oh
[Music]
Legend has it that vegetables were
better before
so we are going to go back in time and
visit the hallowed French Academy of
agriculture
[Music]
where you can find the ghost of
vegetables past
between two old pamphlets on farming we
stumble across a hidden Jam
the food composition table from 60 years
ago
[Music]
it shows the exact amount of vitamins
and minerals that every fruit and
vegetable contained at the time of
writing
so we came up with a very simple idea to
compare these old statistics with those
of today
[Music]
this information is no longer kept in
Old Paper books it is now kept on the
internet we discovered a little known
fact fruit and vegetables have lost some
of their vitamins and minerals
[Music]
foreign
beans for example in 1960 they contained
65 milligrams of calcium for every 100
grams
in 2017 they contained no more than 48.5
milligrams that's a quarter less calcium
the same thing for vitamin C 19
milligrams at the time versus 13.6 today
one by one We examined the 70 most
consumed fruit and vegetables and
compiled the results into this table
the results show a dramatic
deterioration
[Music]
60 years all 70 fruit and vegetables
have lost an average of 16 of their
calcium 27 of their vitamin C and almost
less than half of their iron levels
for several years now an American
researcher has been warning us about
this loss of nutrients
[Applause]
I'm here to tell you about an important
problem that many people are not aware
of nutritional declines in Foods Donald
Davis is a biochemist he has worked at
the University of Austin Texas
we showed him our comparative table
this looks like similar to what we find
in U.S data and UK data so what do
in the United States Donald Davis
analyzed the development of 43
vegetables between 1950 and 1999.
I think that most of these declines are
caused by increases in yield when yields
go up there's less nutrients per weight
of the food a lot of agricultural
scientists may not know about how big
these effects are
this is kind of an embarrassing
of their they're always wanting to
increase yield if modern breeding was
causing increases in flavor and
increases in nutrients I think they
would talk about it a lot more
the tomato is one of the fruits that has
seen the largest drop in nutrients a
quarter of its calcium and more than
half of its vitamins
but to understand this decline we must
Trace fruit and vegetables back to their
origin
for the fruit even grows the seed
determines everything
[Music]
tomato Farmers choose their seeds from
these brochures they are published by
manufacturers such as syngenta or
clothes
[Music]
to attract Farmers they mention their
size shape color and in particular their
productivity
[Music]
but most importantly are the letters hf1
which signifies a first generation
hybrid
and that's how we get a hybrid
[Music]
for example let's take a plant that
grows large but very pale Tomatoes we
crossed them with a plant whose tomatoes
are red but too small
by combining these two varieties we
create what is called a hybrid a plant
that possesses both the genes of a large
tomato and a bright red tomato
and
for 50 years scientists from all over
the world have been developing these
hybridizations to create tomatoes that
can withstand all sorts of bumps and
bruises
you've heard of crash tests on cars here
are crash test tomatoes
[Music]
during the 1980s these laboratory
Tomatoes flooded the market
[Music]
but there is still one problem that no
one has managed to work out Tomatoes
spoil very quickly
foreign
[Music]
scientists invent the Eternal tomato
[Music]
this miraculous tomato has been created
in Israel for 70 years this country has
revolutionized the farming industry it
has managed to grow fruit and vegetables
in the middle of the desert
[Music]
fathers of the modern tomato at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
the man who made this fruit practically
immortal
yes hi good morning
uh we go straight to the farm yeah
at 79 years old Professor rabinovich
continues to develop future hybrids
this is a breathing Greenhouse so each
plant is different and I say wow this
planted looks stronger than this one for
instance and definitely more than this
one we look for these differences in
order to develop something which is
better than the existing material
the best tomatoes are those that are
well adapted for commercial production
because although the researcher and his
assistant May well be University
lecturers they also work for private
corporations their research is currently
funded by French Seed Company vermura
it's owned by them I cannot I cannot
give it to anybody else this is
exclusive exclusive to them you're the
only one that got into this greenhouse
beside you no one can get it
they need to develop a tomato for
southern European countries
Phil Moreno looking uh to have a winning
hybrid in the Balkan Market which have a
food size around 300 grams Tomatoes says
biggest grapefruits that must grow on
horizontal Vines
this is the cluster which the flower are
organized
usually the cluster has three dimensions
the fruit grow in every possible
Direction
people like today what we call a
fishbone cluster from packing point of
view if you have three dimensions very
difficult to pack in a box when you have
a two Dimension you can put one on top
of the other and it's much easier to
create this hybrid they have to cross
two plants by placing pollen from one
plant onto the flower of another
foreign
you need to come to the open flower
this is what we call artificial bee
actually you know what it is
it's a electric toothbrush it will just
remove the brush and put a hook
on top of it
you can see at the bottom you can see
yellow yellow dust
and in two days I will come with the
pollen and I will make the pollination
how many Crossing you make for uh to
have one hybrid at the end
to make a commercial habit probably 400.
