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Review from The Milkweed, September, 2003
(Dairy Industry Newspaper)
Book Review by Pete Hardin
In mid-August, Jeffrey M. Smith self-published a fact-packed new book, Seeds of Deception, that lays bare the complex world of genetically modified foods. In my opinion, Smith's book is the next Silent Spring. The facts included in Seeds of Deception devastate the vacuous arguments laid out by biotechnology industry proponents, their hirelings, and government officials who supposedly protect the safety of our nation's food supply.
First time author Smith puts together many pieces of the genetically modified foods puzzle in a context that allows the reader to see the large, more dangerous picture.
The marriage of industry and government regulators in approving "safety" of genetically modified foods. In approving recombinant bovine growth hormone (rbGH), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) relied heavily upon employees with strong ties to Monsanto (the sole firm marketing rbGH - trademarked Posilac). A decision in the early 1990s by the Council on Competitiveness sealed the incredulously wrong federal policy that genetically modified foods were the same as their natural counterparts. The Council on Competitiveness was headed by then vice-president Dan Quayle.
FDA employees who spoke out against the rush for approval of genetically modified foods lost their jobs.
Strong-armed intimidation was directed at members of the news media who questioned food biotechnology. Monsanto threatened the printer of the environmental journal, The Ecologist, into shredding (rather than mailing) all 14,000 copies of a special issue that raked food biotechnology over the coals. Florida investigative reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson had their expose of rbGH canned because of pressures from Monsanto upon the Fox television network that owned the station at which they worked.
World-class protein researcher Arpad Pusztai had his work silenced, and he was put out of his job in England, when he uncovered undesired health effects in rats fed genetically modified potatoes.
Dairy features prominently Seeds of Deception. Gene-modified cow growth hormone was the first major biotechnology product reviewed by the FDA. As such, rbGH was the leadoff batter for dozens of food biotechnology products following behind it in the research pipeline. Great scrutiny by the scientific and investment communities followed rbGH's path to approval. If the "leadoff" batter failed, then optimism about food biotechnology would have suffered a serious setback. In summary, FDA's failure to honestly assess the human safety issues of recombinant bovine growth hormone constitutes nothing less than a conspiracy against human health/safety:
The single most important human health issue of rbGH focuses on a secondary hormone - Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF- 1). Mammalian growth hormones do not act directly on cells. Instead, growth hormones (naturally occurring and recombinant) spur bodily production of IGF- 1, which in turn coordinates cellular function. Human and bovine growth hormones are exactly the same, structurally. Numerous reports and studies linked IGF- 1 and human cancer. FDA failed to aggressively determine how much more IGF- 1 is present in milk from rgBH supplemented cows, compared to "normal" cows' milk.
The key study FDA relied on to "prove" that pasteurization reduced amounts of growth hormones in milk was attributed to an undergraduate student at Guelph University in Canada. This student heated milk for 30 minutes at the normal 15-second pasteurization temperature- a 120 X heat overdose.
Monsanto minions revolved back and forth between the company (and Monsanto funded academic stipends) and FDA. Key personnel at FDA - Michael Taylor, Susan Sechen, and Margarate Miller - tended Monsanto's interests.
To the north, Monsanto applied great pressure upon employees of Health Canada to bend to approve commercial sale of rgBH. Key files were stolen from a government safe. Health Canada employees told of what they interpreted as a bribe from Monsanto. Canadian officials totally discredited U.S. studies of rbGH "safety".
A thoughtful person, upon reading Jeffrey M. Smith Seeds of Deception will have trouble ever sitting down to a meal and not contemplating the origins of his/her foods. Single paperback copies are $17.95. Hardcover books are $27.95. Significant discounts for orders of six or more copies are available.
This article originally ran in the September, 2003 issue of The Milkweed. Reprinted with permission.
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