Agricultural disarmament

The hubris of the chemical industry in France is stunning. It imposed its way on France even in the language one uses to talk about pesticides. Robin reports that the industry's "euphemization process" has effectively replaced pesticide by the Greek word for plant ("phyto"). So the French describe pesticides as phytosanitary or phytopharmaceutical products.

Robin also summarized scientific studies from all over the world showing long-term toxic effects of pesticides. For example, Robin documents that pesticides in France cause "neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, types of cancer, like blood cancers – leukemia or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma – cancer of the brain, prostate, skin, lung, and pancreas." Indeed, the French farmers, like the American farmers, suffer from more Parkinson's disease, more brain and more prostate cancers than the rest of the population. A very sick French farmer, Paul Francois, tells Robin time has come to break the taboo about the danger of pesticides.

Our Daily Poison does break the silence. Time has come to disarm farmers and others hooked on deleterious pesticides and other dangerous toxins. Robin's book justifies that disarmament. It shows a global industrial system radiating corruption and danger. Our Daily Poison covers pesticides, additives, and plastics contaminating our food.

Robin quotes two American professors, David Egilman and Susanna Rankin Bohme of Brown University, in explaining the dangerous system of industrialized agriculture.

"This system produces disease because political, economic, regulatory and ideological norms prioritize values of wealth and profit over human health and environmental well-being," wrote the professors.

Our Daily Poison is a necessary political introduction to our world. It's full of facts, stories, and wisdom. And despite its translation from the French into English, this muckraking expose is a great read.