Earth Day Documentaries

Got some time to spare?   Watch free documentaries online.  Happy Earth Day :-D

Addicted To Plastics -Addicted to Plastic is a documentary focusing on the worldwide production and environmental effects of plastic. The host takes a 2-year trip around the world to give us a better understanding of the life cycle of plastic.

A Farm For The Future - As the sky-rocketing fuel markets soar, it has a very strong impact on the farming community. As such, wildlife film maker Rebecca Hosking investigates how to transform her family’s farm in Devon into a low energy farm for the future, and discovers that nature holds the key.

Fuel  - An in-depth personal journey of filmmaker and eco-evangelist Josh Tickell, who takes us on a fast-paced road trip into America’s dependence on foreign oil.

The Future Of Food - A must watch film that brought the issues concerning GMOs to the forefronts of American viewer's minds.

The Power Of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil -  How the Cuban people adapted and embraced principles of permaculture as a method of curbing oil dependence.

The Slow Poisoning Of India - India is one of the largest users of pesticide in Asia and also one of the largest manufactures. The toxins have entered into the food chain and into the Indian breakfast, lunch and dinner. But there is a growing resistance to the dilemma as farms start resisting the GMO companies.

Other recommendations include: Food Inc., Dirt!, Coal Country, On Coal River

EPA Stripping Would Give Dirty Coal The Upper Hand

There is a war going on but it is not in some far off country, submersed in a misunderstood culture.  This war is happening on our own soil, or our soon to be lack-there-of.  This war is called Mountain Top Removal (aka surface mining.), a practice in which the soil and rocks of the earth surface are removed in order to extract minerals and in the case of the Appalachia, this mineral is coal.

What is left after this practice is a desert.  There is no soil to sustain the ecosystem that once existed here.   This was a landscape so special that it was capable of growing plants otherwise not seen in the US.  The unique terrain makes it ill-fitted for large scale mono-cultures but perfectly suited for small scale farms that could empower the people of Appalachia and cut off the confinements of corporate dependence.  We have suddenly lost this sustainable, agriculturally viable zone capable of vast permaculture practices that would provide and protect the environment. For what?

Traditional Knowledge, Biodiversity and Sustainable Living

This woman is inspiring <3. Vandana Shiva talks about the importance of restoring the food system to protect the integrity of culture, instill freedom, and resist theft by large corporations.

"Globalized industrialized food is not cheap: it is too costly for the Earth, for the farmers, for our health. The Earth can no longer carry the burden of groundwater mining, pesticide pollution, disappearance of species and destabilization of the climate. Farmers can no longer carry the burden of debt, which is inevitable in industrial farming with its high costs of production. It is incapable of producing safe, culturally appropriate, tasty, quality food. And it is incapable of producing enough food for all because it is wasteful of land, water and energy. Industrial agriculture uses ten times more energy than it produces. It is thus ten times less efficient." - Vandana Shiva

Farmers Taking On GMO Giant, Monsanto

Few areas interest me like that of GMO's (Genetically Modified Organism) and their infiltration into the american agriculture system.  Becoming a fast friend to mono-culture and the hidden bane of small farmers, GMO companies did a good job smoke screening themselves by capitalizing off of the tragic stories of foreign famine and providing a crop output that could not compare to conventional methods via space-age science methods applied to standard, staple crops.  But they were also pioneers on another front.  Companies like Monsanto have paved the way for a principle quite unique to become mainstream.  The patenting of seeds.  Big corporations could now be the proprietors of life forms.

Besides the potential biological environmental & health ramifications, GMO's have also put grave danger on the integrity of the american farmer.   The cost came in the form of loss of personal sustainability, crippling dependence on the companies, & the fear of the legal wrath of these giant corporations.  More shocking was that it was not just the planters of GMO's that suffered from the ill-tides of corporate back-lashings, but also those who were at risk of cross contamination of seed.  Plants would cross pollinate and put all farmers at risk of being sued for patent infringement.  Well since then, the GMO companies have been partaking in an all you can eat buffet of legal battles, slowly stringing up small farmers, one-by-one, for all they have.  It didn't take long for the landscapes of the Midwest to become comprised of large multi-corporation farms.

A resistance was found in the organic farming movement.  While, not immune to the proverbial gavel of businesses like Monsanto, they have strived to educate and encourage practices of seed saving.   But it still has not been enough just due to the sheer magnitude and scale of these big corporations.

So I wonder if the GMO giants saw this coming:
Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association, et al. v. Monsanto.  That's right.  Tables turned as