Life running out of control : gene food and designer babies.

"In the mid-eighties science, with the help of genetic technology, finds the key to mastering the earth and especially its creatures. Suddenly, everything seems possible! Twenty years later we embark on a global journey to explore the progressive and continual genetic manipulation of plants, animals and human beings: Due to a disastrous crop with genetically modified cotton many Indian farmers face ruin, have to sell one of their kidneys or resort to committing suicide. In Canada genetiaclly modified canola seeds blow onto the fields of neighbouring organic farms, thus making ecological farming impossible. The Icelandic parliament sells the entire pool of genes of its population to a private company that, in turn, intends to turn over the data at a profit to the pharmaceutical industry and insurance companies. A research project is designated as 'vampire project' in which blood, hair and saliva samples are taken from 700 so-called ethnic groups on the verge of extinction on the pretext of preventive health. The gene samples wander into the laboratories of industry to provide the basis for valuable patents. Worldwide only a handful of idealistic scientists are defying industry, doing independent - without the financial support of industry - research on the effects of transgenic animals and plants on the environment and our health when we consume genetically modified food."