University of Wisconsin - Extension

It's a brave new world for food producers and consumers. Food Fight: Wisconsin's Biotech Crops, a new documentary from http://www.wpt.org">Wisconsin Public

Television (WPT), surveys the changed landscape and reports from the front lines.

Food Fight: Wisconsin's Biotech Crops premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday,

Nov. 13, on WPT, with an encore broadcast at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27.

An estimated 70 percent of food in the grocery store today is created

using genetic engineering. Food Fight asks the question, Should

consumers care?

Sometimes genetic manipulation makes crops such as corn need less

pesticide. Sometimes it allows herbicides to be used more easily,

which leads to more spraying. Altering genes speeds up a breeding

process that can take years through conventional methods.

Food Fight: Wisconsin's Biotech Crops, produced by Liz Koerner, talks

with an array of people with perspectives on genetically engineered

food. Those appearing include scientists involved with gene research

and academics who question unleashing forces into nature that

humanity cannot necessarily control.

The program talks with a grain farmer using no-till methods, and he

says the modified crops reduce the pesticides he puts into the

environment - and boost his bottom line. A certified organic dairy

farmer says the holistic approach he uses is more in harmony with

nature.

A representative of the biotech food industry talks of balancing

benefits and risks, while a consumer is concerned that engineered

food products may mask allergens that affect her children.

Food Fight looks at potential health and environmental impacts of

genetically engineered food. It poses questions and finds that there

are no easy answers. While the debate is sure to rage on, consumers

can find out the lay of the land by watching Food Fight.