GMW: Star Wars' spoof pits organic vs the dark side

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GMW: Star Wars' spoof pits organic vs " the dark side "

" GM WATCH " <info

Mon, 16 May 2005 10:12:58 +0100

 

 

GM WATCH daily

http://www.gmwatch.org

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To see the video: http://www.storewars.org

 

Note our old friend Kimball Nill's contribution to this article and how

his claims are directly contradicted by the research of Dr Chuck

Benbrook, a former Executive Director of the Board on Agriculture of

the U.S.

National Academy, which shows that GM crops have increased the use of

pesticides over all in recent years.

 

For more on Nill: http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5231

 

For where he gets many of his claims:

http://www.gmwatch.org/profile1.asp?PrId=94

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Star Wars' spoof pits organic vs. conventional

By Elizabeth Weis

USA TODAY, 15 May 2005

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2005-05-15-store-wars_x.htm

 

[image caption: Heavy on the Ham: Solo and his friends battle the evil

Darth Tater.]

 

Marketers for M & Ms, Diet Pepsi and Frito-Lay are betting millions that

ad tie-ins with the opening of the latest Star Wars movie will sell

lots of junk food.

 

But the Force may well be with a tiny upstart called Store Wars: The

Organic Rebellion, an online video that's been flying around the Internet

since Tuesday and so far has been seen by more than 168,000 viewers.

 

A project of the National Organic Trade Association, the five-minute

video is aimed at selling a broad audience on the virtues of organic

food.

 

" We wanted something light-hearted and positive, " says spokeswoman

Barbara Haumann.

 

Store Wars (storewars.org) features a supermarket cast of thousands -

vegetables, fruits, pastries and some canned goods - and tells the story

of the battle between those who follow the organic " way of the Farm "

and those who've gone " to the dark side " - growing conventional and

genetically engineered crops.

 

Filmed on location at two San Francisco-area natural-foods stores, the

movie includes massed Imperial stormtroopers that look suspiciously

like eggs, X-Wing starfighters highly reminiscent of plastic sushi

containers with wings and a Death Melon that splatters orange goo and

seeds

when destroyed.

 

Ham Solo and Chewbroccoli pilot the Millennium Scallion, Cuke Skywalker

saves Princess Lettuce, and TofuD2 scurries around as the enigmatic

Yogurt tells viewers " when the market you visit, keep your family safe as

you can by buying organic. "

 

The video is a creation of Free Range Graphics, the same design and

communications firm that created last year's award-winning The Meatrix, a

popular anti-meat, pro-vegetarian takeoff on The Matrix.

 

Both depend on low-budget Internet " viral " or " contagious " marketing to

be seen. The idea is to create something cool enough that people will

distribute it themselves by e-mailing the link to their friends.

 

Though amusing, Store Wars' message is misleading, says Kimball Nill,

technical director of the American Soybean Association. This year 93% of

soybeans planted in the USA were genetically engineered, he says.

 

That allowed farmers " to reduce the total amount of herbicides applied

to the land and reduce soil erosion to nearly zero by using no-till

planting. So, frankly, it's been a good thing, " Nill says.

 

Ford Runge, a professor at the Center for International Food and

Agricultural Policy at the University of Minnesota, doesn't want to come

across as a spoilsport. But, he says, making out organic food to be good

and conventional food evil is wrong.

 

" Organic is compelling conventional growers to think carefully about

what they put on their crops, and that's all to the good, " he says. " But

the conclusion isn't that people who use conventional methods are

wrong. They're just doing something different. "

 

 

 

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