Customer Reviews

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

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Having read a number of articles and books on genetically engineered foods, I found this book to be very comprehensive and very well written. I highly recommend it if you are interested in your health.

As a biologist who has worked with DNA, and respect it, I place great value on Smith's easy to understand explanation on the genetic engineering process on DNA. Smith has also carefully researched FDA reports and quoted several people in his analysis of GMOs and their impact on society. With methodological precision, his research reveals the close ties of the U.S. government with biotechnology industry in several aspects of GMO production. Even more disturbing is the influence of biotechnology companies such as Monsanto, Novartis, Dow, and DuPont having on the government - they gave more than 3.5 million dollars (from 1995-2000) towards campaign contributions, with 3/4 going to Republicans.

His research also reveals the impact of the genetically modifed amino acid L-tryptophan in 1989-1990 that debilitated thousands of people with EMS, a disease that produces severe muscle pain, and even death. Forty people died from taking this L-tryptophan. This product was never labled that it was genetically modified and the Japanese manufacturer - Showa Denko KK did not use the proper filtration level to remove the impurities. Subsequent from these health risks, the product was removed from shelves.

My favorite quotes from this book came from George Wald, Nobel Laureate in Medicine. He said for genetic engineeering - "The results will be essentially new organisms, self-perpetuating and hence permanent. Once created, they cannot be recalled" and "Up to now, living organisms have evolved very slowly and new forms have had plenty of time to settle in. Now whole proteins will be transposed overnight into wholly new associations, with consequences no one can foretell, either for the host organism, or their neighbors." Those are powerful words and cannot be forgotten.

Read this book. It will change your life. You owe it to yourself and your family.

I have been a farm journalist for thirty years and have a master's degree in agriculture. During the late 70s and early 80s, when genetic engineering was coming on the scene, I was a strong supporter.
Over the years I talked to various biotech scientists who were becoming worried about whether the genetically-modified foods entering the food chain were safe. As the science developed, it was discovered the process of genetic engineering is anything but as straightforward as scientists originally thought. Chunks of genetic material jump all over the place once they are inserted into plants, and there is no predicting where they will go, or what effect they will have. There has been almost no research on the safety of genetically-modified foods, and what little has been done has shown these foods can cause a number of health problems ranging from allergies to food intolerances to cancer.

Both Canadian and US government agencies have taken the position (urged on by the biotech companies) that these new food crops are 'substantially similar' to existing crops, so do not need any study for food safety. And both governments are strong supporters of the industry, as I used to be.

The scientists I talked to became less and less willing to voice their concerns for fear of reprisals.

A few years ago, because of the knowledge I had gained, I began to make a point of avoiding GMOs, which is increasingly difficult, as they are spreading everywhere.

We are being screwed over and lied to by the biotech industry and our governments, and this book tells the story well and thoroughly.

Jeffrey Smith, the author of this book, is a plain-spoken but hardly elegant writer. He doesn't need to be; the facts he reports about GM (genetically modified) foods and the relentless efforts of Monsanto Corp. to get them into American and world markets need no dressing up in fancy prose. It's hard to decide which is scariest: the grave doubts about the safety of specific products such as the FlavrSavr tomato and StarLink corn; the myriad possibilities for unpredictable results to the environment and the general food supply, given the current scanty knowledge of genes, genetics and the possible consequences of unchecked modification of basic biological codes; or the systematic, epidemic failure of governmental agencies charged with protecting the health of the general public in the U.S. and Canada to act.

It would be easy to dismiss "Seeds of Deception" as a partisan rant against Republican governments and big business, but Smith is evenhanded in his indictments. According to him, Monsanto Corp. has engaged in a systematic campaign to pressure both Democratic and Republican administrations in the United States to allow GM foods to be marketed without proper safeguards and testing. What seems to have saved the world so far is the vigorous resistance of European and overseas markets to the entry of genetically modified food products that have not been properly tested, consquently making several highly promoted products uneconomical to produce. Nevertheless, modified genes have already "escaped" into the general food supply to an alarming degree.

In the final portion of the book Smith gives suggestions on how the reader can protect him/herself against unknowingly consuming GM foodstuffs, and also asks for contributions so that copies of his book can be sent to those in positions of power. I'm sending him a check.

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.

Journalism has deteriorated to the point where one is supposed to "balance" the truth with lies, and pretend both have equal weight. The case against GMO's is damning, as is the case against Monsanto, and this book presents both with forthrightness and clarity. "Balancing" this information with industry propaganda is both ridiculous and unnecessary -- the industry ensures that most pieces written about it are written by cheerleaders. Genetic engineering is a woefully imprecise "science," and the UNwanted effects of inserting a gene from one species into another's genome -- with no idea of where the gene ends up or how many copies of it have been inserted -- can be quite harmful. This book is well worth reading.

A decade ago, what we ate wasn't on the radar of most people. The musings of a few hermits, a handful of anti-government critics and your garden variety assortment of conspiracy theorists and crazy people was all that one had when it came a debate on whats being done to our nation's food supply.

