Dear Supporters!

Things are humming along beautifully. We have another major sponsor for the film...well, two actually. Silk and Horizon Organic out of Boulder, CO! They believe in the film and in us and want to help get it made and spread the message far and wide. It's an exciting development, and we are so grateful for their passion for educating consumers, helping farmers, and fighting for truly sustainable agriculture.

I leave on Friday for our shoot next week at Rodale Institute and Washington, DC. I'll be with the very best of crews! Rod Hassler (camera), Dan McCoy (sound), and Josh Kunau (producer). And we'll be interviewing lots of amazing folks over the 5-day shoot, including Maria Rodale, Mark Smallwood "Coach", local farmers, Congressman Young (AK), and others.

Rodale Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach. For over sixty years, they've been researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing our findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating consumers about how going organic is the healthiest option for people and the planet.

Their Farming Systems Trial is the longest-running side-by-side U.S. study comparing conventional chemical agriculture with organic methods. What have they found? Organic yields match conventional and outperform them in years of drought and environmental distress. New areas of study include rates of carbon sequestration in chemical versus organic plots and new techniques for weed suppression.

This is our last major shoot, and we're moving ahead full-force into the post-production stage of the film. We've raised about 65% of our budget to date, and we're so grateful for all the love and support!

Have a beautiful afternoon/evening!
Jeremy

Hello to everyone!

It's been far too long since our last update, so I promise to keep them more frequent in the coming months as the film begins coming together in the editing room....

As many of you know, we have pushed ahead with this film on a very tight budget, raising funds as we go, with never quite enough to hire on any additional help. It has been a wonderful experience making this film, but an immense amount of work and at times very stressful.  And again, we can't thank all of you enough for helping our Kickstarter Campaign be a success and trigger other donations, moving all of this along at a time when we really needed it. THANK YOU!

And now a significant piece of the fundraising puzzle has come into place. The amazing Canadian company, Nature's Path, has come on as a major sponsor of the film!!! We couldn't think of a better fit as they have been committed to pure organic, non-GMO products from the very beginning. We are so proud to have them with us on the journey! We still have more to raise and are hoping for another major sponsor, as well as a host of smaller sponsorships from organic companies.   

In other news....

This last weekend we went to ExpoWest in Anaheim to present on GMOs. We made some great connections and really experienced the solidarity around the GMO issue, and the growing movement to label GMOs.  It was at ExpoWest that Nature's Path announced their contribution to the film!

I'll leave you with a little piece I recently put together after our trip to the San Fran area for a collection of interviews. This particular piece is from our time with Claire Hope Cummings, author Uncertain Peril, and a truly amazing and gracious advocate for all that is good, true, and beautiful in this world.  Enjoy! 

Claire Clip (available for a limited time only!): http://vimeo.com/36529782

More updates coming soon!

Jeremy

It looks like we're about halfway through production at this point, and things are looking great!

We returned last week from Svalbard, Norway, having spent five days with seed vault founder Cary Fowler in the small and very cold town of Longyearbyen. There are three roads that lead out from the town in opposite directions, each of which go only a few miles before ending. At the beginning of each of these roads, right outside the town, there is a sign with a polar bear on it and text roughly translating to: There are Polar Bears Everywhere on Svalbard. These signs and the fact that everyone asked us if we had a gun and said we were "stupid" when we answered NO, made cameraman Rod Hassler very nervous when were out until 4am one night doing time lapse astral photography.

We didn't see any bears, but we fell in love with the stark beauty of Svalbard and the magical awe of the Svalbard Global Seed Bank. Cary told us that the greatest threat to biodiversity has been modern agriculture, with climate change moving up as the single biggest factor in loss of biodiversity. Ironically, biodiversity is the only real hope of surviving climate change with healthy crops able to withstand higher temperatures, drought, and erratic weather. Biodiversity is also the only way forward without dependence on toxic chemicals and endless fertilizers in a petrochemical-laden industrial agriculture of monocrops and GMOs. We need diversity for regenerative, organic farming to thrive as it has for thousands of years.

The need to preserve and develop the biodiversity that hasn't already been wiped out could be felt in both an eery and hopeful way inside the vault among the 700,000 varieties of seeds from all over the world.

More an the vault later! Just wanted to let everyone know that it was a successful trip, and we are now moving forward with more filming, including an interview with Vandana Shiva on October 31st and an exciting puppet shoot in early November! 

We are sending out your rewards now and over the next few weeks. If you haven't replied to requests for your address, please do, so we can send out your goods! 

We continue to press forward raising funds to make this film happen, and we deeply appreciate your generosity that played such a crucial role moving things along this summer. Keep us in your thoughts! We've got a long way to go, but she's coming along beautifully!

With gratitude,

Jeremy

p.s. And a special thank you to Producer, Josh Kunau, for heading up this Kickstarter Campaign with such passion and commitment, and for his tireless work behind the scenes to continue moving this film forward. And a warm thank you to Elizabeth Kucinich for the invaluable work she continues to do as Co-Producer. They are both apostles of light, fighting for all that is good and beautiful and just.

Hi Everyone,

We cannot thank you all enough for your support and making our Kickstarter campaign successful!  All of us with the film are encouraged and working hard.

Over the next few weeks, we will be sending out surveys through Kickstarter and asking for information in order to mail out the rewards and gather the information we need.  In addition, the donor page on our website is being developed, and hope to have that up as soon as possible.

You all have our deepest appreciation, and continue to watch for updates and emails/newsletters in the future!

The GMO Film Project Team

In the final hours of this glorious campaign, I have desperately dug through my office looking for more ways to entice people to donate!  I have found 10 EAT TRASH t-shirts, size L, from the film DIVE!

These are soft, locally-made t's, and you will be the only person in your city with one!

Thanks again for making this campaign a success!

With nearly $5,000 above our original goal, and the matching funds doubling that amount, the trip to Svalbard is nearly halfway paid for! It's enough to begin planning and know that we can make it happen. THANK YOU!

Have a beautiful weekend,
Jeremy