The Story of Food

USC Canada's new short, animated film will get you thinking about our broken food system. It identifies whats gone wrong, and what we can do to rebuild it. The Story of Food by USC Canada is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

USC Canada would like to thank Chris Mullington and the team at TV Factory for their assistance in producing the Story of Food.

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Nonprofits & Activism

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• story of food

[boonw]

@BasserBriguy5

"a famine does not occur"

Tell me, where do all the famines in the world happen?

Oh yeah, its those countries that DONT have small crop variety. The countries that do dont get famines.

Oh, btw: corn isnt our only crop. All that would happen with a super corn virus is an increase in the price of corn.

[boonw]

@BasserBriguy5

"Genetic diversity allows for mutations that create new disease resistant strains"

Gentic modification can totally do that, only WAY better. In the central USA, non-GMO corn production went through the roof. They found it was because GMO crops allowed for better containment of pests and disease.

[boonw]

@BasserBriguy5

"There are many environmental costs that occur such has soil degradation and water pollution"

Blame the method, not the practice. Farmers are essential to the success of society. Tell me, have you ever eaten food that WASNT grown yourself? GMOs can be used to prevent soil degradation.

"Genetic diversity"

My first comment referred to crop variety, not genetic diversity.

[BasserBriguy5]

@boonw Reducing crop variety is a GOOD thing for farmers in the same way that chemical companies polluting rivers is good for chemical companies. It's good for the producer but bad for civilization as a whole. There are many environmental costs that occur such has soil degradation and water pollution. Genetic diversity allows for mutations that create new disease resistant strains so that when your 1 variety of corn gets a mutated disease we can't treat, a famine does not occur.

[boonw]

@ClaireBecky

Several reasons:

1) A lower amount of crops (about a hundred conventional crops per area) make it very easy to market, produce, and sell food items, as well as limiting allergies

2) It allows for the more widespread production methods, limiting land clearance

3) The reason we mainly use the couple dozen crops is that they are hearty, have good nutrition, and produce very good yields. These people are telling the farmers that need better crops the most to keep their shitty ones.

[ClaireBecky]

@boonw yikes they're selling & you're buying eh? how on earth can less diversity in our crops be a good thing?

[boonw]

@nathanrj666

"Additionally, monoculture leaves a farmer more susceptible to diseases"

Luckily we have GMOs now to take care of that, as well as chemichals that you mentioned.

By the way, most the chemichals we use are safe for humans, but not for the targets. Thats why we have to use different chemichals for weeds, fungus, insects,and even mites.

The FDA isnt stupid, they make sure to keep tabs on whats going in our food

Life expectancy has only gone up since the introduction of these chems

[boonw]

@nathanrj666

"monoculture (growing only crop) has been show to degrade the soil"

Thats why we typically use something called crop rotation and fertilizer.

"degrade the quality of the food and decrease the yield over time"

In asia, they have grown rice in the same feilds for thousands of years. Those feilds are still doing fine. Its not what you grow, its how you grow it, and to degrade your soil is to lower your property value and yeild. As such, they are typically well taken care of.

[nathanrj666]

@boonw please note, however, that while yields increase in the short term, monoculture (growing only crop) has been show to degrade the soil and therefore degrade the quality of the food and decrease the yield over time. Additionally, monoculture leaves a farmer more susceptible to diseases, which can only sometimes be fought by adding more harmful chemicals.

[boonw]

This video makes people stupid simply by watching this. I wouldnt trust these people giving advice on how to turn on a washing machine, let alone any important decisions.

Let me adress one point in particular. Reducing crop variety is a GOOD thing. The reason small local crops are being replaced is because they suck. Sure, you can bitch about how the diversity is going down, but tell that to a farmer who has had his yeilds doubled by switching to a better crop.