Spilling the Beans | December 24, 2009

I have been so filled with appreciation at the donations that have been coming in. I get an email for each new one, and my inbox is filled with the names of so many wonderful contributors. Thank you.

We've collected about $6,000 toward our matching grant offer. This leaves just $4,000 left to meet the $10,000 that's available—by midnight on December 25th. I don't know if we'll make it, but we are nonetheless very grateful for all your help.

I wanted to share with you a clip from a press conference held on November 12th in Chicago, about a lawsuit charging the Illinois Department of Corrections with serving far too much soy in the diet of tens of thousands of prisoners. Here's how an article in this week's Chicago Tribune described menu entrees from a single week at Illinois' Danville Correctional Center:

"Soy-enhanced chili mac, turkey patties with soy, soy-studded country gravy, soy-blend hot dogs, soy-spiked sloppy joes, Polish sausages packed with soy, soy chicken patties."

Nine plaintiffs say that the huge amount of soy, up to 100 grams of soy protein per day, endangers health, especially those with allergies or sensitivities to soy.

The Weston A. Price Foundation, which is funding the lawsuit, invited me to speak at the press conference about how genetic engineered soy is particularly dangerous to health. You can watch my 9-minute statement, which is Part 3 of the conference (click on the third image).

You may enjoy seeing the whole conference, including part 4, where former inmate Thomas Salonis describes how the prison ignored his doctor's note saying that he was allergic to soy. According to the Tribune, "Finally, after a hunger strike, he was offered work that allowed him to buy instant soup from the commissary for his meals."

When Thomas was released earlier this year, he was given a mere $10, and has been living in a homeless shelter. Now here's the sweet part: at the end of the press conference, the room full of people passed the hat and chipped in a sizable amount of money to help Thomas get back on his feet.

Merry Christmas everybody.

Jeffrey Smith

P.S. Last call! Here's that link again, if you'd like your donation to be doubled: http://www.responsibletechnology.org/GMFree/Donate/index.cfm

International bestselling author and filmmaker Jeffrey M. Smith is the executive director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the leading spokesperson on the health dangers of GMOs. His first book, Seeds of Deception, is the world's bestselling and #1 rated book on the subject. His second, Genetic Roulette, documents 65 health risks of the GM foods Americans eat everyday.