400 like that 400 every year
sometimes it's coming only from the
third year so you can go to a huge
numbers
notice how after thousands of
cross-pollinations in the early 1990s
Heim rabinovic and his colleagues
invented the Eternal tomato this
innovation has transformed the world
market
where you begin to work on the long
shelf life because because of this waste
of 40 percent of the of the yield
uh before this mutation
the limit was two three days four days
at the most when we exported tomatoes to
Europe and we exported a lot of rescue
we used to fly it by airplanes because
if it has to go by boat from Israel to
Marseille the Tomato will be mushy
nobody nobody will touch it to extend
its shelf life the professor had to defy
the laws of nature
the purpose of this tomato is to
disseminate the seed for Next Generation
so the moment the seeds are ripe
it will fall off the bush
bump into the ground
[Music]
explode and all this juice will will run
all over as far away from the mother
plant as possible in order to conquer
more territory we don't want it it's
undesired trait for human beings and
here we have a mutation that seemingly
can provide a solution here is the
israelian researcher's idea they have
cross-pollinated a plant with regular
tomatoes that decay within three days
with a plant carrying a natural genetic
defect that prevents the ripening of the
fruit they have thus ended up with a
long lasting hybrid tomato that once
picked will Decay much slower
we let our own homegrown experiment on
one side we have a hybrid fruit with a
perfect appearance
on the other side an heirloom tomato
that has not undergone any hybridization
with its speckled yellow skin and other
small imperfections
now all we have to do is wait
[Music]
after three days the two Tomatoes still
look completely fine
but after a week the heirloom tomato is
no longer fit for sale because of these
little black marks
within two weeks it even starts to go
moldy
and what about the hybrid
unaffected in two weeks it has not
changed at all except for one thing the
stem comes off
[Music]
it was only after day 25 that the hybrid
became unsellable now with mold and
softer skin
foreign
ization it would have looked like this
[Music]
its shelf life has therefore gone from
three days to almost three weeks
but just like any deal for Eternal youth
there is a price to pay
you can taste them
tasteless
the jeans for
inhibition ripening inhibition
carry with them some negative traits
for instance flavor the taste
deteriorates everywhere we are less
nutrient but I don't know because we
never never measured it only later in
the 90s and the early 2000s we started
looking into the quality traits I
offered a project like that to many seed
companies I even gave it a name I called
it a tomato why Ace vitamin a c and e
and they said it would be much healthier
tomato we don't have it in supermarkets
with variety the industries they don't
care
these manufacturers that Haim rabinovich
refers to are big names in the seed
industry such as the business hazera
which has earned Millions thanks to the
long-life tomato
in 2003 this Israeli company was bought
out by limagra
a multinational corporation with a
turnover of over two and a half billion
dollars
after acquiring hazira the company
became the world's second biggest
producer of tomato seeds
hazera test out their new varieties in
the Negev Desert out in the middle of
nowhere
yaron giras is global head of the Tomato
Department
is head of the Communications Department
[Music]
is our protocol for sanitation
[Music]
the 120 varieties in this demonstration
Greenhouse are advertised right down to
their stem
foreign
[Music]
part of the tomatoes it's like a
mustache you know there is a special gin
for this mustache yes yes so you see
very very nice color very firm tomato
it's coming from the long shelf life
family also
um you mean it has a long stressful
jeans yeah jeans inside but there is a
percentage of all your variety that has
a long shelf I didn't calculate but I
assume today around the 50 50.
