Tag Archives: pesticides

Dark world of #GMO in Kenneth Eade’s “An Involuntary Spy”


How does a genetic biologist working for a large biotech company, developing genetically engineered food, go up against government corruption and fraud when he tries to expose his employer?

Kenneth Eade’s political thriller, “An Involuntary Spy”, tackles the dark world of the GMO food industry. Digital Journal had the opportunity to interview Mr. Eade regarding his latest work.

“It just could be that this book breaks the real life controversy wide open. There are untold miseries that may not be known for decades. Altering the foods we eat can not be done without consequences. If natural is best for human health, GMOs are the worst. In the future, plant-based medicine may not work due to the manipulation of genes today.” – Barbara Stanley, Atlantic Natural Health Examiner

DJ: Tell us what makes your book different from other spy or political thrillers?


Kenneth Eade

Eade: “An Involuntary Spy” is a political thriller, but it differs from other political thrillers, because, instead of the FBI and the CIA being the good guys, and the Russians being the bad guys, as usual, my hero is the good guy, who is chased by the CIA (the bad guys) and finds refuge in Russia.

It is also different from the genre because it is a believable story that could appear in the news headlines at any moment. And it educates the reader on the dangers of GMO foods at the same time as it entertains.

DJ: Tell me something about your book.

Eade: The story is about Seth Rogan, a genetic engineer with a promising career with the largest biotech company in the world. He loved his job more than anything, but when he was asked to do some tests on the company’s genetically engineered foods, he became entangled in a trail of corruption and fraud that he wanted no part of, but could not escape from.

Seth discovers that the danger in the genetically engineered foods made by his company is being covered up not only by the company, but also the government. Deciding this moral dilemma in favor of what he feels is right, he blows the whistle on the company and the government, and escapes the country as a fugitive. On the run, he is forced to become an involuntary spy.

DJ: What genre is it?

Eade: The genre is political fiction, but it has been on the top of Amazon’s science fiction charts in the category of genetic engineering.

DJ: What kind of readers will it appeal to?

Eade: I think it will appeal to everyone over the age of 18. It has action, romance, sex, and a real message to impart to the reader as opposed to just entertainment.

DJ: What inspired you to write the book?

Eade: While writing the best selling non-fiction book, “Bless the Bees”, I did a lot of research on the hidden dangers of genetically engineered foods. I was disgusted by the way the government agencies like the FDA and EPA were controlled by ex-executives from Monsanto and the fact that Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) foods undergo no safety testing by the government.

I thought to tell the story of how the big chemical companies quietly slipped GMOs onto our table. The best way I thought to do it was a human story about someone who was torn between their job and what was morally right.

DJ: Do you have a favorite excerpt from the book? If so, could you please share it with us?

Eade: Each chapter of the books is like a small story with a cliffhanger, and I go back and forth between the past and present. There are also philosophical points made in the book. I love them all, so I can’t really say I have a favorite, but here is an excerpt from one:

“Winston Churchill said Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. That pretty much summed up the place. The young women were beautiful; the old women were hags. The people were highly educated, but most of them held down lowly jobs. The summers were brutally hot and the winters stingingly cold. It was a country of constant contrast and vast inequality. But Seth found the people in the Far Eastern provinces to be warm and generous. And if you knew when your last day of life was going to be, it was the best place to spend your last night on earth, because in Russia people party like tomorrow will never come.

Seth had never thought he would have ended up here, so far from home, so out of touch with everything and everyone. He couldn’t even use his own name. He was a man without a country, without an identity. A traitor, a spy, banned forever from his own country, and all because he wanted to do something that he thought – no, knew – was right. Set things right. Like Einstein’s great mistake, he had helped to unleash Armageddon on the world and now he felt responsible to stop it.

Yes, the company had been good to him, and had fulfilled his every material need. And he had reciprocated. But sometimes one man must fight for what he feels is right, even against the majority. Something that is wrong does not change to right just because the majority approves it, ignores it, or the government says it is right. It is still wrong.

And he still saw the company and his country as being two separate and distinct entities. How had the lines blurred between the two and where had he crossed over from loyal citizen to traitor? Had not the company betrayed his country and become the true traitor, and he merely the bearer of the news of that betrayal?”

DJ: Tell me something about yourself.

Eade: I’m an author of fiction and non-fiction with a background as an international business lawyer, specializing in international law, Internet Law, appeals and complex litigation. I hold a Juris Doctor in Law from Southwestern University School of Law, and a B.A. in Liberal Studies from California State University, Northridge. I’m also a filmmaker and a freelance writer for the Los Angeles Daily Journal as well as an environmentalist and outspoken critic against genetically modified foods and the overuse of pesticides.

DJ: Where or when is your book available for sale? Add your links here.

Eade: It is available now on Amazon in Kindle and paperback and Barnes and Noble in paperback, at the following links:


Barnes and Noble

DJ: Do you have a marketing strategy? If yes, could you please share how? Was it effective in increasing sales or exposure?

Eade: My marketing strategy has been to use Kindle Direct Publishing’s promotional tools and to get as much Internet exposure as possible. I believe it has been successful in getting this book on the best seller list.

DJ: If you were given one wish to make a change in the world, what would it be?

Eade: I wish that everyone would read this book, and that will change the world. We are all living with our heads buried in the sand. The government is allowing large corporations to do whatever they want. This latest assault on our environment is the government allowing their cronies to put dangerous food on our table that causes obesity, cancer, Alzheimer’s, autism, allergies, gluten intolerance and a host of other things we don’t know yet, Not only that, it is contaminated our natural food supply and poisoning entire ecosystems. This is a villain which must be stopped.

DJ: Do you have anything you would like to say to Digital Journal readers?

