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The World According To Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption, And The Control Of The World's Food Supply (2010)

by Marie-Monique Robin(Favorite Author)

4.14 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1595584269 (ISBN13: 9781595584267)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

New Press, The

review 1: The author has a clear bias that sometimes gets in the way of the very compelling arguments she makes against Monsanto and GMOs. The first part of the book felt weaker to me because I think there simply hasn't been enough impartial, thorough testing of GMOs to definitively state whether or not they are safe. The long-term effects of GMO consumption are unknown at this point, so I didn't think she could make the case that they are definitely harmful to human health, but her exhaustive research does point out the utter lack of definitive information.The second part of the book is stronger, once she focuses on the environmental and social cost of GMOs. Superweeds, increased use of chemicals, and monoculture are all well-documented side effects of GMO use, as she points out. I... more found the sections about the health impacts on those exposed to the runoff and vapors from chemical spraying to be particularly horrifying. These problems are often invisible to Westerners, and I think it's important that the author is spreading the word. This kind of information gets buried far too often.Also significant are the sections where the author gets into the role GMOs play in soil depletion and the unintended consequences on insect populations. The book is a bit old, but very thorough as more and more information is emerging about the effects of GMOs and glyphosate on butterflies, bees, and other pollinators.This book does an excellent job of sounding the alarm. We Americans especially need to be very, very worried. Why have these enormous, powerful companies stood in the way of product labeling if their products are as harmless as they claim? What will become of our food system if it's placed the hands of the powerful few? Reading this made me even more inclined to keep buying organic. Thank goodness for the Non-GMO project and for stores like Whole Foods committing to keeping GMOs out of their products. The effects of this are becoming quite clear: voting with our wallets may well be the last refuge of citizens whose regulatory systems sacrifice their safety under pressure from the very industries they're supposed to regulate.
review 2: This is a great story for all to read. It opens your eyes to see how corrupt corporate America is. We don't care how much damage we do to the earth or other countries but we don't think about how it will affect us. Just because the chemicals are used on the other side of the world doesn't mean it won't affect us. We eat that food. The FDA should create a global organization. I wish Robin included more of the struggle of traveling alone for 3 years all over the world. All in all it was a very interesting book and made me feel more comfortable about my career choice. less

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