for for a long time we saw that it was
influenced to reduce the taste of the
tomato and now we are going back and try
to increase the test again of the tomato
and yaron giras wants to prove it to us
in his opinion the long life Gene
doesn't necessarily mean a lack of
flavor
you like tomato yeah not everybody like
tomatoes you know
but it's hard to find a good tomato
right now nowadays okay
taste
okay
like a little bit um we said we said not
all the Tomato need to have taste
because if you add olive oil and salt
you don't need taste
I tell you I I know what is tomato this
is okay yeah okay yeah there is a worse
but for the market and for what they
want this is okay I'm not going to show
you some tomatoes that you said wow
[Music]
and I want you to taste this special
Maggi and to tell me if there you feel
the difference
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
taste it's not good as I wanted to be
yeah
because it's starting the cultivation
they start yes
we will come back to The Taste but what
about the nutrients very little gel what
we're looking more and more is that to
have a good color a good firmness
and a good taste and the nutrients in
tomato are still
it's a small player in the market for
cooking in Italy for cooking is the
hybridization of tomatoes one of the
reasons for the loss of nutrients
[Music]
is one of the last Artisan seed sellers
in the country
[Music]
using his own Tomatoes he produces
non-hybrid seeds these are Heirloom
Seeds is
[Music]
from
[Music]
security
in his Greenhouse Jean-Luc brawl only
grows Farmers varieties
100 natural farming
is
variety
tonight
do these Farmers varieties contain more
nutrients than hybrids we are going to
analyze them on one side we have
jean-luc's tomatoes
[Music]
on the other a hybrid with a similar
appearance bought from the supermarket
[Music]
the very same day we sent them to an
accredited laboratory to measure their
nutrient levels
[Music]
three weeks later the results arrive the
hybrid tomato contains a significantly
lower level of the five nutrients
analyzed
it contains 63 percent less calcium
29 less magnesium and 72 percent less
vitamin C
the levels of lycopene and polyphenols
two antioxidants that help fight
cardiovascular diseases are two times
lower in the hybrid than in the farmer's
variety tomato
[Music]
we then showed these analyzes to Donald
Davis a specialist in nutrient loss
[Music]
it's a taste is it a taste different of
course
the heirloom one was very very good I
ate it like a candy but the average was
a tasteless yes of course it's
consistent with the idea that there is a
relationship between taste and nutrient
content this was published by Professor
clay at the University of Florida and he
made the observation in this paper that
many of the flavor components of
tomatoes are derived from Human
nutrients when you eat a tomato that has
good flavor that means that it probably
also had good amounts of the nutrients
that were used to make that flavor it's
a
with all of the other evidence a
breeders
select for yield is but they're also
looking for other economic traits and in
the process of making that change
they also caused a change in the
chemistry of the tomato
hybrid varieties are less nutritious so
what does le magran owner of hazira and
the world's second largest Tomato Seed
producer think of this
is
[Music]
one of the company's board members
is
oh
commercialism
[Music]
regular
foreign
[Music]
the hybrids offer another great
Advantage for seed suppliers their seeds
are single use
if you plant the seed of a hybrid plant
the genes mix and when the plant grows
it's the luck of the draw the tomatoes
could be small striped or misshapen this
is why farmers must buy more seeds every
year
[Music]
a profitable Market given that the
manufacturers sell these tomato seeds at
a very high price like limagra in Israel
how much is one kilo of seeds of this
kind of tomato this kind of tomato today
can reach the 400 000 Euro
kilogram of seeds what 400 000 Euro
or more yes you can buy a house with
this I've heard that the tomato seeds
the more capital gain of all the seeds
yes the margin or our margin is the
highest that we can get in tomato
why because it's expensive expensive
seats and there is a lot of Demands so
it's a yeah it's a good business for us
if it's not we are not here the small
yellow tomato the most expensive Variety
in the greenhouse costs 450 000 for
every kilo of seeds even so for a basic
tomato it is 67 000 double the price of
gold this is
really to hand work they need a lot of
Labor to to make seeds when you produce
the the seeds like we told you today in
22 different countries something all
over the world and like which kind of
country like like Israel like in
Thailand like in Chile with in Spain in
India in many places
[Music]
seeds sold for the price of gold and
produced by hand in countries with cheap
labor welcome to the era of seed
globalization
[Music]
the Tomato Trail has led us to India it
was this report with a young girl on the
front cover that prompted us to take the
flight soiled seeds commissioned in 2015
by ICN a Dutch NGO
in the seed sector 16 of workers that
produce vegetable seeds are children
under the age of 14 years
[Music]
these seeds are produced in the state of
Karnataka in remote Villages that are
amongst the poorest in the whole country
[Music]
here the climate is mild for vegetables
every year 160
000 kilos of tomato seeds are produced
to then be exported
the five biggest multinational seed
companies can be found here on this
plane BASF Dupont Bayamon Santo syngenta
and limagran
we are going to travel across it
together with the Hindu god garnish and
one of the researchers from this NGO
that works against child labor
Saturday
in India working before the age of 14 is
illegal
roams the area to count the children in
the fields
um
[Music]
foreign
these young girls have been hollowing
out watermelons for hours in order to
remove the seeds it is 86 degrees
Fahrenheit in the shade
these girls have been recruited by a
farmer who works for an Indian Seed
Company
according to Ravi and Karnataka the
Tomato hybrid industry is one of the
largest employers of child labor
it's the end of the season the fields
are almost deserted but a little further
we noticed some figures through the
screens of this greenhouse
