"The idea that the poor are genetically different from the rich or that men are naturally more intelligent than women may seem laughable but it’s an argument regularly used as a social weapon to stall the advancement of equality and maintain the status quo. Since the discovery of DNA, the idea that genes are somehow responsible for everything has permeated society."
The march towards the dominance of GM products in agriculture started 15 years ago but where will it end? Today in Argentina all agriculture is transgenic but after 15 years the weeds have adapted and the Glyphosate no longer works. In response farmers have started using hazardous chemicals in an indiscriminate and unregulated manner. In some areas the rate of serious genetic deformities in children has exploded. We meet the families and doctors convinced that living so close farms is the cause.
The boundaries between man and machine, between technology and nature, are becoming increasingly blurred and might even disappear completely in the future. Information technology, genetic engineering and nanotechnology are not only making considerable inroads into society, but also more and more directly into human nature. The day when Homo sapiens is able to consciously design and radically change himself is not far away.
Is it the latest gene scandal or a blessing for medicine and agriculture? CRISPR allows scientists to change the genetic material of all living organisms. Researchers are developing therapies for incurable diseases; plants with new characteristics are being created. But the designer baby is also within reach. How far should medicine or agriculture be allowed to go? Researchers, ethicists and critics do agree: society urgently needs to debate the chances and boundaries of genetic engineering.
Beautifully shot and interweaving interviews with scenes from soy fields in Paraguay, Raising Resistance explores Latin American farmers’ struggle against the expanding production of genetically modified soy in South America. Biotechnology, mechanisation, and herbicides have radically changed the lives of small farmers in Latin America. For farmers in Paraguay this means displacement from their land, loss of basic food supplies, and a veritable fight for survival.
