New book on GMOs by Jeffrey M. Smith- Genetic Roulette.

From the website:-www.chelseagreen.com

Genetic Roulette
The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods
Jeffrey M. Smith
Eating genetically modified food is gambling with every bite.

The book's website says that the biotech industry’s claim that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe will be shattered in the new book. Nearly forty health risks of the foods that Americans eat every day are presented in easy-to-read two-page spreads, the blurb asserts.It offers fully referenced text, describing both research studies and theoretical risks. It will be presented in the clear, accessible style that made Jeffrey Smith’s Seeds of Deception the world’s best-selling book on genetically engineered foods.

The second half of Genetic Roulette will explore, it says, why children are most at risk, how to avoid GM foods, false claims by biotech advocates, how industry research is rigged to avoid finding problems, why GM crops are not needed to feed the world, the economic losses associated with these crops, and more.

This book is being prepared in collaboration with a team of international scientists, and is marketed "for anyone wanting to understand GM technology, to learn how to protect themselves, or to share their concerns with others. As the world’s most complete reference on the health risks of GM foods, Genetic Roulette is also ideal for schools and libraries".

Consider some findings, it says:

* Animals fed genetically modified (GM) foods developed bleeding stomachs, potentially precancerous cell growth, damaged organs and immune systems, kidney inflammation, problems with blood and liver cells, and unexplained deaths.

* Soy allergies skyrocketed in the United Kingdom after GM soy was introduced.

* Genes from GM crops transfer to human gut bacteria. This might transform our intestinal flora into living pesticide factories.

About the Author

Jeffrey M. Smith is on the Genetic Engineering Committee of the Sierra Club, was the former vice president of marketing for a GMO detection laboratory, and ran for U.S. Congress in his home state of Iowa to raise public awareness of the health and environmental dangers of GM foods.

GMO Pundit will look out for research results that address the issues touted by the book, which will appear August 2006.

What will they be?

Well JIGMOD provides some clues.

Most likely many of the scare-stories circulated by JIGMOD organsisers will appear in Jeffrey Smith's new book.

GMO Pundit has included links scientific information that relates to the announced topics in the book (see hyperlinks just above at Animals fed ..., and Soy allergies...)

One of topic where Smith's approach will surely need to change is his previous claims that essential tryptophan nutrients made using GM bacteria have caused a disease called EMS (Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome).

In a previous post about tryptophan, Pundit has explained how medical understanding of this EMS issue has shifted greatly.

As excessive tryptophan itself is a health hazard, Smith is ethically bound to revise his position on EMS to minimise further harms, but consider this and the notes at the end of Pundit's earlier post:


From Today in AgBioView from www.agbioworld.org: March 31, 2006

EMS and Tryptophan: From Rick Roush to Jeffrey Smith

Two months ago, you wrote in reply to the latest and overwhelming evidence debunking GM as a cause of EMS that "I will write up a more detailed response and send it to you soon." Do you have a reply yet, or are you willing to concede that the GM claim is in error, and to join in warning people of the dangers of self-medicating with tryptophan?

You could start with a disclaimer at your website. In fact, you promised me and the rest of the audience here in Davis that if we could show errors in your books, that is what you would do.

Again, to give people a false sense of security by implying that non-GE tryptophan is safe is unethical and immoral. This must surely transcend your personal war on GM.

- Rick

=====

Sent 31 January Dear Jeffrey:

Not a single sentence or paragraph that challenges your speculation that GM was a causative factor in EMS? [Smith's response the the new tryptophan study] How about starting with the 3rd paragraph of the paper:

Pervasive hypothesis, two alleged (and partially interrelated) cofactors - namely, genetic engineering and a microimpurity/ies of dietary supplements [15] - are both unnecessary and insufficient explanations of enigmatic (multifactorial) chains of causality underlying a majority of official EMS cases. Numerous etiologic incongruities - including two reports of L-tryptophan-induced eosinophilia with myalgia in 1986 - underscore why a paradigm shift was advisable......

Additional counterevidence from Waller, Wood, Breckenridge and Rawlins, (published by the London Department of Health and Social Security) disclosed at least 3 official EMS cases in the United Kingdom that were associated with a Merck pharmaceutical product containing L-tryptophan (Optimax). An analogous survey in Ireland disclosed 5 cases of eosinophilia linked to Optimax. These little known landmarks do not comport with hypotheses that "the etiologic agent" of L-tryptophan-induced EMS is a finite microimpurity/ies of LTCDS manufactured by Showa Denko K.K.

To summarize, never mind all of the other flaws and speculations in your GM story, a key fact is that there are too many cases that clearly had nothing to do with Showa Denko or any other GM source.

I could simply laugh at your response and its predictability, but I suggest you need to consider the ethical and moral implications of what you are doing. There are continuing efforts to promote tryptophan as a supplement (e.g., below). Smith and Garrett clearly show that self dosage with trytophan or related chemicals, from any source, is a health hazard in itself.

By arguing that GM was the source of EMS, you implicitly encourage people who believe in tryptophan to think that it is safe as long it comes from non-GM sources. Your GM story is thus a hazard to public health and safety because it might dissuade people from understanding the real source of the illness.

Are you prepared to wear the responsibility for even one case of EMS?

At least I have tried to prevent this. I call on you to retract these claims on your websites as soon as possible. You cannot continue to claim that GM was a likely causative factor in EMS and simultaneously maintain that you are seriously interested in the truth.

Rick

28th April 2006.
No news back from Jeffrey yet.

21st May 2006, still no news from Jeffrey. But GMO Pundit has posted a summary of the scientific evidence on animal tests and chemical fingerprinting evidence that supports evidence based statements about GM food safety and GM food risks.

By August The Full Monty on Animal Feeding Tests and Safety Testing of GM Foods had counted 146 scientific publications attesting their safety. Still no comment from Jeffrey. Wonder how this will be treated in the book then?

8 th June 2006. Review of book appears on the blogs. See Pundit's Glufosinate toxins are mostly flushed down the toilet post. Meanwhile, see Jennifer Marohasy's comments on Jeffrey Smith's Genetic Roulette in The Land.

4th August 2006. A scare story about a GM nutrient enriched maize variety used for animal feed appears. Its a real beat-up, based on an arcane discussion of the chemical risks of cooking mixtures of nutrients. Yes, browning onions and steak together might be harmful because heat caused sugars and protein to go brown. Wonder if Genetic Roulette will cover it?

31st August 2006. Publication days away. As a mild teaser, speculation that GM causes prions to be generated in plants, appears as Spilling the Beans. Prions cause Mad Cow disease and Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease (CJD dementia) in humans. They have not been found in plants, to the Pundit's knowledge.

3rd November 2007. Mr Smith is coming to Perth, Western Australia to speak at a forum. A few of the controversies that are circulating the internet seen certain to come up in discussion.
Arpad Pusztai, Irina Ermakova, and Seralini et al. seem likely candidates. These guys statistical errors, to recognise natural variability in rat experiments, and Ermacova's poor animal welfare standards have been discussed on this blog. e.g.

Ermakova's statistical difficulties

Seralini et al pulled apart by EFSA

I wonder whether Jeffrey Smith is tuned into these issues?

November 2007

Book review of Genetic Roulette in Weekly Times