Jeffrey Smith Touring UK with "Seeds of Deception"

3 May - 14 May, 2004

[Schedule below]

Seeds Of Deception: Book Review by Claire Robinson / GM Weekly Watch n.50 (UK) 5dec03

SEEDS OF DECEPTION     Foreword  by Michael Meacher MP

Jeffrey Smith speaking at the GEAN National Conference at the University of California Berkeley on 14 March 2004 Photo: Paul Goettlich

This is a brilliant book which combines shrewd dissection of the true nature of GM technology, a devastating critique of the health and environmental hazards of GM crops, and scarifying examples of the manipulation of both science and the media by the biotech industry.

Despite the British Government's GM Nation Debate in mid-2003, the level of understanding of GM remains alarmingly low in the UK. This book should be compulsory reading, not only for the general public, but even more so for the decision-makers who have never been exposed to systematic analysis of the problems created by GM.

What is so exciting about this book is that it is no dry text of scientific exegesis-it positively fizzes with the human drama of the cabals and conspiracies behind the scenes which have littered the history of Big Biotech in its frantic efforts to get itself accepted. It is meticulously documented and powerfully written, somewhere between a documentary and a thriller.

It reveals above all that GM is not some arcane issue about science or technology-it is ultimately about power. There are no consumer benefits from GM crops, the alleged benefits to farmers are deeply disputed, environmental and health testing has never been carried out, non-GM farmers are being put seriously at risk. So why is GM being pressed at all? The answer, set out painstakingly and frighteningly in this book, tells us a great deal about how power is exercised today-funding political parties and key individuals, networking around opinion-formers and decision-makers, and fixing strategic job swaps between the biotech industry and Government. And this is not just conjecture; plenty of examples are given which illustrate how secretive and malign these influences are.

The main area of cover-up is undoubtedly the GM effects on health. It is a staggering fact that there have been virtually no clinical or biochemical tests of the impacts of eating GM foods on human health. Jeffrey Smith sets out, like a detective story, the unravelling of the L-tryptophan fiasco, the StarLink maize allergy mishap, and the cauliflower mosaic virus promoter hazard, as well as a host of other health risks, both predicted and unpredictable.

But the kernel of the book is the commercialization of politics and the politicization of science. For those who still believe the constitutional fantasy that governments act in accordance with their manifesto in the general interests of society, this book will come as a shocker. The exercise of power today is much more hard-nosed and ruthless, and the power-brokers are not the electorate, but Big Business. As a case study of this suborning of democratic accountability, Jeffrey Smith's account is an eye-opener. But most of all it is a call to arms, not only to prevent the contamination of the nation's food supply, but even more to tackle the poisoning of the nation's decision-making system by the undercover wielding of economic and financial muscle and PR manipulativeness of Big Biotech. March 2004

Rt. Hon. Michael Meacher MP was Minister of State for the Environment from 1997 to June 2003. He has served longer as a minister and opposition spokesman than anyone in the current government, having been on the front bench for 27 of the past 30 years since Harold Wilson appointed him a junior industry minister in 1974.

Schedule

Monday May 3 MATHRY(Nr Fishguard) 5p.m. - late + members of GMFree Cymru Mathry Community Hall Pembrokeshire Contact: Chris Samra Tibberts c.samratibbs@btopenworld.com

Tuesday May 4 CARDIFF 12.30 - 2.00 p.m. + Dr Vyvyan Howard Welsh Assembly Contact: Rachael.Langlands-Brown@wales.gov.uk (Langlands-Brown, Rachael (AM Support Staff))

Wednesday May 5 7.00 - 8.30 p.m. EDINBURGH National Library of Scotland (Exhibition Hall), Contact Scottish Green MSPs Office 0131 348 6363

Thursday May 6 7.30 p.m. FINDHORN Upper Community Centre, The Park Findhorn Contact: Gordon McAlpine Gordon@woodheadcom.org

Saturday May 8 5.00 p.m. ARDERSIER, INVERNESS Highland Green Gathering, Kylerona Farm, Ardersier Inverness Contact: Donny MacLeod Macleod.organics@virgin.net  Or Myra Carus myra@hlc.co.uk

Monday May 10 LONDON 7.00 - 9.00 p.m + Rt. Hon. Michael Meacher MP Chair: Zac Goldsmith, The Ecologist The Meeting Place, Drummond Street, London NW 1 Contact: amanda@greenbooks.co.uk

Tuesday May 11 BRISTOL 7.30 - 9.30 p.m. Meeting Room 1, University of Bristol Union Building, Contact; Bristol Genetix Group 0117 927 6322

Wednesday May 12th TAUNTON 7.00 - 9.00 p.m. Committee Room, Municipal Hall, Taunton, Somerset Contact: bgarstang@tinyworld.co.uk

Thursday May 13th TOTNES 7.00 - 9.00 p.m. Chairman" John Sherrell, FARM Civic Hall, Totnes, Devon Contact: amanda@greenbooks.co.uk

Friday May 14th NORWICH 7.30 - 9.30 p.m. Chair: Professor Tim O'Riordan Environmental Sciences, UEA Assembly House, Norwich, Norfolk Contact: caro.clarke@virgin.net

For more information please contact Amanda at Green Books 01803 864013 www.greenbooks.co.uk

SEEDS OF DECEPTION: Exposing Corporate and Government Lies about the Safety of Genetically Engineered Food
Jeffrey M. Smith
Foreword by Michael Meacher
Published April 2004
£9.95