Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies About the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating

Book Description

Without knowing it, Americans eat genetically modified (GM) food everyday. While the food and chemical industries claim that GMO food is safe, a considerable amount of evidence shows otherwise. In Seeds of Deception, Jeffrey Smith, a former executive with the leading independent laboratory testing for GM presence in foods, documents these serious health dangers and explains how corporate influence and government collusion have been used to cover them up. The stories Smith presents read like a mystery novel. Scientists are offered bribes or threatened; evidence is stolen; data withheld or distorted. Government scientists who complain are stripped of responsibilities or fired. The FDA even withheld information from congress after a GM food supplement killed nearly a hundred people and permanently disabled thousands. While Smith was employed by the laboratory he was not allowed to speak on the health dangers or the cover-up. No longer bound by this agreement, Smith now reveals what he knows in this groundbreaking exposé. Today, food companies sell GM foods that have not undergone safety studies. FDA scientists opposed this, but White House and industry pressure prevailed and the agency's final policy--co-authored by a former Monsanto attorney--denied the risks. The scientists' concerns were made public only after a lawsuit forced the agency to turn over internal documents. Dan Glickman, former Secretary of Agriculture, describes the government's pro-biotech mindset: "You felt like you were almost an alien, disloyal, by trying to present an open-minded view. . . . So I pretty much spouted the rhetoric. . . . It was written into my speeches." In Seeds of Deception Smith offers easy-to-understand descriptions of genetic engineering and explains why it can result in serious health problems. This well-documented, pivotal work will show you how to protect yourself and your family.

Customer Reviews:

A good reason to eat organic and avoid processed foods.......2007-09-18

Jeffrey Smith has done an excellent job in exposing the truth about genetically modified foods. Seeds of Deception is easily understandable, compelling and well documented. It's disheartening that the people in control of the food supply are so focused on their bottom line and don't seem to care about the long-term health and safety effects of introducing foreign genes into the food supply. Genetically engineered ingredients are already in foods on the grocery store shelves right now. If you care about your health, you need to read this book, avoid processed foods and buy organic.

A must read.......2007-06-22

About three years ago I saw a "debate" about genetically modified food on public television. The panel had two people who were gung ho in favor of GMO food, and one who was on the fence about it, an appalling lack of balance. Just yesterday I was telling someone that, sadly, I no longer eat Hersheys because they've started using genetically modified ingredients, and he replied "what's that?" The lack of news or discussion of this issue in the past decade has left most people completely in the dark about what's going on. This book could save the planet if enough people read it. We are our genes. Humans, animals and plants have survived by our genetic makeup. Our relationships with plants and animals is based on our genetics and theirs. The unadvertised, sadly un-discussed mutilation of the genetic heritage of our natural world is a planetary suicide that has just begun. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to understand the GMO movement, its history, its motivations, its scandals and its dangers.

If you think GM foods are safe, think again........2007-04-12

I have not tracked the genetically engineered food issue carefully, having only seen mainstream media reporting.

BEFORE I started reading this book, I thought that:

1. The genetic engineering technique is very precise and duplicatable, inserting single genes into a plant's DNA that do a precise job.

2. Genetically modified (GM) food is essentialy the same as the non-GM counterpart.

3. There are few if any known serious health risks from eating most GM food

4. GM practices can reduce pesticide use because the plant has its own pesticide. This is an environmental benefit.

5. GM food can increase yields, given the same amount of land for growing - which has been a great benefit in some third world countries.

6. There are considerable environmental risks that have probably not been ade1quately studied. For example, monarch butterflies were being harmed in GM fields.

Overall I felt that the issue was not very clear cut, there were great advantages, but caution is also advised.

AFTER I read this book, I learned that:
1. The GM technique is extremely imprecise, it is like shooting a shotgun of genes at a bunch of DNA strands, and hoping a few stick. Furthermore, the surrounding genes suffer considerable collateral damage that is impossible to predict the effects of.

