****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Seeds of Deception is foremost a very important book. It is important for anyone who eats food to read! It is well written and keeps one's interest all the way thru. How could it not!Learn about how our dairy farmers are injecting their cows with rBGH, a genetically engineered bovine growth hormone to increase milk production. It also gives them boob infections called mastitis. So the farmers give them shots of anitbiotics, various kinds depending on the farmer, or availability. rBGH is called "cow crack" because it speeds them up. It makes them miserable and it is all to increase milk production so that farmers get more milk subsidies from the government, not because we need more milk. And does pasteurization get rid of the rBGH? No. Are we drinking it? Yes. Are we also drinking the antibiotics? Yes. Should we be drinking organic milk? Yes. Personally I have been buying organic milk only, for over four years, and it tastes better than 'ordinary' milk. Every carton is delicious, unlike regular milk which half the time I dump down the sink because it tastes terrible.Back to the book: "Contrary to the assurances of the biotech companies that genetic engineering is precise and simply extends traditional breeding techniques, it is actually quite different. When genetic crops are engineered, the gene is inserted randomly, out of a sequence that has evolved over hundreds of millions of years. Although engineers assumed that each gene creates a single protein, the very recent discovery that human beings have only some 30,000 genes...shows that this premise was wrong. (until a few yrs ago it was believed that humans had approx 100,000 genes)."Further, genes interact; one gene may trigger other unpredicted and undesired effects."...."The random position and lack of control of the gene's functions could change any character of the plant and might not be evident immediately." "for example , unexpected deformities in GM soy, and cotton crops." ....the accidental switching on of a host organism's gene at random...... horizontal gene transfer, where genes can jump between organisms with unpredictable consequences.G.M. DNA does in fact transfer to bacteria in the human gut - previously thought impossible."... genetically modified organisms are not rigorously tested. They are not as nutritious as our old fashioned food. (In my opinion they don't taste very good either). Baby food, allergies, ...might affect sexual development in children and bowell obstruction...... food derived illnesses are doubled (cdc) in the past 7 yrs..... rise in allergies - 50% increase in soy allergies.Researchers doctor their studies to avoid finding problems with GM foods. (they could lose their research grants and/or their jobs). example: re rBGH study, cows that got sick were dropped from rBGH studies while cows that were pregnant before treatment were counted as support that the drug didn't interfere with fertility.....Conflicts of interest gallore. Suppression and vilification of scientists who try to convey research info to the public that is deemed to harm the industry. FDA corruption. "Former FDA Commissioner ' The thing that bugs me is that people think the FDA is protecting them. It isn't. What the FDA is doing and what the public thinks it's doing are as different as night and day."Biotech industry folks working in high positions in the U.S. government. "Muscling the Media; threats to sue keep absolutely everyone quiet except for a brave few (like this author). Do we ever hear discussions about gm foods on television? NO. ...do animals enjoy eating gm food? No. Is the government relying on the biotech companies to test their own products? Yes. Are they actually testing their products? No.The White House, no matter the President , has always supported the biotech industry "at the expense of human health". Campaign contributions, bribery, billions of lobby dollars, threats, corruption, beyond belief. And not only in the U.S.. In Canada, Dr. Margaret Haydon tried to refuse to approve rBGH "due to her concerns for human health. She was taken off the case.""Genetic engineering presents probably the largest ethical problem that science has ever had to face." "Going ahead in this direction may be not only unwise, but dangerous. Potentially, it could breed new animal and plant diseases, new sources of cancer, novel epidemics."And of course the growers of gm crops must use specific insecticides (Roundup) manufactured by the same biotech companies that made the seeds. The list goes on and on.An important book. Read it. You'll change your eating/buying habits immediately.
