Phillips Exeter Academy Fall Sustainability Film Series Features Film, Bitter Seeds
Bitter Seeds follows the path of many doomed Indian farmers struggling to produce a bountiful crop. -- photo courtesy of Teddy Bear Films
Friday, November 2, 2012
Phillips Exeter Academy continues its fall sustainability film series with Bitter Seeds, the second of three controversial and award-winning films featured through November. The film will be shown on Friday, November 2, 7 p.m., third floor, at the Forum in the Phelps Academy Center on Tan Lane. The showing is free and open to the public.
Bitter Seeds explores the future of farming and the worldwide debate over the evolution of industrial agriculture. As biotechnology companies promote genetically modified seeds as the solution to feeding the world's population, many small farmers—particularly in poor countries—encounter greater expense in purchasing the chemically-enhanced seeds. With a failed crop, insurmountable debt and loss of their land, farmers face hopelessness—and many commit suicide. The movie's website explains: "Nowhere is the situation more desperate than in India, where an epidemic of farmer suicides has claimed over a quarter million lives. Every 30 minutes, one farmer in India, deep in debt and unable to provide for his family, commits suicide."
The film is told through the eyes of 18-year-old Manjusha, whose father was one of the quarter-million farmers who lost hope after one season's crop is ruined and he cannot repay the family's loans.
For further information about the film series, call PEA Sustainability Education Coordinator and Science Instructor Elizabeth Stevens at 603-777-4055. A complete list of upcoming sustainable events can be found on the PEA Sustainability webpage and on the PEA Community Calendar. Events are also available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at 603-777-4309 and on our website at PEA. For directions to Phillips Exeter Academy, call 603-777-4330.