2. This collateral damage results in GM food often being very different from the non-GM version, especially in increase of toxins and allergens.

3. There are a number of well documented cases of people getting very sick, and some cases dying from these toxins and allergens.
Yet, the FDA and GM biotech industry and mainstream media continues to say that there is little evidence of health risk.

4. One of the most pervasive GM foods is Monsanto's Ready Roundup soy bean. It is specifically designed to be resistant to Monsanto's brand of pesticide. This results in MORE of that pesticide being used.

5. The argument about increased yields to save the planet is often used as a last resort when you point out the truth about GM being an imprecise technique, and that there are serious health risks. It is a way of bringing in a moral dimension that most people will buy. Yet, the planet already has much more food than it needs to feed everyone. This is not the reason for GM foods. Profit is.

6. The environmental risks may be many and unstudied, to be sure. Much more shocking is that there are hardly any careful studies demonstrating that GM food is safe. Basically, scientificaly weak arguments are use to argue that there is no reason to conduct such studies.

This is barely scratching the surface, this book is extremely well written and documented. It tells a sobering story of:
* Corporate greed,

* Rampant conflict of interest with industry being in bed with the FDA, for example:
- Scientists warnings are routinely ignored
- Monsanto officials come to work at the FDA to make policy, then return to Monsanto
- The doctoring of information is much like what the current Bush adminstration has done with scentific reports about global warming.

* Most funding for research in GM comes from industry.

* People are afraid to do research that might discover inconvenient truths about the safety of GM foods - because they are bullied, threatened and can lose their careers.

* Massive media manipulation filters out virtually all anti-GM stories; books have gone unpublished for fear of lawsuits by pro-GM companies

* Pro-biotech companies and the FDA itself have ample evidence of safety concerns, and they consistently lie about it. It reminds me of the tobacco situation.

Some may complain that this book does not present a balanced view. You be the judge. And anyway, even if it is one one-sided, its about that that this side was aired.

But don't take it from me, or from the author. Read the book, check the references, and reach your own conclusions. Even if only a few things in this book are true, it has major consequences.

I recommend that anyone who cares about their health, and their future read this book right away!!! You are not going to find out about this information from the mainstream media.

No one is harder to teach..........2007-03-29

...than someone whose job depends on not understanding what you're trying to tell them!

Interesting how the only country in the world selling this Frankenfood is the one sufficiently industrialised (that there could be a market for something other than "just plant this seed and eat what grows out of it"), which also happens to have a government wholly bought and paid for by the megacorporations pushing this junk. In the rest of the developed world--where governments (and their regulations) are at least somewhat responnsive to the people and not just their corporate masters--no one will touch the stuff. They won't pay a penny for it. They're literally fighting to keep it fron contaminating their food supply.

Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out. And yes, what is the "balanced" view? OK, in this chapter we take a look at the benefits of putting untested weird gene-tweaked crap into your body and the biosphere...

What americans don't know..........2007-02-17

...is that biotech companies are stealing your right to decide what you want to eat!
This book reviews - among other subjects - how a handful of multibillion companies are mixing their genetically modified ingredients into the food you and your children eat - without your knowledge. And worse: aided and abetted by the FDA.
If you care about your consumer rights, this book is an eye-opener. In this case the old saying that "what you don't know can never hurt you" proves absolutely wrong.
People in the EU have already given GMO foods the bashing they deserve. But not people in the US. Want to know why? The info is in this book.

Women Working the NAFTA Food Chain: Women, Food and Globalization

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Women Working the NAFTA Food Chain: Women, Food and Globalization

Manufacturer: Sumach Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 189454935X

Book Description

This collection of compelling and original research makes connections in Canada, the US and Mexico among women who work in fast-food restaurants, supermarkets and agricultural production. The fourteen chapters take a critical look at how the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has affected these women's working and living conditions, sharpening our understanding of how the workplace has been restructured in order to fulfill consumer demands for tomatoes, exotic flowers and fruits, as well as fast-food burgers and fries. Food activists in Latin America, the US and Canada propose alternatives to counteract the oppressive conditions of free trade and globalization.

