BuzzFlash Reviews
Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food (Paperback)
Andrew Kimbrell
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS
This is an informative, colorful, large format consumer introduction to the widespread use of genetic engineering in the foods we eat. It also includes a guide to activism on the issue and a handy GE shopping guide.
Many good genetically modified foods books are well-researched and argued explorations of the issue. "Your Right to Know" is an easily accesible and attractive overview of the issue that emphasizes what you need to know about genetically engineered foods as a consumer.
"Andrew Kimbrell, America's leading critic of genetically modified crops, has written a lively and comprehensive field guide to this treacherous new landscape that both citizens and consumers will find indispensable."
- Michael Pollan
"In this important primer, Kimbrell explains the threats that GE foods pose to our health, our environment, and our farming communities. He reminds us that the everyday decisions we make about the food we eat have the power to change the world."
- Alice Waters
"...This new book by Andrew Kimbrell is wise, sane, and reliable. It will enable you to make informed and healthy choices. It's the answer we've been needing."
- John Robbins
"This book will be an invaluable resource to the American public in understanding the hazards of GE foods. Their informed choice to avoid these foods will have a positive impact on our farms, communities, and biodiversity worldwide."
- Vandana Shiva
“The genetic manipulators are not merely messing with your food — they’re messing with you, your children, and your environment. Kimbrell’s book and handy shopping guide gives you what you need to fight back. Digest this book... And go forth!”
- Jim
From the San Francisco Chronicle review of the book:
"Since our government has refused to label these foods, how do we avoid buying and eating these foods?" asks Kimbrell, an attorney who heads the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety, a vocal opponent of GE foods.
His new book, "Your Right to Know: Genetic Engineering and the Secret Changes in Your Food" (Earth Aware Editions, $24.95), answers that question. And, remarkably, it accomplishes that in user-friendly, factoidal, fun-with-graphics way.
For conscious eaters, the heart of the book is a 14-page guide to your local supermarket. It tells you which foods are the most likely to contain GE ingredients (chips, snacks and baby formula), which aren't (fruits, vegetables, wheat), and how to read labels for "hidden ingredients" derived from corn, soy or canola (hint: look for high fructose corn syrup, soy lecithin and canola oil).
A passport-size version of the guide, small enough to slide into most pockets or purses, comes along with the book.
"I wanted to give people a usable tool to avoid these foods so they don't feel so helpless," said Kimbrell, who was in San Francisco last week to celebrate the launch of his book at Millennium restaurant and to appear before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal in a precedent-setting GE alfalfa case.
The book isn't intended to present the pros and cons of GE foods. Kimbrell is 100 percent against the technology and spends a lot of time in court fighting companies like Monsanto, to keep GE crops from spreading. The Center for Food Safety also opposes irradiation and food animal cloning, and has labored to keep industry from weakening federal organic standards.
In fact, Kimbrell is the man who calls the current administration's efforts to protect food safety "Katrina on a plate."
Katrina on a plate? Now, that should make you take notice of "Your Right to Know" and get educated about genetically modified foods.
BUZZFLASH REVIEWS