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

- Scientists were offered bribes or threatened. Evidence was stolen. Data was omitted or distorted.
- Government employees who complained were harassed, stripped of responsibilities, or fired.
- Laboratory rats fed a GM crop developed stomach lesions and seven of the forty died within two weeks. The crop was approved without further tests.
- The only independent in-depth feeding study ever conducted showed evidence of alarming health dangers. When the scientist tried to alert the public, he lost his job and was silenced with threats of a lawsuit.

Read the actual internal memos by FDA scientists, warning of toxins, allergies, and new diseases—all ignored by their superiors, including a former attorney for Monsanto. Learn why the FDA withheld information from Congress after a genetically modified supplement killed nearly a hundred people and disabled thousands.

Jeffrey Smith has worked in the field of GM foods for nearly a decade—with nonprofit and political groups and at a GMO detection laboratory. His masterful writing style captivates and charms, while his meticulously documented facts leave no doubt about a massive injustice. Eating such experimental food is gambling with your health. Find out how you can protect yourself and your family.

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.


A frightening and important read   March 24, 2004
klavierspiel (TX, USA)
78 out of 91 found this review helpful

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.


If you think GM foods are safe, think again.   April 12, 2007
Michael Uschold (Seattle, WA USA)
24 out of 28 found this review helpful

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.


"Fair and Balanced" is neither   June 16, 2006
B. Duncan (Sacramento, CA)
20 out of 23 found this review helpful

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.