Food, Inc. : Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest

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Great debate ...
Unbiased, but somewhat superficial
very insightful and concise
From a Science view
Written by a journalist, not an expert

Food, Inc. : Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest
Peter Pringle
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743226119

Book Description

For most people, the global war over genetically modified foods is a distant and confusing one. The battles are conducted in the mystifying language of genetics.

A handful of corporate "life science" giants, such as Monsanto, are pitted against a worldwide network of anticorporate ecowarriors like Greenpeace. And yet the possible benefits of biotech agriculture to our food supply are too vital to be left to either partisan.

The companies claim to be leading a new agricultural revolution that will save the world with crops modified to survive frost, drought, pests, and plague. The greens warn that "playing God" with plant genes is dangerous. It could create new allergies, upset ecosystems, destroy biodiversity, and produce uncontrollable mutations. Worst of all, the antibiotech forces say, a single food conglomerate could end up telling us what to eat.

In Food, Inc., acclaimed journalist Peter Pringle shows how both sides in this overheated conflict have made false promises, engaged in propaganda science, and indulged in fear-mongering. In this urgent dispatch, he suggests that a fertile partnership between consumers, corporations, scientists, and farmers could still allow the biotech harvest to reach its full potential in helping to overcome the problem of world hunger, providing nutritious food and keeping the environment healthy.

Customer Reviews:

Great debate ..........2007-03-18

Peter Pringle has written a book that covers the debate over GMOs as thoroughly as any could. Food, Inc., looks at all sides of a very complex sociopolitical issue and provides an amazing platform for further examination of the subject--sort of a GMOs 101. For anyone who doesn't know much of anything on the subject and has an interest, you MUST read this book!!

Unbiased, but somewhat superficial.......2007-02-18

I second those people who found this book to be a bit TOO concise. In failing to offer important details about issues like Dr. Pusztai's experiments, or the L-triptophan contamination (in this case, the author even gives out the wrong information that more than one brand was involved), the book may be at times misleading.
On the other hand, it is fairly unbiased. But in the sense that it shows how both sides on this issue have gone a little overboard in their efforts, by exaggerating their claims.
Anyway, it's worth reading if you have some previous knowledge about the issue and want to refresh your mind on the most relevant events.

very insightful and concise.......2005-02-11

I recommend it highly to anyone interested in reading about biotechnology and the food we eat

From a Science view.......2004-12-27

I am often frustrated by the bias nature of these books, I was very impressed by the authors work. Having a science background and working in the biotech arena, I appreciated the factual information that did not seem to promote the anit-GE view that much of the literature in the area does (like I said, a very balanced report). It is written at a level that most people will be able to understand and is very entertaining. This book is great no matter what side of the debate you stand on and I highly recomend it .

Written by a journalist, not an expert.......2004-05-21

My main reservation with the book is that it really doesn't give you enough information to make up your own mind, it covers a lot of different 'events' in the history of GM but it doesn't go below the surface, beyond what you would read in a newspaper article.

For example, it talks about the work of Berkeley researchers showing contamination of Mexican crops with American GM ones, and it talks about how the critics claimed the researchers made mistakes 1st year grad students are taught not to make, and it talks about how it is the only article Nature has taken away support after publishing it. And that's it, then it moves on to another topic.

But: What was the flaw in the study? What was the defense of the authors? What have follow up studies concluded? I don't know, because it is not in the book. So what did I learn from this? That GM is a research topic that raises controversies, which is the reason I bought the book in the first place! But I did not learn about the true potential danger of contamination from GM to non-GM crops.

This is not an isolated example, most of the book (written by a journalist) is consistent with the cynical view that journalists know a bit of everything, but a lot about nothing...