Eade: Be aware, be informed, and ask questions about everything. Urge the government to force the chemical companies to label genetically engineered foods so you can avoid them. They are in almost every packaged or processed food. If you feel as passionate as it as me, please sign the petitions to require the FDA to conduct independent safety testing on GM foods before their approval at my website.

DJ: What is next for you?

Eade: I’m writing a book called, “Predatory Kill,” about a lawyer who takes on a case for a client against the big banks. The client is trying to convince the lawyer that a bank executive is responsible for murdering her mother and putting her father in a coma. Before he has the chance to decide whether this is fantasy or not, he becomes inextricably entwined in the madness.

DJ: How can readers find you?

Eade: They can look me up on my Amazon author’s page; or see my entire bio on my blog. Check out the official book website aninvoluntaryspy.com


Ken Eade holds a Juris Doctor in Law from Southwestern University School of Law, and a B.A. in Liberal Studies from California State University, Northridge. Kenneth Eade is also an accomplished filmmaker and a free lance writer for the Los Angeles Daily Journal and an environmentalist.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/entertainment/dark-world-of-gmo-in-kenneth-eade-s-thriller-an-involuntary-spy/article/364570#ixzz3lbwxtAkO


My letters to Obama, Boxer, Feinstein to ban Glyphosate


Dear Senator Boxer,

As the author of “Bless the Bees: The Pending Extinction of our Pollinators and What You Can Do to Stop It,” I have long been concerned about the effect of glyphosate on our pollinators. Moreover, the application of glyphosate in factory farms has all but wiped out the milkweed that the Monarch butterfly depends upon, and is driving this beautiful creature to extinction. Now, the fraud the chemical companies and the EPA, USDA and FDA which are all ruled by them have perpetrated has been blown apart by the World Health Organization, and I urge you to enact legislation to clean up the EPA, the USDA and the FDA, get industry officials out of positions of power in those agencies, and to ban glyphosate once and for all, so that it cannot continue its war against the ecosystems and the American public.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a division of the World Health Organization, issued a report on March 20, reviewing five different herbicides and insecticides and their possible carcinogenicity. Experts in Lyon, France met earlier this month to do a comprehensive review of 15 different peer reviewed studies from the past three decades. Of the five, two were classified as “possibly” carcinogenic to humans and three were deemed “probably” the cause of certain types of cancer in humans.

One of the three labeled probably carcinogenic was glyphosate, a main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide. For the IARC to label an agent “probably” carcinogenic, there has to be sufficient and convincing evidence of carcinogenicity in experimental animals. Agents labeled as “possibly” carcinogenic lack sufficient data to determine if it causes cancer in people.

Glyphosate is an herbicide with the highest worldwide use and can be found in 750 different products. Developed in 1970 by Monsanto to kill weeds that would harm crops, its use has been dramatically increased since the creation of “genetically-modified organism” crops that can resist the chemical. These GMO products, also developed by Monsanto, are labeled “Roundup Ready,” a reference to the brand name under which the company sells the herbicide. It is primarily used on GMO soybean and corn crops.

The chemical has also been detected in the blood and urine of workers, which indicates absorption after exposure. Glyphosate metabolizes into a different chemical structure in soil, and that same chemical structure has also been detected in blood after poisoning, suggesting that there is additional metabolizing in humans. Studies have also shown evidence of chromosomal damage in vitro, and the people in communities where there has been spraying.

Immediately after the report, Monsanto issued a statement saying their scientific data did not support the IARC’s conclusion. They point out that the United States Environmental Protection Agency has deemed glyphosate safe and allowed for an increase in the amount used. While their rapid and aggressive response is not surprising, it shows real fear. While farmers have stated that they need the herbicide to save crops, if it is deemed an occupational hazard, it could prompt further regulatory oversight. Farmers might also seek alternatives, affecting the company’s bottom line. Furthermore, activists have pushed for the labeling of GMO foods to include known health risks. IARC’s report gives additional support for these efforts.

Monsanto is demanding a meeting with WHO and IARC officials, as well as a retraction of the report. IARC officials have yet to respond, but did issue a statement with the report outlining their evaluation process. They noted that their report provides “scientific evaluations based on a comprehensive review of the scientific literature.” The independent body says it is the responsibility of individual governments to “recommend regulations, legislation, or public health intervention.”

Patrick Moore, a lobbyist for Monsanto (which Monsanto now tries to deny), was recently asked in an interview on French television if he thought that glyphosate was safe for humans. He boldly stated that it was safe to drink, but refused to do so when offered a glass of “Roundup.”

In still other news on glyphosate, a study published in mBio shows that bacteria exposed to glyphosate based and other herbicides can become antibiotic resistant. Finally, glyphosate kills beneficial gut bacteria, and wipes out delicate beneficial microflora that helps protect us from disease. Harmful pathogens like Clostridium botulinum, Salmonella, and E. coli are able to survive glyphosate in the gut, but the “good bacteria” in your digestive tract, such as protective microorganisms, bacillus and lactobacillus, are killed off. Monsanto knows this because it originally registered its patent for glyphosate’s use as an anti-microbial agent.

With the advent of Roundup Ready GMO crops, now farmers do not have to spray just the weeds to kill them. They spray their entire farms with the poison, which means that consumers are consuming higher levels of the stuff. This has increased Monsanto’s profits, and tightened its hold on the goal of controlling the world’s food supply. The chemical lobby of the big industrial chemical companies control the EPA, so it was easy to get them to lift their restrictions of the levels we are allowed to tolerate from 200 parts per million to 6,000 parts per million in 2013. It is time for them to stop allowing us to be fed cancer causing chemicals and telling us that they are safe.

Thank you,

Kenneth Eade