Jeffrey M. Smith

I'm not one of those tree-hugging liberals. I like science, I learned in school that genetic engineering was a GOOD thing, and years ago I was a plebe at Arthur D. Little (support staff, not a scientist). For years my earthy-crunchy friends have been warning me of the dangers of GMO's in the food and I ignored them, reasoning I was not about to take up Yoga and become a vegetarian.

Then my kids got sick and we learned part of the problem was stuff hidden in the food...

My day-job is attorney. show more Before I swallow a bunch of hogwash to double my grocery bill and start buying organic, I want some EVIDENCE. Hard, credible, reliable scientific evidence from credible, realistic scientists who don't have an agenda and not a bunch of quacks. I also want counter-evidence about why I shouldn't believe the OTHER guy's evidence of all the reasons GMO's are safe. Dr. Jeffrey M. Smith convinced me.

I did my time working at Arther D. Little years ago helping the scientists document the effects of this substance or that on rats. I was just an office assistant back then, but I worked there just long enough to understand there is a vast difference between the 90-day initial safety studies the food industry trots out as justification for claiming these substances are safe, and a 3-year longitudinal study where they examine the long-term effects of something on animals. You ever hear of anybody who smoked a cigarette and died of lung cancer in 90 days? No. It takes years ... same as it does for rats. Those 2,000 GMO-funded studies ... they're all 90-day studies. The few studies that have been done to study the effects of Bte-toxin-producing-GMO-food on animals that lasted longer than that ... oof! Scary. Scary scary scary. Don't want to eat it no more. Nope. You convinced me. Until Big-Ag produces 2,000 LONG-TERM studies, I'm not buying their food.

I'm still cautious about what I believe, but since we cleaned out all the GMO's in our diet, my kid's problems are gradually getting better. There were two effects, the all of a sudden decrease in irritability which occured about the third day after we stripped GMO's out of our diet (we had no idea we were all so irritable all the time until all of a sudden we weren't anymore), and then the more gradual lessening of some of his other physiological symptoms.

There's a lot of quacks out there spinning pseudo-science, all with their hands out, trying to get you to take this fruity-tooty class, buy this product, embrace this lifestyle or start doing some pretty strange things. Ignore those quacks. Dr. Jeffrey Smith has been able to credibly back up every claim he's made, and when he doesn't know or the evidence is sparse, he's honest about it. Buy this book and use it to help you figure out which lifestyle chioces you wish to make in YOUR family. show less

Seeds Of Deception - Exposing Industry & Government Lies About The Safety Of The Genetically Engineered Foods You're Eating by Jeffrey M. Smith is a relentless foray into the veil of deception obfuscating genetically modified food that has been cast by Big Biotech companies like Monsanto & Co.

Smith catalogues countless examples of the many issues that genetic engineering of organisms is fraught with.

The book is chock-full of hundreds of data points that eviscerate the conventional narrative show more in very incisive ways.

A snippet into some of the inherent issues that plague genetically engineered foods mentioned in the book involve code scramblers, messing up the host's normal DNA, horizontal gene transfer and antibiotic resistance, gene silencing, environmental influences, turning on your genes, waking sleeping viruses, cancer and more safety issues that are highly unknown in society.

Regarding cancer, in fact, Smith elaborates:

"The CaMV light switch and other viral promoters used in GM crops can also activate other, non-viral genes in species where it "happens to be transferred," says Ho and others. "One consequence of such inappropriate over-expression of genes may be cancer." Stanely Ewen, one of Scotland's leading experts in tissue diseases, agrees. He says that CaMV promoter "could affect stomach and colonic lining by causing a growth factor effect with the unproven possibility of hastening cancer formation in those organs."[1]

Not only are the health issues involved with genetically modified organisms [GMOs] detailed at length, but the author goes beyond that to cover the downright corruption that is taking place between Big Biotech and government as best exemplified by the revolving door between Monsanto and the FDA. Coupled with that is the fact that many of the scientists that are working behind the scenes are also board members of Big Biotech companies in a classic conflict of interest scenario.

In fact, FDA corruption was so bad that hundreds of scientists either quit or retired.

