Our Daily Poison

September 29, 2014
French journalist and documentary filmmaker Robin (The World According to Monsanto) delivers another fiercely activist account of how chemicals that are supposed to improve our lives are making us sick—and how the regulation process “protects producers much more than it does consumers and citizens.” Her unrelenting search for the truth behind the poisons in our foods takes her across the U.S. and Europe to talk with researchers examining the links between chemicals and disease, and those who are hiding those links. For example, she blasts the skewed 1981 study of cancer causes that puts individuals’ behaviors at the top of the list, and hails the director of the International Agency for Research on Cancer who asserts it’s estimated that “80 to 90 percent of cancer is linked to the environment and lifestyle.” But Robin takes particular aim at how chemicals in our food and packaging are regulated, with one OSHA official telling her there’s too much conflict of interest among scientists and corporations. What Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking Silent Spring did for the environmental movement, Robin is doing for awareness of toxins in the food chain.

October 15, 2014
A thorough examination of industrial chemicals in our food chain by an acclaimed French journalist and documentary filmmaker.In this companion book to her documentary of the same name, Robin (The World According to Monsanto, 2010) argues that the destructive effects of poorly studied and regulated industrial chemicals have been greater than their benefits. She is clear about her bias from the beginning: Growing up in a farm family, she is personally outraged by what she argues are the preventable diseases, deformities and deaths brought about by the chemical industry's prioritization of profit over public health. However, she plunges deep into the scientific, historical and political details of these issues, and readers who want to argue with her conclusions have their work cut out for them. Robin builds her arguments methodically and reinforces them with exhaustive evidence that she gathered during two years of international research, including personal interviews, historical and archival documents, and rigorous medical studies. A few of the topics discussed include the origins of the chemical industry in chemical warfare; its history of "strategizing how to control and manipulate research on the toxicity of its products, while waging a merciless war on all the scientists wishing to maintain their independence in the name of the defense of public health"; the modern epidemic of cancers and other diseases that exploded at the end of the 19th century; the weaknesses of epidemiological studies; the idea of acceptable daily intake; case studies of specific chemicals; and the "cocktail effect." There are several painful stories of poisoning victims' struggles for recognition and compensation, which serve to break up and humanize the flood of technical information. In her conclusion, Robin calls for a new precautionary approach to approving chemicals that errs on the side of protecting people rather than industry. For readers with a strong interest in environmental and public health and food safety policy, this may be one of the most important books of the year.

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October 15, 2014

Robin (The World According to Monsanto) deals with a subject that can be highly technical; unfortunately, the author's jargon- and acronym-ridden prose does little to elucidate the subject for readers, particularly in the first section on agricultural pesticides. The chapters of greatest interest to consumers, those that deal with aspartame and Bisphenol A (BPA), are left until the very end, but only dedicated readers or those with some familiarity with the topic will make it that far. Throughout the text, Robin does little to synthesize the conflicting opinions of scientists and regulators, opting to quote lengthy passages from other books or her own documentaries. Furthermore, the theme is somewhat unclear: while all the chapters have something to do with chemicals or diseases caused by them, the connection to food is not always explicit. In addition, the book's tone is explosive and outraged, evoking feelings that are warranted but that do little to help the author's argument. VERDICT Although there is valid information here, the work does not contribute significantly to the debate about chemicals in the food chain; it merely parrots other sources.--Cate Hirschbiel, Iwasaki Lib., Emerson Coll., Boston

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November 1, 2014
Although Robin (The World according to Monsanto, 2010) and other journalists have been exposing the facts about man-made environmental toxins for years, nothing has yet stanched the flow of ever more dangerous poisons that adulterate our food and threaten our health. Rather than targeting a single offender this time, Robin spreads the blame among several international corporations, each with a vested interest in secrecy. Claiming proprietary confidentiality, pesticide or phytopharmaceutical manufacturers often withhold product ingredient information and obfuscate safety test results. Robin's years of exhaustive interviews and research into innumerable scientific studies about food contamination and the associated diseases affecting farm workers and consumers have produced an enlightening and deeply disturbing account of abuse within a political system that deals all the face cards to industries, leaving the public without even trump. Worse is the fact that there seems no better intervention than a complete paradigm shift, an unlikely hard reboot of politics and business as usual. Robin's research, facts, and writing are stellar. All we can do is keep spreading the word.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)