The World According to Monsanto presents a compelling case about the damages caused by Monsanto’s genetically modified organisms and their pesticides. The film outlines the company’s history of hiding evidence of some of these proven damages and of its history of placing profits before safety. It sheds light on Monsanto’s recent influence on the regulatory process and how it intimidates farmers to protect its products. The film also reveals the unfortunate consequence of how their genetically modified plants are cross-pollinating naturally grown produce.

The case against Monsanto made in this film is quite convincing. The interviews are relevant and poignant and the evidence is well-researched.   The filmmaker, Marie-Monique Robin uses a series of Google searches to frame the film. I found this choice unfortunate because some of the searching she does undermines the power of the rest of the research. For example, she points to a Wikipedia article that clearly shows a “citation needed” tag. However, many of her other searches reveal relevant and important facts and the preponderance of the other evidence support her case.

After watching several films for the committee, I am seeing an interesting correlation among several of the films, including this one, Blood and Oil, I.O.U.S.A. and Consuming Kids. These films all point to deregulation during the Reagan administration as one of the causes of whatever issues these films focus on. I am curious to see if any of the remaining films also point to this period of history as a turning point.