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Cash Investigation: Seeds of Profit

Sixty years of producing standardized fruit and vegetables and creating industrial hybrids have had a dramatic impact on their nutritional content. In the past 50 years, vegetables have lost 27% of their vitamin C and nearly half of their iron.

Take the tomato. Through multiple hybridizations, scientists are constantly producing redder, smoother, firmer fruit. But in the process, it has lost a quarter of its calcium and more than half of its vitamins. The seeds that produce the fruits and vegetables we consume are now the property of a handful of multinationals, like Bayer, and Dow-Dupont, who own them. These multinationals have their seeds produced predominantly in India, where workers are paid just a handful of rupees while the company has a turnover of more than 2 billion euros. A globalized business where the seed sells for more than gold.

According to FAO, worldwide, 75% of the cultivated varieties have disappeared in the past 100 years. Loss of nutrients, privatization of life, We reveal the industrialists’ great monopoly over our fruit and veg.

PRODUCTION INFO

  • Year: 2019
  • Duration: 52 mins
  • Production: Premieres Lignes
  • Director: Linda Bendali
  • Available Versions: ENG, FRA, ESP LATAM
  • Country of production: France

VOD LINKS

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

  • Best « One Hour » film Award at Fredd Festival International du Film d'Environnement 2020 (France), Festival du Film vert 2020 (Switzerland), Ekotopfilm Envirofilm Festival 2020 (Slovakia), Hunger.Macht.profte festival 2020 (Austria), FINCA Festival Internacional de Cine Ambiental de Buenos Aires 2020 (Argentina), Life AFter Oil International Film Festival 2020 (Sardinia, Italy), Science Film festival 2020 (Thailand and various countries in Asia, Middle East, AFrica etc), Globale Mittelhessen Documentary Film Festival 2020 (Germany), CZU Film Festival 2020 (Czech Republic), Matsalu Nature Film Festival 2020 (Estonia), Sustainable Living Film Festival 2020 (Turkey), Nominated in Lifelong Learning category of Japan Prize 2020 (Japan)

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