Detailed below:

"FDA veterinarian Richard Burroughs described the changes he saw. "There seemed to be a trend in the place toward approval at any price It went from a university-like setting where there was independent scientific review to an atmosphere of "approve, approve, approve." He said, "the thinking is, 'How many things can we approve this year?' Somewhere along the way they abdicated their responsibility to the public welfare."[2]

FDA corruption is actually trenchantly detailed throughout the length of the book.

Not only that, but as Smith soberingly mentions:

"Research in the Journal of American Medical Association revealed that study of cancer drugs funded by non-profit groups were eight times more likely to reach unfavorable conclusions as the studies funded by the pharmaceutical companies. Or consider the case of the genetically modified sweetener aspartame: About 165 peer-reviewed studies were conducted on it by 1995. They were divided almost evenly between those that found no problem and those that raised questions about the sweetener's safety. Of those studies that found no problem, 100% were paid for by the manufacturer of the sweetener. All of the studies paid for by non-industry and non-government sources raised question. The manufacturer of the sweetener, by the way, is GD Searly, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Monsanto during that period."[3]

Moving forward, a very much appreciated portion of the book comes at the end of it. Smith makes it a point to outline many of the resources available to individuals in regards to this disturbing topic. That just might be worth the price of the book alone given the many dangers inherent therein.

Regardless, even without that, the book showcases extensive evidence of GMO dangers that individuals should be cognizant of. This book helps individuals view what the reality is regarding this propaganda-laden topic. Not only that, but evidence continues being amassed that only buttresses Smith's concerns.

The question is now, what will you as an individual do about it?

_____________________________________________________________________
Sources:

[1]Jeffrey M. Smith, Seeds Of Deception, pg. 65.
[2]Ibid., pg. 142.
[3]Ibid., pg. 41-42. show less

"In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men... I have warned you, and forewarn you," (D&C 89:4) Dear reader, would you be offended if I used this quote on two subsequent books that I will be reading? It certainly applies to a large variety of marketed products.

The content of the book is both scary, and scholarly. Page after page of ignored adverse effects, poor documentation, shoddy study methodology, obfuscation and lies. It reminds me of show more Silent Spring. It's enough to make one afraid to eat any food made from grain for fear of adverse health effects. Fortunately, page 258 lets us know which foods are:

CURRENTLY COMMERCIALIZED GM CROPS IN THE US
Soy (89%)
Cotton (83%)
Canola (75%)
Corn (60%)
Hawaiian papaya (more than 50%)

Whew, there are still some foods left that I can safely eat. And I feel relieved that I recently started to buy and wear more clothing without cotton.

I did not realize that aspartame is "a genetically engineered sweetener." Fortunately, for years, my wife has been adamant about scrupulously avoiding it. There's one hazard I inadvertently avoided consuming.

There is a page reassuring me with what I already knew: "US shoppers reject rbGH". Whew, I was worried about that one for several years until I began to see reassuring markings on milk bottles.

If you can stand a good scare, and don't already know that it's a dangerous world out there - read this book. It will give you something to worry about.

PS. Another reader of this book provided a link to a site claiming that this book is pseudoscience. To me this book looks like a review of the literature. Since there is a lot of pseudoscience out there, be your own judge of it's accuracy and relevance. show less

This book raises some valid concerns, and seems to document quite of bit of what can only be called corruption in the 80's and 90's in e.g. the FDA.

But, again and again, the appeal to emotion over reason... ugh. Again and again, the dangling indictment: "X says Y. But X once worked for Z..." A version of the genetic fallacy... how appropriate. Ugh. And the 'slam dunk' proofs of at least a handful of things haven't aged well. I went and looked into the Arpad Pusztai affair, and it sounds like show more his research really was incomplete (e.g., a lack of controls... which is pretty f'ing serious... especially someone the book represents as being something like an unimpeachable expert.) Ugh. And the hating on Golden Rice hasn't held up. The technology --the food-- keeps improving... which, to put it a tad harshly, is what happens when people work on something rather than bitch about it.

Sigh.

Again, some entirely valid issues raised. And the book was actually quite readable, which doesn't hurt. So two stars. show less