Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers. - Review - book review

Sierra, July, 2001 by Debbie Ortman

Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers by Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston (Marlowe, $12.95; online at www.purefood.org)

Like it or not, "you and your family are now part of a vast culinary and biological experiment--dining on an expanded menu of genetically engineered foods," warn authors Cummins and Lilliston, of the Organic Consumers Association and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, respectively. If you're uncomfortable with being a guinea pig but frustrated with the difficulty of making informed choices about genetically engineered foods because none of them are labeled, you'll find this book to be a useful guide.

Exploring the current debates on the health and environmental risks of biotech foods, the authors present research on U.S. food companies' use of genetically engineered ingredients. They list the foods and brands that do not contain genetically engineered material and expose those that do.

"The debate over genetically engineered foods and crops may last decades," the authors note. "However, as Europe has shown, the ultimate arbiter of power ... is the consumer." By providing the tools to find out exactly who is engineering what foods, they are equipping consumers to engage in a policy debate that has been dominated by corporate PR echoed by a gullible press (see "Spinning Science Into Gold"). If the government ever gets the nerve to properly monitor and regulate the biotech industry, it could start by demanding that food labels contain the sort of information presented in this book.