Gardens of Destiny

Jocelyn Demers
Reviewed by Jake Tobin Garrett
Reprinted with Permission from Earthsave Canada

 If you’ve ever stood in the grocery store holding two apples in your hand, one organic and one not, and wondered which one to buy, then watching Jocelyn Demers’ documentary, Gardens of Destiny, will no doubt help make up your mind.

The film follows Dan Jason, leader of the volunteers of the Seed and Plant Sanctuary for Canada on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, as he takes us on a tour of the organic garden the sanctuary maintains. Jason, sporting a large straw hat, comes off as an ingenuous, but earnest and knowledgeable crusader of biodiversity – the purpose of the sanctuary being the maintenance of endangered heritage varieties of seeds, keeping records and back up collections of these seeds. Jason acknowledges that other seed banks exist in the world; however, instead of simply storing seeds, the Seed and Plant Sanctuary keeps the plants alive and growing in nature, allowing them to adapt to environmental changes.

Although Dan Jason’s garden tour is the thread throughout the film, there is also a patchwork quilt of interviews conducted with environmentalists, agronomists, agriculturists, and other specialists on the questions surrounding biodiversity, biotechnology, the nutrition of organic food, terminator technology and a host of other issues raised during the course of the documentary.

The message of biodiversity and reclaiming our connection to the land and our food becomes the root of the film. The comments of the interviewees and Dan Jason act as a rallying cry to all watching to pay more attention to the changes that are currently chipping away at a chance of a sustainable, healthy food supply in our future.

We are told about the higher antioxidant potentials, higher nutrient content, larger yield potential, and all around tastiness of organic foods compared to those commercial prepared, using pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs. We are warned of the problems in lowering biodiversity: growing a single strain of a plant and therefore making the crop much more susceptible to destruction through a disease that targets that specific strain. We are also told of the amazing power of organic foods to fight diseases, such as cancer, because they contain defense properties not present in foods where pesticide use means the plant has never had to develop these defensive properties.

During the course of the film, the actual garden is the poster child for biodiversity. There are many varieties of plants present in the garden, each growing together in harmony with the insects, bees, and birds that act as natural cross-pollinating agents. We are shown varieties of cereal grains, flowers, broccoli, and numerous others. The film is a celebration of the natural bounty of the land that we live on – a look at how the earth, over millions of years, has created the perfect food, something that cannot be reproduced through genetic engineering, pesticide use, or other biotechnologies. But it is also a cautionary tale, warning of us a future where biodiversity disappears and what that means for us and for the earth.

After watching the film, high up in my West End Vancouver apartment, I have cleared a spot on a windowsill which I plan to use to grow my own herbs. I may not be able to move to the country and grow all my own food, but I can certainly make the effort to do my part by eating organically, learning where my food comes from, and doing what I can to maintain the biodiversity of our planet.