Book Description

Today's international trade regime explicitly rejects cultural perceptions of what is safe to eat, overturning millennia of tradition. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) enshrines "science" as the arbiter in resolving disputes involving this vital human need. This mandate, however, is under attack from many quarters. Critics cite environmental and ethical concerns, unpredictably changing technology, taste, food preferences, local culture, adequacy of governmental implementation of WTO standards, and the reliability of scientific opinion. A basic conflict has crystallized: food as culture versus food as commerce. The WTO/SPS approach is increasingly challenged for its balance in favor of economic considerations, and for its visible undermining of unique cultural identities. This important book explores the relationship between the SPS Agreement, food traditions, science, and technology. It deliberately confronts those trade experts who refuse to allow other social sciences to influence their economics-based trade theory. The author ably investigates the local perception of food and food safety from the anthropological and historical points of view, the evolution of food production technologies, and the medicinal, proscriptive (taboo) and security aspects of food that continue to prevail in nearly all cultures today. She succeeds in demonstrating that, no matter how strong the faith in science and economics, it is unwise to flagrantly dismiss the deeply rooted beliefs of billions of people, a huge majority of the world's population. The Beef Hormones case; the remaining sovereignty related to food safety measures; the increasing significance of "appropriate levels of protection" and "the precautionary principle"; the redefinition of "food hazard" to include production processes as well as food itself; genetically modified seeds and food products; the concept of "risk" in the science-based context of the Codex Alimentarius - these are among the issues and topics covered in depth. The author concludes that, although quick "legal" resolutions of trade disputes about what people should or should not eat might provide a "win" for open trade, support for the entire structure and rationale of the WTO is undermined unless (at the least) some flexibility of interpretation is introduced into the WTO Dispute Resolution System in order to recognize the weight and validity of public opinion. Food safety is arguably the most important issue affecting international commerce today, urgently demanding enlightened discussion and action based on global consensus. This well-researched and thoughtful contribution offers significant clarification and perspective to policymakers, lawyers, academics and others engaged in this critical human drama in progress on the world stage.

First Responder's Guide to Agricultural Chemical Accidents

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First Responder's Guide to Agricultural Chemical Accidents
Charles R. Foden , and Jack L. Weddell
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Ring-bound

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ASIN: 0873717996

Book Description

First Responder's Guide to Agricultural Chemical Accidents provides emergency safety and health information for 452 toxic and hazardous products. These products, frequently used by pest exterminators and farmers, include those insecticides, pesticides, rodenticides, herbicides, and fertilizers commonly transported on highways and by rail carriers. The book lists products alphabetically and includes the manufacturer and telephone number, chemical identification, physical properties, hazard ratings, neutralizing agents (when known), fire fighting agents, special warnings, evacuation distances, protective clothing, health hazard information, and emergency first aid for exposure. This important information allows any First Responder to establish a safe plan of action without having to reference the library of chemical books normally carried by a Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Team (HERT). First Responder's Guide to Agricultural Chemical Accidents is an essential reference that provides critical hazardous materials data for personnel at fire departments, law enforcement agencies, and emergency medical agencies. The book will also be useful for business or individuals that store, sell, or use agricultural chemicals.

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Safety In The Agri-Food Chain

Manufacturer: Wageningen Pers
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9076998779

The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma, Revised Edition

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A true heart-wrenching occupational health story

The Death of Ramon Gonzalez: The Modern Agricultural Dilemma, Revised Edition
Angus Wright
Manufacturer: University of Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0292712685

Book Description

From reviews of the first edition:

"Angus Wright has shown in a brilliant study [how] the imposition of high-yield agriculture helped to break apart the intimate relationship between cultures and ecosystems that had coevolved over long periods of time."

—David W. Orr, from Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect

" The Death of Ramón González is a blockbuster. In a dramatic, readable story, Wright has provided a new way of looking at the tragic human and environmental consequences of chemical-dependent agriculture."

—Wes Jackson, The Land Institute

The Death of Ramón González has become a benchmark book since its publication in 1990. It has been taught in undergraduate and graduate courses in every social science discipline, sustainable and alternative agriculture, environmental studies, ecology, ethnic studies, public health, and Mexican, Latin American, and environmental history. The book has also been used at the University of California-Santa Cruz as a model of interdisciplinary work and at the University of Iowa as a model of fine journalism, and has inspired numerous other books, theses, films, and investigative journalism pieces.