Thats why Seeds of Deception is such a welcome addition to my bookshelf. For the first time there is well-researched publication with sources cited and ducks in a row that provides the reader with a through, in-depth look into how today's scientific community is damaging our food supply with their manipulative practices designed to milk farmers - and the American public - for every last red cent possible.

Other countries do not have the problems with obesity, diabetes and other similar diseases that Americans do. While the media takes the approach that its just the way we are, some are not willing to accept that explanation as fact. Seeds of Deception goes a long way towards exploring the possibility that this is not just another evolutionary fact of life on our green and blue planet, but something a bit more down to earth, man made and much more sinister.

It's not news that the government and big business have led us astray on multiple levels. Pick up any Adbusters or Mother Jones magazine and you'll find a plethora of ways corporations have sold the environment, animals and human health to the highest bidder. What's fun (or horrific, depending on your mood) is learning the specifics. Seeds of Deception delves into the details of genetically modified (GM) food: what we should know about the politics, science and investment behind the industry.

One of the many issues the book raises is that GM food is almost impossible to distinguish, since it's generally not labeled here in the United States. Companies, such as Monsanto, spend millions, if not billions, of dollars keeping the public happy and ignorant about the lack of testing behind their products. They even have some pretty smart folks believing GM food is going to feed the world and cure blindness in Third World countries. It's taken a lot of dough to create that groupthink. As we've learned from pharmaceuticals, the cigarette industry and the meat and dairy industries, when a company is willing to spend that kind of money on public relations, someone's putting frosting on a mud pie.

Peppered with anecdotes about animals choosing non-GM food over GM food, Smith's evidence of scientific and political cover-up is startling. It's impossible to ignore the evidence in this book. Even if only a fraction of it is true, we're in some serious crap. The problem comes down to a simple statement Smith quotes from geneticist, David Suzuki: "Any politician or scientist who tells you these products are safe is either very stupid or lying. The experiments have simply not been done."

Seeds of Deception's chapter "Muscling the Media" discusses corporate strategy to eliminate media reporting on GM food in the United States. "Under the auspices of the public relations and lobby firm Capitoline/MS&L, they [GM giant Monsanto] created a plan to identify and then stifle those reporters and reports that were critical of rbGH." (rbGH is the infamous growth hormone that makes cows produce more milk - horrible stuff.) The question remains: Doesn't Smith worry about being slammed and discarded like the many journalists and writers he describes? His book isn't going to show up on Oprah anytime soon - or is it? If enough people consider the seriousness of the topic, Seeds of Deception won't fall by the wayside.

If you have room for another New Year's resolution, please let it be to follow the suggestions in this book. Eat organic, locally-produced food. Feed your children organic food and encourage schools to look into the realities of GM food in their cafeterias. Avoid certain foods altogether (like non-organic papaya from Hawaii, for example, which has a 50% chance of being GM) and encourage restaurants to eliminate GM food from their menus.

Seeds of Deception will open your eyes - eyes that, from then on, will search for organic alternatives to take-your-chances, you-might-be-a-guinea-pig ingredients. It has been praised for reading like an exciting novel, and I agree it's quite a thriller. If only this terrifying exposé were fiction. --Reviewed by Caity McCardell

If only every household in America read this book, we would have an uprising of unseen numbers against the drug, chemical and food industries. Well documented and footnoted, the information in this book is staggering. There were times I had to put the book down because the overwhelming anger at Big Business and at the destruction they have caused to our food supply. Greed, not caring or concern, is their motivation and if people's lives are in danger and even ruined with poor health (even death), so be it! The bottom line is more important.

We have a growing population of unhealthy people in the USA and unfortunately the government isn't protecting us from the causes. I love my country but the USDA and the FDA don't care about me. They have been bought out by Big Business and are in their back pocket. No one political party is responsible, both Republican and Democratic parties have had their hand in this mess and without the masses having the knowledge of what is going on it is only going to get worse. I don't mean to sound like an alarmist but the health of the human race is in jeopardy.

"We the people" must become educated with knowledge of what truly is happening to our food supply. Go to any school and look at the children, talk to the parents. Many children aren't healthy anymore, not like when I was growing up. Asthma, diabetes, food allergies and even cancer are on the rise in our children. How can we sit back and pass this unto the next generation?

You MUST become educated with this book. Your grandchildren's future depends on it! Your health depends on it!

...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.

After reading this book I have to consider Monsanto not just to be a typical greedy make money at all costs multi-national corporation but given their prior history, even before what they are doing with genetically modified foods an out and out threat to humanity. Plus what the global elites are doing with the Svalbard seedbank that was funded by Rockefeller and Bill Gates money I almost have to wonder if they are planning on out and out poisoning us all through the toxic corporate controlled food supply. I am grateful that I live in Europe where there has been opposition to genetically modified foods and for the most part they have been kept off of the shelf but I fear its only a matter of time before they find a way to worm their way in. Thank you Jeffrey Smith for being a real journalist/investigative writer and exposing Monsanto and their ilk!