Industrial agriculture meets peasant farmers – who wins?

I’m due to interview Bettina Borgfeld for visionOntv later today to talk about Raising Resistance, a film she co-directed with David Bernet about
the fight of the small farmers of South America against industrial agriculture.

The subject is one close to my heart, I covered a version of it over many years while working for Reuters as EU environment correspondent in Brussels and then again as an independent journalist following the trials of French farmers fighting against genetically modified maize produced by Monsanto and others.

Today’s film depicts this conflict as it plays out in Paraguay, describing the global impact of most of today’s genetic engineering on people and on nature. The film makers describe their documentary as a parable on the suppression of life, the diversity of plants and cultures, and how resistance arises both in people and in nature.

I will be working again with fellow independent journalist Glenn McMahon as part of visionOntv’s coverage of the Human Rights Watch Festival 2012 in London. He will be using an iPhone and iRig mic to shoot a no-edit video interview based on the visionOntv mobile phone interview template.

Before that happens, I need to watch the preview. Below you can see a trailer for the film, which is due out in May this year.

If you’re in London, you can catch it at the Curzon Soho at 6.40 pm or tomorrow at the Ritzy Cinema at 8.40 pm.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWBzhJUYsik&w=560&h=315]