This revised edition of The Death of Ramón González updates the science and politics of pesticides and agricultural development. In a new afterword, Angus Wright reconsiders the book's central ideas within the context of globalization, trade liberalization, and NAFTA, showing that in many ways what he called "the modern agricultural dilemma" should now be thought of as a "twenty-first century dilemma" that involves far more than agriculture.

Customer Reviews:

A true heart-wrenching occupational health story.......1998-04-30

This story details how people suffer and die from the repressive labor practices of pesticide-addicted agribusiness. It should give pause to people eating foods produced and harvested in places whose labor practices are known to be repressive. It should spur support for "fairly-traded" foods and also should spur investigations into the activities of agribusinesses using pesticides but probably won't because the power these corporations have over people and political systems continues to increase.

This should be considered essential reading for anyone working in the areas of public health and occupational health. It is a modern but 'classic' occupational health story, which illustrates again, that when workers are repressed, forced by economic circumstances to accept their working conditions as their employers dictate, significant health problems follow.

Product Description

Sittig's Handbook of Pesticides and Agricultural Chemicals is specifically designed for use by those engaged in the agricultural and food processing industries, both vital to our nation's health and economy. People in every phase of food production, from the farm to the fork, will find a wealth of material here. It will also be of interest to professionals in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, and personal care industries who use agricultural products as ingredients.

Book Description

In this provocative work, Thomas DeGregori explores many of the revolutionary technological advances of the past century, especially those in agriculture.

Customer Reviews:

A very highly recommended, fact-filled primer.......2003-01-06

Bountiful Harvest: Technology, Food, Safety, And The Environment by Thomas R. DeGregori (Professor of Economics, University of Houston) is a thoroughly "reader friendly" introduction and analysis of how modern technology has drastically affected our environmentally based, technology enhanced food supply. Exposing myths and presenting extensive, meticulous research on the history of pesticides, pollution, organic agriculture, and much more, Bountiful Harvest is a very highly recommended, fact-filled primer, which will provide the non-specialist general reader an invaluable instructional background with respect to what really is served up on the dinner plate.

DeGregori Makes "Bountiful" Sense.......2002-12-24

Radical environmentalists and nature-first types beware! Dr. Tom DeGregori dares to controvert your bluster, and has the courage not to "think small." DeGregori, a Professor of Economics at the University of Houston Central Campus, has long played the "Devil's Advocate" to Barry Commoner's "Runaway Technology Thesis." For a minimum of thirty years, he has steadily proffered logical counterpropositions to the knee-jerk anti-science of modern ecological Luddites.

In his wonderful new book, aptly entitled BOUNTIFUL HARVEST: TECHNOLOGY, FOOD SAFETY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT, DeGregori carefully integrates human evolution, reason, art, writing, and manufacture as the prerequisites and components of technology. As he has done elsewhere, DeGregori once again promotes the humanity of technology, which is both a phenomenon and process, in defiance of those who would spurn it as a materialistic vice. Early on, he declares that without technology, we pitiful humans would have had to adapt to our environments "by the much slower adaptive process known as speciation [the evolution of different species]." Technology, which is unique to the human species, saved us eons of evolution and gave us to ability to maneuver and develop throughout the world.

DeGregori reminds us that anti-technology evolved "with, and probably before, Plato," who argued that with the creation of the alphabet (and writing), the young would be urged not to rely on their own memory. This in turn founded a viewpoint that we, as humans, somehow "lose something" with every technological advance. He unmasks the insanity (and inanity) of such sophistry in his chapters on food safety, where he cleverly refutes the would-be superiority of "organic foods." Indeed, we created artificial substances to fend off the very toxicities and incapacities, which organic farming reintroduces. The author boldly asserts that a return to purely organic farming might feed one-fifth of the current world population, involving farm output losses of 53 to 100 percent. Moreover, organic fertilizers often are accompanied by graveolent diseases that have been long since stymied, or eliminated, by technological countermeasures. DeGregori is best when he scoffs at the "whole foods" fad, which encourages well-to-do (and well-fed) customers to buy potentially fecally contaminated foods at a 57 percent mark-up!

