10 Questions: An Interview with Jeremy Seifert of GMO OMG
This post is part of an interview series in which I ask fellow bloggers and noteworthy people ten questions about themselves, their work, and their top advice for those living a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle.
A few weeks ago, I received an email asking if I might consider interviewing filmmaker Jeremy Seifert, whose movie, GMO OMG, caught my attention last year when it was in theaters. I was flattered and really excited, and immediately watched a pre-DVD release of the film that was generously offered to me.
GMOs are a hot topic right now, but I’m not sure many of us (myself previously included) fully understand them beyond thinking we should avoid them. As you’ll see in Jeremy’s interview, he is incredibly articulate and fiercely passionate, and though this is a lengthier post, it’s a very important one. His answers to my questions are smart, honest, and actionable.
1. Let’s start with a really basic question that most people you interviewed were unable to answer: what does GMO stand for? (just so we’re clear)
GMO or “genetically modified organism” is the common term for engineered crops that are more accurately described as “transgenic” because they incorporate the technology of recombinant DNA. In short, scientists are able to take a gene from one organism (say, a flounder) and insert it into the DNA of another organism (say, a tomato).
There are two basic types of GMOs being grown: pesticide producers and herbicide resisters. A pesticide producer kills insects. Like Monsanto’s Bt corn, which produces a toxin lethal to insects. An herbicide resister is immune to weed killer, like RoundUp Ready Soy. Farmers douse their fields with RoundUp to kill every weed and unwanted plant. But even when coated in herbicide, the GMO soy plant remains unharmed.
2. What inspired you to create GMO OMG?
What first led me to make this film was a tiny story from Haiti. Months after the massive earthquake that leveled Port-au-Prince, ten thousand rural farmers marched in the streets against Monsanto. In the midst of their hardships, these farmers rejected seeds donated to Haiti by the giant agrochemical company, crying out “Down with Monsanto!” They symbolically burned Monsanto’s seeds which represented slavery, debt and the extinction of their own seeds and way of life. They stood unified in their fight for food sovereignty and native seeds as a common inheritance of all humanity. And at the time, I really didn’t understand what the big deal was and why they had taken this radical stance, so I went there to listen to their story.
I remember my very first conversation with Chavannes Jean Baptist, the leader of the Peasant Movement of Papaye (MPP). He began with a big smile on his face, saying “The objective of Monsanto is to make money. The objective of Monsanto is not the quality of food that people are eating. Monsanto’s objective is not to protect life. It’s not to protect the environment.”
Chavannes’ smile then disappeared, replaced with passion and urgency: “When people like me say these types of seeds are poisonous, when I say these seeds are destroying the life of the land and destroying the people, that’s when I attack the interest of Monsanto.”
He cut to the heart of the issue, and it was right there in the open for everyone to see. The agrochemical industry spews lies just like the lead and tobacco industries did before them; and we believe them until the truth finally bursts forth, usually from the work of brave scientists, researchers, professors and activists who risk their careers and reputations to go against the status quo.
Coming back home to the U.S. where GMOs aren’t labeled and most people don’t even know what they are, the wakefulness and courage I saw in Haiti inspired and motivated the journey I took across the United States. And the story became more personal for me as a parent raising children in a food market inundated with GMOs and chemicals.
3. Was there a particular moment during filming that stands out to you today as being especially memorable?
In Norway, Rod Hassler (Director of Photography) and I spent many nights doing time lapse photography of the stars, and everyone in Svalbard warned us that we needed a gun for polar bear protection. I really didn’t want to rent or buy a gun, so we just huddled together in the icy darkness listening to the camera shutter open for 15-second intervals, straining our ears between the clicks for polar bear feet crunching the snow. People had recently been killed by polar bears in the same area we were in, so it was actually quite intense doing those occasional sweeps of the dark landscape behind us with our headlamps, certain that a polar bear would be there.
4. How did making the film change the way you (and your family) live?
The filmmaking process paralleled my own journey of discovery, so it has impacted us very deeply. Mainly, we have shifted to almost 100% organic food in our home, and beyond this, we are growing as much food in our garden as we can. We aren’t perfect and know that isn’t realistic and might even be a negative thing for our kids. I put the Halloween scene in the film because things like that are a real struggle. We don’t want to completely unplug from the culture around us and fun traditions like that. But we also convinced them to trade us their candy for a cool toy, so they got to go out with their friends and have a few bites of nasty GMO-packed candy….then the rest of it went in the trash.
5. I think it’s probably safe to say that Pickles & Honey readers – being plant-based and whole-foods-oriented – are more educated on GMOs than the general public, but is there something you think we might be surprised to learn?
It might come as a surprise to see just how involved the U.S. Government is in the biotech industry. I encourage your readers to take a look at Food & Water Watch’s report, “Biotech Ambassadors: How the U.S. State Department Promotes the Seed Industry’s Global Agenda.” Through cables released from Wikileaks, the facts are plain for all to see that our State Department is pushing GMOs and the biotech agenda around the world. The questions is, Why? And how does this happen in light of the groundbreaking IAASTD Report which clearly shows that GMOs aren’t and never will feed the world. The IAASTD Report was funded by the UN and World Bank, conducted over three years in 95 countries with something like 500 experts and scientists concluding that the answer to feeding the world is found in small-scale agro-ecology, not in a heavily mechanized industrial model, laden with synthetic fertilizers, chemicals, and patented GMOs. Of course the U.S. rejected the report.
6. My personal opinion is that we should avoid GMOs whenever possible, but you’ve done exhaustive research on the subject. Is this your stance as well?
