Renewable Farming

Dr. Don Huber recommends the book, “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth”

Dr. Don Huber, the “anchor” speaker at today’s field day sponsored by BRT Ag and Turf, documented the failed promises of the “biotech revolution” in agriculture. And he pointed to the statistical trends on U.S. health — such as the projection that in just another 10 years, one out of two children will suffer from autism.

The roots of the parabolic rise in chronic disease in the U.S. are complex, but two of the driving forces are:

1. a diet based in genetically modified staple foods from corn and soybeans

2. a diet laced with surprisingly high levels of glyphosate herbicide, a powerful bactericide and chelator of all positive ions essential for nutrition.

We’ll have a more detailed report later, but for now we wanted to re-publish a book review of the book Dr. Huber recommended — Altered Genes, Twisted Truth by Steven Druker, Clear River Press, 2015.

This review is by Jill Carlson — teacher, grandmother and author. 

Steven Druker is a seasoned writer and attorney whose lawsuit finally forced the FDA to fish out 44,000 pages of files they’d hidden from the public.

Druker excels in digging through layers of corporate, government, university and medical history to reveal the daddy of all cover-ups: How the United States became the only super-power to consistently parrot the lie that genetically modified foods pose no threat to human health. 

The evidence in Druker’s 500-page Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, is damning. Druker tells us that for nearly 40 years:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA): 
—  allowed corporations to re-make and patent plants genetically
—  never tested GMOs for safety
—  allowed corporations to do their own safety testing.
—  shifted the burden of proof to the consumer

The facts are that genetically modified plants:
— receive foreign genes (from viruses, fish, insects) to “remake” them
— do not behave in consistently programmed ways
— behave differently in the digestive tract than do classical foods
— are found in most packaged foods
— in long term (post 90 day) animal studies, tumors, severe health problems and  inability to reproduce are commonplace.

In the early 1970s, caution and care were the bywords of genetic engineers, who were hesitant — even afraid — to test their new plant-children in wide open fields. But then presidents Reagan and Bush de-regulated and the FDA took this for permission to just keep those altered genes growing…..and growing…..and growing. It’s never clear how savvy U.S. presidents have been in regard to GMO safety. Presidents keep their ears to the ground but that ground is littered with agenda-driven advisors. Sidetracking them, says Druker, are “eminent scientists and scientific institutions.”

And while labeling laws would keep consunmers more focused, they would likely engender a propaganda blitz claiming that a labeled GMO product is actually superior.

Druker speaks of “should do” and “if only”, as if the government could or would require the proper channels to consumer safety “if only” the public asked them to. But his own book makes it clear that the pathways to proof are continually sidetracked by moneyed and political interests. Bill Gates, founder of one of the most prestigious global software companies, ignores his own standard for software testing when he promotes the global use of GMO crops. If he applied those sloppy GMO safety standards to medical software he would generate millions of lawsuits as one medical device after another broke down in a series of domino accidents. And yet, genomes, DNA and plant reproduction are radically more complex than software programs, and no scientist yet has been able to predict exactly how a plant will behave once injected with DNA.

As Druker says, no need to pass new laws…just enforce the ones that are on the books. Unfortunately, the grownups are not in charge.   Here’s a link to his book on Amazon.

Personally, Jill remembers her father: Dr. M. R. Clarkson, DVM, J.D., who was the first administrator (1965) of the FDA’s new veterinary branch (Bureau of Veterinary Medicine ). A man of impeccable integrity, he would have been alarmed and astounded to hear of the shoddy practices of the current FDA’s GMO safety cover-up. Where are these good people today?”