The fact is that human beings never have, and never will, live in "harmony" with nature because "by nature" humans must transform or, at the very least, disturb environments to make the regions habitable. Without technology, our physically inferior species could only survive in tropical or, at best, subtropical environments. Even the simplest of farmsteads, say, a swidden plot, at least temporarily clears natural vegetation to make way for crop cultivation. The fact is that it is only through the implementation of suitable technologies that humans can minimize the disturbance and the dangers to themselves and their environments.

As Dr. DeGregori has reminded us for decades: never before have so many of us lived such long and such relatively healthy lives. The shortest lived and least healthy among us, as in Africa South of the Sahara, are comparatively miserable precisely because they do not have the technology to meet their needs. It is the ultimate irony that the anti-technologists, who oppose irradiated, genetically altered, and biotechnological foods, are harming the very people--whom they blatantly otherwise claim to defend--who most need the potential bounty of that advanced nutrition. Already bypassed by the Green Revolution, Africans can ill afford to miss the coming revolution in food technology.

Always stimulating and controversial, Dr. DeGregori once again takes up the cross of sensibility against those who make the headlines and only occasionally make sense. BOUNTIFUL HARVEST should be read by economists, geographers, anthropologists, ecologists, and any and all who value their fellow human beings and their environment. Highest rating*****!

an excellent defence of agriculture and biotechnology.......2002-11-06

Thomas R. DeGregori knows his food technology. A professor of economics at the University of Houston, DeGregori has written an excellent defence of modern agriculture and biotechnology.

I would recommend this book as an antidote to the frightening biotechnology-gone-mad scenarios painted by organisations such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

Book Description

Examines the impact of this potentially dangerous technology on food sources, animals, and our own bodies.

Customer Reviews:

Genetically Engineered Foods: Are They Safe? You Decide.......2001-03-01

Genetic engineering "is probably the largest nutritional experiment the world has ever seen, and we are the guinea pigs" say Laura and Robin Ticciati in their book, Genetically Engineered Foods: Are They Safe? You Decide. They answer with a resounding "No!" to the question of whether genetically engineered foods are safe.

The Ticciatis briefly define genes and DNA, then explain how genetic engineers insert the genes from one organism into another. Genes from flounders, for example, have been inserted in tomato DNA to produce a tomato that has a longer growing season. They maintain that genetic engineering breaks natural crossbreeding rules because species are combined that would never mate in Nature.

Their primary concern lies in the lack of knowlege of the long-term effects from eating genetically engineered foods. They are especially concerned about children. At the least, they want genetically engineered foods to be labeled so that consumers know what they are buying and eating.

The authors say that "Right now, it is estimated that 60-70 percent of the foods in our stores contain genetically engineered components" with 100-150 more expected to be added by the year 2000. "These foods have not been subjected to thorough pre-market safety testing, nor are they labeled."

Genetically Engineered Foods: Are They Safe? You Decide is must reading for consumers who want to know about the ramifications of modifying foods by artificial gene transfer.

A little book with a big wake up message.......1999-05-05

Food technology has turned much of what we eat in this country into artificial, processed, chemicalized mishmash. No wonder forty percent of the population is sick! Now comes the latest insult -- genetically engineered food. You won't know that you are eating it because the government doesn't require food manufacturers/producers to specially label GE food nor does it require any independent safety testing. What you are increasingly eating, as this book shockingly reveals, is unnatural food with the potential to create who-knows-what-damage to your health and the environment. This is a small, easy-to-read, and must-read book, about a huge, serious issue that affects all of us. Science is tampering with our food, and we, the consumers, are the unwitting guinea pigs in this mad experiment.

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