this Farm is a subcontractor of the
Swiss multinational syngenta
foreign
workers prune the tomato plants
a girl who was smaller than the others
stares at us
the young girl on the left quietly tells
her to bend down
[Music]
foreign
[Music]
is this young lady 17 years old our
translator finds this heart to believe
I don't think she is something looking
at her probably she is much younger than
17. which is very much apparented I know
she has been trying to hide
in Karnataka 800 Farms have a contract
with syngenta it's the largest foreign
Contracting party
[Music]
naturally we asked the Swiss
multinational its thoughts on child
labor in response an empty rhetoric of
principles
enter conforms to all labor laws
syngenta's Equitable work policy
promotes decent working conditions and
also tackles the problem of child labor
[Music]
why are children hired by Farmers that
work for these big seed companies
Dr davuluri Venta quesvalu author of the
report soiled seeds is one of the main
experts on child labor in India
for 15 years this independent research
worker has been investigating the
production sector of hybrid seeds
the hybridization activity is very very
delicate it requires a lot of uh
skills the children
are preferred because they can do this
repetitive activities very faster than
adults
and also they are more obedient we can
say
two children can do the work of three
adults that is the kind of calculation
Farmers have
according to this researcher Farmers cut
wages for one simple reason the low
prices set by the multinationals
the farmers are struggling actually to
have a good profit margin if they have
to
hire labor and pay good remuneration to
the workers the the margin will be very
nominal or sometimes there won't be any
margin for the farmers
battle has begun to pay off the
proportion of children working in the
seed industry under the age of 14 has
been reduced from 16 to 10 percent
but another part of the population is
still being exploited
traveling through Karnataka we made
another Discovery in the Tomato Seed
fields we only saw women
we found out why during our visit to
chamang gowda Doda goda's Farm
tomatoes
in India Lima operates under the name
h.m Clause the French seed company is in
contract with 600 farmers in the region
bent over under the blazing sun these
women removed the pollen from flowers
with tweezers for eight hours a day
go really my legs
the heads buried in pollen and
fertilizers for just 2.80 a day it is
not much and what's more it is illegal
in India employers must comply with the
minimum wage
it is 330 rupees in the agricultural
industry the equivalent of 4.80 a day
these women therefore earn 40 percent
less than the legal minimum wage
[Music]
um foreign
foreign
sells a kilo of seeds for an average of
67 000
are the local immigrant managers aware
of these illegal practices
the following day we decided to take a
little visit to the Indian branch of hm
clothes with a hidden camera
we got off to a bad start they stopped
us before we even got close to the
building
we make a documentary about the seeds in
uh
means which country particularly friends
oh okay
apparently being French like lima has
its benefits we are invited to enter the
staff office
to see to speak directly with the
supervisor
okay the man is on the phone with head
office
people
they are banned from speaking to us but
do not underestimate the famous Indian
hospitality
okay
we go inside the storage facility where
the seeds produced by the Indian farmers
are dried before being exported
[Music]
thank you
the site managers admit they are fully
aware that the farmers do not abide by
the minimum wage of 4.80 a day
[Music]
what is the salary for one worker
more shocking information according to
this executive The Firm even violates
this law with its own employees
so how much are paid in hm clothes Farm
according to the supervisor the business
has a knack for hiding the price of
seeds in Europe from the farmers what
are the name of a tomato it is very
secret
numbers production people we should not
know
um
doing to combat these illicit practices
is
foreign
[Music]
super
visors
animals
[Music]
Medina
functions
nowadays it's almost impossible to find
seeds that have not been hybridized or
cloned by the industry corn vegetables
rice wheat sunflowers the same modern
and uniform plants are being imposed all
over the world
[Music]
as a result two-thirds of all seeds sold
in the world now belong to four
multinationals
syngenta
and limaga
this privatization of nature is
destroying biodiversity
in 2009 a man launched a global appeal
to the United Nations
at the time Olivier de scooter was a
United Nations special repertoire on the
right to food
sense of
the of the pressure towards the adoption
of uniform improved writing
we are meeting him at his home in
Brussels
despite his calm demeanor
[Music]
the former un special repertoire is
frustrated that his warnings are falling
on deaf ears
[Music]
it is
fragile plants is not such a bad thing
for the large seed companies
because out of these four multinationals
that dominate the world seed Market
three are pesticide manufacturers
Bayamon Santo dodupon and syngenta
[Music]
um
seeds are a perfect trojan horse for
these chemical products as a result 3
million tons of pesticides are sold
annually worldwide
um
foreign
citizens and Farmers alike are revolting
against this program disappearance they
demand free seeds seeds that do not
belong to the Giants of the agrochemical
industry
[Music]
in France a number of people are
organizing the resistance
[Music]
in the southwest of the country and the
depth of a valley you will find The
Hideout of Kokopelli
[Music]
runs this non-profit organization
they are trying to protect traditional
and forgotten vegetable varieties their
collection includes 2 400 vegetables
that are now rare such as this beige
colored cucumber punakira or orange
Swiss chard
on universities
to help with the preservation of these
varieties Kokopelli has launched the
schemed seats Without Frontiers
[Music]
um foreign
[Music]
by conserving these endangered seeds we
are taking back the choice to plant or
eat non-standardized fruit and
vegetables which are the best produce
for both our planet and our health but
perhaps most importantly we will
Liberate the vibrant common good of
humanity
[Music]
foreign
[Music]