Seeds of Deception - Softcover

Jeffrey M. Smith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1903998417 ISBN 13: 9781903998410

Publisher: Green Books Ltd, 2004

Synopsis

Worldwide industry manipulation and political collusion, rather than sound science, have brought genetically engineered food into our daily diet. Seeds of Deception reveals that company research is rigged, alarming evidence of health dangers is covered up, and that political and corporate bullying form the seedy background to the spread of GM crops. Seeds of Deception shows that: Scientists have been offered bribes or threatened. Evidence has been stolen, and critical data has been omitted from research reports or distorted. Government employees who complained have been harassed, stripped of responsibilities, or fired. Laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions, and seven of the forty rats died within two weeks. The crop was approved without further tests. When top scientist Arpad Pusztai of the Rowett Institute in Abderdeen tried to alert the public about his alarming discoveries, he lost his job and was silenced with threats of a lawsuit. Seeds of Deception includes the internal memos by US?Food &?Drug Administration scientists which warn of toxins, allergies, and new diseases; all these memos were ignored by their superiors, who included a former lawyer for Monsanto. The book also reveals how industry studies are designed to avoid finding problems; and that the US?FDA withheld information from Congress after a genetically modified supplement killed nearly a hundred people and disabled thousands.

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey M. Smith has worked in the field of genetically modified (GM) foods for nearly a decade. In 1998 he ran for US Congress to raise public awareness of their health and environmental impacts. He is the founder and director of the Institute for Responsible Technology.

From Publishers Weekly

Recent news headlines have focused on the disagreement between the U.S. and Europe over genetically modified foods: the U.S. exports them, but the European Union doesn't want to import them, believing their safety remains unproven. Are genetically modified foods safe? Longtime anti-GM foods campaigner Smith presents the "opposing" case. He offers cases where GM produced results that were at best unexpected (increased starch content in potatoes), at worst grotesque (pigs without genitals). He describes how one corporation reportedly tried to bribe Canadian government scientists into approving genetically engineered bovine growth hormones they deemed unsafe; how some scientists have reported their careers were threatened as a result of their refusal to approve certain GM products in the U.S.; and how "conflicts of interest, sloppy science, and industry influence" can distort the approval process. The cases Smith presents are scary and timely, but he explores only one side of the story. Readers looking for a balance consideration of genetically modified foods will want to look elsewhere.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Green Books Ltd
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1903998417
• ISBN 13: 9781903998410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304