Genetically Engineered Food: Changing the Nature of Nature: What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself, Your Family, and Our Planet

* Explains the dangers of these foods in easily understood terms. * Provides a comprehensive guide to actions you can take to safeguard your food supply.

Picture a world where the french fries you eat are registered as a pesticide. Where corn plants kill monarch butterflies. Where soy plants thrive on doses of herbicide that would kill any normal plant. Where multinational corporations own the life forms that farmers grow and legally control the farmers' actions. That world exists. The above events are happening, and they are happening to us all. Genetically engineered foods-plants whose genetic structures are altered by scientists in ways that could never occur in nature--are already present in most of the products you buy in supermarkets, unlabeled, unwanted, and largely untested. The threat of these organisms to human and environmental health has caused them to be virtually banned in Europe, yet the U.S. government and a handful of biotech corporations, working hand-in-hand, have actively encouraged their use while discouraging labeling that might alert consumers to what they are eating.

Genetically Engineered Food: Changing the Nature of Nature is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the many ramifications of this dangerous science. Authors Martin Teitel and Kimberly Wilson explain what genetic engineering is and how it works, then explore the health risks involved with eating newly created lifeforms. They address the ecological catastrophe that could result from these modified plants crossing with wild species and escaping human control altogether, as well as the economic devastation that may befall small farmers who find themselves at the mercy of megacorporations for their livelihood. Taking the discussion a step further, they consider the ethical and spiritual implications of this radical change in our relationship to the natural world, showing what the future holds and giving you the information you need to act on your own or to join others in preserving the independence and integrity of our food supply.

After reading this book, I think I have a better grasp on the problems with GMO foods as contrasted to traditional food. The most shocking assertion I found in the book is that GMO foods do not offer any benefits (whether it be higher yields, higher nutritional value etc...). I have not done enough research to verify this either way but if true that would be quite shocking.

Some of the interesting things I learned in the book:

- GMO science is quite imprecise. Researchers are often not sure if the insertion of foreign genes into a host (e.g. a plant) will have the predicted results or not.

- The immense size of some GMO companies, notably the American firm Monsanto. (To give some perspective: Microsoft is to the software industry as Monsanto is to the GMO industry)

One of the most pressing concerns for me was the commercialization of agriculture. For example, Monsanto spent $8 billion US in the first half of 1998 buying out seed companies (a few companies may end up owning patents to all the seeds in the world if this is left unchecked). The new trend of patenting seeds is also creating a dependency on the part of the farmers. Prior to GMO, farmers would save the seeds from their better crops and plant those next years. GMO companies, through contracts and other legal instruments, now insure that farmers buy from them EVERY year and they penalize the farmers if they attempt to save seeds. The whole concept of OWNING plants and organisms was very disturbing (it was interesting to note that a little known US Supreme Court decision Diamond v. Chakrabarty 1980 set a precedent in patenting life)

There was also some discussion of whether GMO foods should be labeled as such (the authors argue that GMO foods should be labeled). Of course, this is done in Western Europe, so there is no question of whether this is possible. GMO companies are vigorously fighting this, fearing that the public will immediately stop buying their products.

The main content of the book consisted of documenting various cases where GMO foods have caused problems of some sort or another. There was an interesting point made on how much of an influence GMO companies have on the Food and Drug Administration in the US. There was also an introductory section on genetic engineering, so the beginner will not get lost.

The authors offered a personal strategy whereby one can try to publicize the issue, find alternatives to buying and eating GMO foods and so on. The authors are clearly of the view that GMO foods are, at best, a strange unknown and, at worst, a foolish risk.

I took off a star off because the writing could have been better and the authors made their agenda a little too obvious. It would have improved the book if they had included and responded to some of the pro-GMO counter-arguments.

The book does not tell you what you should do, but it really does not have too because the evidence the authors provide is so compelling, that anyone who reads this book will think twice about their next purchase at the store.

The book also explores the nature by which large corporations such as Novartis and Monsanto are able to saturate the market with their products before ample (or any kind of) testing is performed. Monsanto is also on the path to a closed loop business whereby they sell the farmers the GMO seeds which in turn require the pesticide (or other chemical) also manufactured by saiid company and the farmer must also pay a technology fee for using the seed!

A must read!

As consumers, we need to say that we WILL NOT STAND for this!