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Jeffery Smith: Exploring modified food's dark side

By Jennifer Polis

Jeffrey Smith, the author of Seeds of Deception: Exposing industry and government lies about the safety of the genetically engineered foods you’re eating, the world’s bestselling book about genetically engineered foods, spoke at People’s Food Co-op on August 9. Jennifer Polis spoke with Smith about this dangerous, untested technology, including possible deadly side effects, the government cover up, and what individuals can do to protect themselves. This is Part One; Part Two will appear in the October issue of the Alliance.

Jennifer Polis: What is the biggest challenge to educating people about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs)?

Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating By Jeffrey M. Smith Yes! Books Sept. 2003 304 pages; $17.95; paperback ISBN: 0972966587

Jeffrey Smith: The biggest challenge is the misinformation that has been consciously circulated by the industry and their supporters in government. There’s a false understanding that the FDA approves these and has tested these and that they’re tested properly and that they’re safe. It is falsely believed that they are necessary to feed a hungry planet, and that they are an extension of natural breeding.

In fact, this is a very dangerous application of an infant technology that has not been properly tested, and the very few studies that have been done show significant adverse reactions in animals, and more and more reports are demonstrating adverse reactions among human beings. So the challenge is to break through the spin and to alert people about the risks associated with GMOs.

JP: When you speak with people about Genetically Engineered (GE) foods, what are people usually most surprised to hear?

JS: The first thing is when I tell them that the FDA does not require any safety studies whatsoever, and that the person in charge at the FDA who created that policy was Monsanto’s former attorney, it lights a light bulb in people’s minds, and they realize, “Oh, it’s one of those.” Meaning it’s hijacked regulatory agencies. And then they realize that they can’t trust what the government says and what the industry says.

The second most surprising thing is the extent to which damage can occur from eating these. People have no idea, for example, that genes can transfer from food to gut bacteria, and that they put a pesticide gene into corn and cotton. So, eating a corn product that’s genetically engineered to produce it’s own pesticide can theoretically transform our internal intestinal flora into living pesticide factories. These types of truly shocking but absolutely scientifically supported risks are often what is shocking people.

And I guess there’s also the extent of the cover up and squelching of adverse findings and critical voices - the attempted bribes; the actual bribes; the rigged research; the fired scientists; the threatened scientists; the withdrawal of tenure or funding from those who have taken positions of very reasonable concern. So it builds a case that on the whole is outrageous and shocking.

JP: How do you describe media coverage of GE foods, and what kind of reception have you gotten from the media?

JS: I’ve been reading the U.S. mainstream press reports for over a decade and comparing it to European reports; and in Europe they report risks, they raise questions, and they are not afraid of controversy. In the United States they usually don’t report any aspects of the real risks and typically read like biotech brochures.

What has happened is that $50 million a year is spent by the biotech industry to support GMOs. They actually threatened some of the writers and lobbied their editors to take certain writers off of stories, in particular rBGH, the genetically modified hormone injected into cows. There’s been canceling of media reports due to threats or perceived threats from Monsanto’s attorneys in the case of FOX TV’s coverage of rBGH.

So there’s been a lot of corporate manipulation of the message, and that has resulted in a situation where 60 percent of Americans polled say they’ve never eaten a genetically engineered food in their lives, and 15 percent say “I don’t know,” when nearly everyone eats it every day. So the industry success is based on consumer’s ignorance, which, by the way, leaves the industry extremely vulnerable.

The typical newspaper coverage of the issue, if it does raise concern, is often limited to a sentence or two, quoted as someone’s opinion, and then it’s typically “balanced” by a representative from the Biotech Industry Organization (BIO), or a similar organization, with two or three paragraphs of them giving the standard mythology that it’s been proven safe, that it will feed the world, and that concerns about it are unfounded.

So I’ve been very disappointed with the coverage, and that is the reason I wrote the book Seeds of Deception and why I write a monthly column that goes into great detail about the risks associated with GM. I’m happy to say that it’s been picked up all over the world, and it’s available at seedsofdeception.com for free, and I make it available to any newsletter, newspaper, magazine, etc., that would like to reprint the articles in whole or in part.

I have reached over 100 million people through the press worldwide. I’ve been on prime time TV in a number of countries, had very long articles in major women’s magazines, etc. But coverage in the mainstream press in the U.S. is not on par with coverage elsewhere. There’s still a significant bias not to cover the hard-hitting issues, especially not the food-safety issue.

Nonetheless, I have been featured in a lot of local magazines and newspapers, probably more than 200 radio shows in the U.S. I was on the History Channel. So, I have been getting through, but not to the extent that this topic deserves, because these foods are being fed to everyone, and it is a threat to our health and environment and to future generations.

End of Part One. Part Two will appear in the October issue.

Jennifer Polis is a local freelance writer and Alliance board member.