Bitter Seeds Press Quotes

Better than a Batman movie… with real villains making up their own lines. — Peter Sellars

Rounding out his “Globalization Trilogy” with another affecting, character-driven portraitdesigned to indict corporate opportunism, Micha X. Peled exposes the issues underlying a rash of farmer suicides in “Bitter Seeds.” — VARIETY

The documentary is among the most subtle and artful condemnations of the food industry’s Darth Vader… The end result is an indictment of the agricultural biotech industry tightly wrapped within a gripping character-based narrative.  — FILMMAKER MAGAZINE

Emotional, gripping doc. — VARIETY

I have known about the epidemic of farmer suicides in India for years, but until now have only understood the issue only as well as you can from 30,000 feet. Bitter Seeds takes us down to the field, the seed store, and the family anxious about having enough for a daughter’s dowry. How is it that a hardworking farmer and father arrives at a point in life where the most sensible course of action is to kill himself by drinking a bottle of pesticide? It all makes horrible sense once you understand the forces at work: the tragic intersection of a high-tech industrial agriculture and a traditional culture. Much more than a polemic against Monsanto and biotechnology, Bitter Seeds is a tragedy for our times, beautifully told and deeply disturbing. — Michael Pollan

Films like this can change the world. — Alice Waters

Films like yours can put pressure on (Monsanto) to stop turning a blind eye, to stop pushing for sales in all segments of the population regardless of economic and agronomic inappropriateness, and to be socially responsible for making sure farmers understand what their products can and cannot do. Only public exposure and pressure and shaming will have a hope of getting them to change their legally defensible, but morally indefensible, behavior. And only that kind of public pressure can get governments to start listening to someone besides the companies and make policies to protect their citizens. — U.S. government (USDA) employee