
it.

You gotta poke a hole in
them so they don't explode.

Look at that!

(soft and relaxed strings music)

They're the original
botanists, aren't they?

I'm nothing, all I'm doing is
learning it in books, and

wanting to find out about it

but they're knowing everything
about it.

It's bigger than he said
probably

It's a group effort
digging up this monster.

- Unbelievable. - It's
incredible.

(group cheers)

- This is the incredible marama
bean,

Produces tubers up to 500
pounds.

About ten pounds?

It is a future potential crop

unlike any other on the planet.

And how many other
beans do you know produce

a giant, giant sweet potato?

How many others produce a giant
cashew,

macadamia sized nut?

This is an amazing plant.
(group cheers and claps)

The people in the Kalahari
depend upon this for survival.

It doesn't need water for 3
years and it can still survive.

You can go back eons and be
like a hunter walking out here

when he was just
surviving with the elements.

Strange thing to get impressed
with but I'm impressed.

We do have a beautiful world,

and something like this to me

is just a marvel the planet we
live on.

(man sings in foreign language)

- I don't suppose anyone's up
for the Merry Dwarves are they?

- We could try I suppose.
There's enough of us!

- I don't know, okay.

Hi Ho cried the Merry Dwarfs.

And then bump, bump.

The timing is all important,
just like with seed saving. Time

is a big deal.

Alright, let's hear it now.

- [Group] High ho

cried the merry dwarfs, dum dum.

It's off to the woods we, dum,
are.

We like to stay but
time is, dum dum, short.

I hope like the merry dwarfs.

- Magnificent, Magnificent,
that was it!

You did it, right off like that!

Woo! Okay!

(upbeat strings music)

Saving seeds is a gas.

Seed saving is all about sex.

And humans are all obsessed
with sex,

even if it's rutabaga sex.

You can hire someone
to come fix your plumbing.

I'm sure we know for
a fact that you can hire

someone to make love to
your spouse, for example,

and they'll sure as hell do
a better job than you will,

but no somehow we feel like,

"Nah, I really want to do that
myself."

Some things are just too
important.

This is right up there with
making love to your spouse.

So this is the office
where all my stuff is stored.

I don't know quite how many
thousands of varieties and

samples of seeds are here.

This is a horrible mess.

Uh, this is about as good as it
gets here.

I live in chaos

and this room is one of the
more chaotic parts of the house.

All of these boxes on top
are waiting to get refiled.

I never can seem to get enough.

I've tried to level off in
recent years to something that I

can handle.

Rutabagas, over here.

Sometimes thought that if
the house were to catch on fire

and I had to do something
very, very quickly,

hopefully I would first make
sure

that all the family were
all safely out, but somehow,

deep inside, I'm afraid that I
would probably rush in here,

smash out the windows and start
throwing boxes of seeds out to

the firefighters,

and hope that they understood
what to do with them,

don't turn the hoses on them or
something.

I have sweat a lot over
the things that I lose.

No one in the future can save
them, they'll already be lost.

I see no end, no end in sight,
except when I am cremated.

That concerns me sometimes,
who will take this over.

(calm and serene strings music)

(women sing in Hindi)

(easygoing and festive drum
music)

(low rumbling)

- Jack and the beanstalk is a
true story!

The idea we all laughed at,
that he would trade his pig or

his cow or whatever

for a handful of beans is like,

what a silly thing is that.

But if you think about the
potential

of the self replicating system

that's in your hand and what
it can potentially produce.

We should all trade in
everything we have

for a handful of beans.

One of our fairytales is
actually trying to teach us

that's unbelievably important.

(giant grumbles)

(soft and relaxing strings
music)

I woke up one night about
three o'clock in the morning,

I sat up straight in my bed and
I went,

ah seed school! We
gotta teach this stuff.

We got to open up a space
and teach them what we know,

to having this resilient fabric
again.

I'm going back to the 10,000
year old way of doing it.

To have everybody, everywhere,

saving and storing and
sharing their own seeds

regionally, the way it
always has been done.

- When we teach about seeds,

we rewrite ourselves back
into that evolutionary dance

between plants and humans.

We initiate a whole
new generation of people

who care for life.

It's the seeds asking
to be spoken for again.

As a Mohawk woman,

seeds embody the sense
of hope for the future

that we could create something
different,

a new paradigm for our children.

We have to make that promise to
the corn,

that we will nourish ourselves
from it

but we will also give back.

We have the house and the
blessing of the great spirit,

of the mother earth.

All the protectors and
the spirits of this land

and they say you guys
have to finish the seed bank.

(calm and serene music)

We beginning to make
the impact on our pueblo,

in our community.

Stone by stone, mud by
mud we have this building.

All these seeds they have
memory.

They happy in this moment.

(moves into joyous strings
music)

The seed bank, it represents
life.

(group sings in foreign
language)

- Those young men and women are
carrying on a tradition

of our community.

And I see the young people
happy and the corn is happy,

the birds are happy,
because that's who we are.

- We grow a really great
variety of squash.

Archaeologists dug down
and they came upon a clay ball

that was about this big.

And in that clay ball, they
shook it and they heard

something.

They cracked it open
and it was a squash seed.

They carbon dated it 800 years
old.

And I always laugh

because I say white guys
get to name things all the time.

So I'm gonna name this one
and I call it Gete-Okosomin,

which means really cool old
squash.

(moves into sweet and
lighthearted strings music)

- It's time for us to take back
that manna.

It's so important to get
back to our food source.

Take back that ability to
self-sustain

as our ancestors once did.

- This food forest here,
could feed hundreds of people.

We could be the self-sustainable
epicenter of the world,

and there's no reason we can't
be,

we can grow any fruit or
vegetable on these islands.

We planted 21 banana trees
today,

as a team as a family, we
can accomplish anything.

- And we went from this much
diversity,

took 10,000 years to create,

down to this pinch with
only four percent left,

and we're right here.

Right? And so we're gonna,
we're waking up.

We're gonna do this

it's knowing that in each
individual seed

is the potential to change it
all back.

(seeds rattle)

(moves into soft and melodic
music)

In the heart of the seed,
there's a story

Waiting to be born

Our grandmothers breeded,
our grandfathers breeded

Kindered the ancient call

In the heart of the
seed, there's a story to read

In the heart of the seed

There a whole tribe to feed

Our sweet savers know it

Our fathers, they grow it

And from that seed we are born

Mother nature for essential
for ascension for the land

Granulations are essential
for ascension in our life

Old creation from our beings
is essential for us to thrive

Anticipation for our nations
is essential for our tribe

For our tribe

Mother nature for essential
for ascension for the land

Granulations are essential
for ascension in our life

Old creation from our beings
is essential for us to thrive

Anticipation for our nations
is essential for our tribe

For our tribe