Yes. But it’s worth stating some of the reasons why I personally avoid GMOs because I don’t think it’s enough to avoid them for only one reason, especially if that reason is based in fear. Further, I don’t think it’s the right orientation to view this negatively, as in “avoiding GMOs,” because our lifestyle choices should be positive and assertive, investing in the good. So, here are a few reasons I avoid them:
1. Personal health: The long-term health effects are not known. Magazines like The Scientific American and pro-GMO scientists like Pamela Ronald will say that they are completely safe, and they will also use the language of “scientific consensus” to back up their claims. The last time I checked, over 1,200 scientists and experts around the world had signed onto a document stating that there is NO scientific consensus on the safety of GMOs.
2. Environmental health: When we manipulate nature in unnatural ways in laboratories and then release these “creations” into the environment, they do not remain apart. Everything is connected, interwoven, and in ways that we don’t completely understand or are just discovering. Because of contamination through pollen and gene flow, scientists are discovering varieties of corn with Roundup resistance that weren’t made by Monsanto or Dow Chemical or Syngenta. There are also wild relatives of genetically modified crops that have been altered and express GMO traits. These findings show that this technology cannot be fully controlled. Beyond the GMOs themselves, we have to look more closely at the chemicals they are paired with, namely Roundup.
3. Economy: When there is centralized, monopolistic, corporate control over our food and seed supply, this creates instability and fragility. We’ve seen it over and over, most recently and painfully with the economic collapse and housing disaster. Bill McKibben says in the film, “Anything that is too big to fail, is too big.” Overly centralized, monolithic systems where all eggs are in one basket invite catastrophic trouble. This model also destroys small businesses and local economies.
4. Ethics: Even if GMOs were definitively proven to not only be nontoxic but even somehow better for us, I wouldn’t eat them because of the system they are a part of. We are all discovering that we participate in the systems behind the things we purchase. If we have been reduced to mere “consumers” then our consumption of things cannot be separated from our sense of ethics and justice. The religious and spiritual cannot separate buying things from their spirituality and beliefs. I want to participate in systems that nurture the planet and each other, not systems of exploitation. GMOs as they are currently being grown and used fall into the exploitation category.
7. How can we make sure we’re not consuming GMOs?
Eat organic. Eat whole foods. And, for the most part, don’t eat out unless you know where that food comes from. Stop having dinner at friend’s houses. Don’t go home for Thanksgiving. Cancel Christmas dinner at the in-laws. Ha! I’m joking….sort of.
8. Do you think awareness around GMOs has changed since filming GMO OMG?
I started the film before Proposition 37 in California happened, before I-522 in Washington, and these two ballot initiatives had a huge impact on general wakefulness around the GMO issue. About halfway through making the film, so many people said that the timing of the film couldn’t have been better, which was just dumb luck….or maybe providence. I made the film because the story in Haiti grabbed my attention and my heart. I made it because I believed it was important and I had to do it. In that way, there was no choice really. I didn’t have my hand on the pulse of the nation and somehow intuited that the timing was ripe for this sort of film. I wish I was that smart, but I’m not!
9. Creating GMO OMG was clearly a huge undertaking, in large part because getting answers to your questions from companies like Monsanto is an uphill battle, to say the least. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking to take on a similar, big endeavor, what would it be?
Persistence. Determination. Passion. You have to at least have these three or you won’t be able to give what it takes. Passion is the biggest one because if that’s really there it will supply the determination and persistence. But you can’t do anything alone. Find people with skills and energy that compliment yours and who will help lift you up when the darkness settles in. Above all, don’t forget to live and play and laugh every day because losing your humanity while fighting for something good is frighteningly easy to do and a great tragedy.
10. My last question is one I ask everyone I interview because the responses are always so inspiring: if money did not matter, how would you spend your days?
That’s a hard one because in this system money always matters. Even if you have a zillion dollars so that it essentially “doesn’t matter” suddenly you find that it might matter even more because you have responsibility to use and manage it wisely. But if money just didn’t exist and I could just do whatever, I think I’d be doing almost exactly what I’m doing now. I would certainly be married to my beautiful wife, Jen, and have my three precious children, Finn, Scout, and Pearl. We’d probably spend time wandering around Europe.
I have worked really hard to make money (just enough) doing what I love. Isn’t that what we all want to do? But often that’s not possible and it’s never easy. I’ve worked as a garbage man, a mail courier, a construction worker, a warehouse grunt, a waiter, an English teacher, and many other jobs that weren’t exactly dream jobs or felt like I was fulfilling my destiny. But they all gave me invaluable experiences, shaped my character, and my view of the world and people. Isn’t that it? Life is what we make it. We choose our attitudes and outlook even when circumstances around us might be suffocating and difficult.
I might play with my kids even more than I already do if money didn’t matter, but on the other hand, I’d still be driven to spend a balanced portion of my time telling stories through filmmaking. Even with good, hard work (not workaholics), there’s plenty of time for hide-and-go-seek, tag, gardening, playing music and dancing….if we want it.
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In 2010, Jeremy completed his debut film, DIVE!, Living Off America’s Waste. Initially made with a $200 budget, a borrowed camera, and a lot of heart, DIVE! went on to win 22 film festivals worldwide. Jeremy’s second film, GMO OMG, is a journey in search of answers about genetically modified organisms and how they affect our children, the health of our planet, and our freedom of choice. Jeremy and his wife, Jen, live in North Carolina with their three children, Finn (8), Scout (6), and Pearl (3).
You can find GMO OMG on Twitter and Facebook, and buy or rent the film.
