Educational Media Reviews Online

This provocative and sobering work is as much art as it is educational work. Seed: The Untold Story offers healthy doses of optimism for preservation, and alarmist environmentalism from locations including the mainland United States, Hawaii, India and Mexico. It offers brilliant animations, which are complimented by the steady use of imagery of ornate vegetables and seeds, such as intensely blue beans and vibrant purple corn. The audience is treated to a 1970’s-esque animated kaleidoscope effect made up of diverse seeds.

The film begins with an American conservationist farmer saving, growing preserving species of edible plants from extinction. In so doing, this caretaker illustrates the staggering losses of seed stocks worldwide, and warns that genetic diversity, untampered evolution, and natural migration of seeds are essential to maintain to prevent famine.

The tone of the film shifts dramatically to a scathing uncovering of corporate patenting of seeds, and chemical companies both brazen and secretive uses of harmful pesticides. Further, the filmmakers expose how these companies manipulate agricultural systems, consumer perceptions, and genetically alter organisms. The film presents numerous accounts of displaced farmers, communities affected by contamination, and corporate lawsuits filed against citizens. This work emphasizes the damage that GMOs have done and continue to do to the environment and economies. Returning to the tone of the beginning of the film, the film emphasizes the resilience of plants, and their adaption to the environment without genetic engineering. Viewers witness success stories of Native American cultures harvesting a wide array of naturally drought resistant crops. Sadly, many times natural crops are affected by nearby use of GMOs and/or pesticides.

The word “interdisciplinary” may be overused, but this exceptional work offers a captivating blend of science, culture, economics, legal and ethical studies. Seed: The Untold Story offers mountains of somber scenarios based on sobering facts and industrialized agricultures current behavior. Still, the film is dynamically presented with undercurrents of hope. The production value is superb, with meticulous research, creative camerawork, attention-grabbing animations, and a pounding, progressive score.