Free open to public
45 min. documentary with discussion to follow.
In August 1998, leading food research scientist, Dr Árpád Pusztai, gives a short interview on British television. During this he drops a bombshell, saying he believes genetic modification may be a good thing, but that long-term tests have to be carried out before anyone can say it is safe to eat genetically modified food. Given the current state of knowledge, he himself wouldn‘t eat any.
Dr Pusztai‘s reasons are simple – he has made tests where rats fed with genetically modified potato in test series suffered serious organ diseases, inflammations, damage to the immune system and retarded organ growth.
Pusztai’s explanation makes a devastating impact on the gold digger mood of the GM food industry. At that point in 1998, two-thirds of the food the American and British people are eating contained genetically modified elements – and the public aren‘t aware of this. Pusztai does know, and has this fact in mind when he gives his BBC interview...
Within hours, Pusztai is under attack. He‘s forbidden to give out any further information regarding his research, his papers are confiscated and he is denied access to his lab. Within 3 days he is sacked from his job and excluded from the Royal Society, the UK‘s leading association of scientists. Pressure from highest political authorities leads to Árpád Pusztai‘s personal and professional ruin.
