Genetically Engineered Food: Changing the Nature of Nature: What You Need to Know to Protect Yourself, Your Family, and Our Planet

Excerpts & Samples

By Martin Teitel

Publisher : Inner Traditions/Bear & Company

ABOUT Martin Teitel

Martin Teitel
Martin Teitel, Ph.D., the author of Rain Forest in Your Kitchen, is Executive Director of the Council for Responsible Genetics. He lives in Boston.

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Description


• The book that takes a comprehensive look at the threat to our food supply from genetic engineering.

• 15,000 copies sold in the first six months.

• Includes new studies about the dangers of genetically engineered food.

• Refutes the "feed the poor" propaganda spread by agribusinesses.

• Is both an expose and educational primer on this controversial technology that is already a part of every American's diet.

• Explains the dangers of these foods to ourselves and our environment in easily understood terms.


Picture a world?
• Where the french fries you eat are registered as a pesticide, not a food. 
• Where vegetarians unwittingly consume fish genes in their tomatoes. 
• Where corn plants kill monarch butterflies. 
• Where soy plants thrive on doses of herbicide that kill every other plant in sight. 
• Where multinational corporations own the life forms that farmers grow and legally control the farmers' actions. 

That world exists
These things are all happening, and they are happening to you.

Genetically engineered foods--plants whose genetic structures are altered by scientists in ways that could never occur in nature--are already present in many of the products you buy in supermarkets, unlabeled, unwanted, and largely untested. The threat of these organisms to human and environmental health has caused them to be virtually banned in Europe, yet the U.S. government, working hand-in-hand with a few biotech corporations, has actively encouraged their use while discouraging labeling that might alert consumers to what they are eating. The authors show what the future holds and give you the information you need to preserve the independence and integrity of our food supply.

What can you do?
First, inform yourself.
Genetically Engineered Food: Changing the Nature of Nature is the first book to take a comprehensive look at the many ramifications of this disturbing trend. 

Authors Martin Teitel and Kimberly Wilson explain what genetic engineering is and how it works, then explore the health risks involved with eating organisms never before seen in nature. They address the ecological catastrophe that could result from these modified plants crossing with wild species and escaping human control altogether, as well as the economic devastation that may befall small farmers who find themselves at the mercy of mega-corporations for their livelihood. Taking the discussion a step further, they consider the ethical and spiritual implications of this radical change in our relationship to the natural world, showing what the future holds and giving you the information you need to act on your own or to join others in preserving the independence and integrity of our food supply.

"Cuts through all the hype and misconceptions surrounding genetically engineered food and provides the indispensable primer."
Jeremy Rifkin, author of The Biotech Century

"This is an impressively readable and informative treatment."
Talking Leaves, Spring/Summer 2000

" . . . thorough and alarming. People who are concerned about their health and the health of the planet should read this book."
Vermont Times

"Authors Teitel and Wilson have performed an important and timely service in writing their book."
Dr. Joseph Ray, Atlantis Rising, Number 24

"A gripping account of the environmental, social, political, ethical, legal and economic decisions . . . about genetic engineering and our food supply."
Earth Island Journal, Volume 17, number 4

"An honest, eye-opening read for the consumer who is concerned with what really comes off the grocery store shelves."
New Texas, June 2002

"Read and learn what genetic engineering is, how it works, and the ways in which it affects your cuisine choices."
PJ Birosik, Nexus, July/August 2002

". . . a comprehensive and persuasive primer that is guaranteed to make readers take this new and daunting aspect of food production seriously."
Orion Afield, Winter 2001/02

"In simple, straightforward language, Martin Teitel and Kimberly A. Wilson guide readers through the questionalble process of toying with a food's gene pool, and offer a glimpse of the technology hidden behind the misleading label."
The Environmental Magazine, January/February 2000

"Teitel and Wilson provide a scientific and comprehensive guide about the potential dangers of these new foods. The book reinforces its research with extensive footnotes and indexes, along with a variety of advocacy and informational websites."
Today's Librarian, December 2000

"Few, if any, food issues are hotter right now in the public mind than the issue of genetically engineered food. This book is a simple, readable treatise detailing the main dangers of genetically modified food, ranging from its predictability, the assault on biodiversity, ethical problems of the patenting of seeds and life forms, the merging of the food and chemical industries and the global oppression of the family farmer. With a forward by Ralph Nader, this book is a must-have, no matter which side of the GE food debate one is on, since it provides such a thorough, and yet relatively brief coverage of the "anti" side in this fascinating, complex, and extremely important debate. Recommended."
Anne Newkirk Niven, SageWoman, Winter '00 - 01