New Book On GE Contends Royal Commission A Sham

New Book On GE Contends The Royal Commission Was A “Sham”

A new book hitting the stands this week that the Royal Commission on GM was primarily an expensive, elaborate “PR exercise” whose outcome was a foregone conclusion.

The GE $ellout, edited by Jonathan Eisen, contends that scientific studies indicating serious harm to human health and the environment have been deliberately and consistently ignored by the NZ government.

The book argues that the Royal Commission was informed of these studies in detail but likewise chose to ignore or misrepresent them. It contends that based in part on these studies, at least 500 independent scientists worldwide have argued that commercial release of GE organisms could be “catastrophic” and should be avoided.

One study quoted in the book showed that thousands of people were injured and many died from GE tryptophan, a nutritional supplement. Another showed that a GE bacterium nearly released into the environment had the ability to kill living wheat plants on a mass scale.

The book argues that the government’s decision to release GE into the food and environment was made prior to the establishment of the Royal Commission and that the job of the Commission was to provide legitimacy for that decision.

The book, edited by Jonathan Eisen, is a compilation by NZ scientists such as Dr Peter Wills and Dr Robert Anderson, as well as American lawyer Steven Drucker and NZ researcher Dr Denys Trussel.

The book contends that the Commission even refused to hear evidence from the head of a prestigious American human genome project that indicated that GE transgenic science was faulty, and explained why genetic engineering is so unpredictable and most often ends in failure.

The book will be officially launched at Parliament on Tuesday 16 September at 1.30pm.

THE GE $ELLOUT will retail for $9.95 (112 pages, paperback). It is distributed by Independent Media Distributors (09) 527-0500. Copies may also be ordered from the Publisher. The Full Court Press PO Box 44-128 Auckland Tel (09) 828 2823