For decades, science has invited itself onto our dinner plates. This book asks it to sit down to dinner. International industries have systematized the use of chemicals: spreading them on the fields and using them in the breeding, processing, packaging, and distribution of our food. They constantly invade our bodies. This process has expanded to such a level that it may influence aspects of the future of humanity and the planet.
This new book is currently only in French – if anyone has interest in translating / publishing it into English please use the contacts at the end of this article
Biological contaminants in our food hold almost no secrets for us today – every restaurant must meticulously follow the rules of bacterial hygiene, with verifiable results. But chemical pollutants, present in practically all foods, are much less well monitored: heavy metals, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), additives, flavour enhancers, detergents, plasticizers… The regulatory authorisations of these products hide from the public the health problems that these new food contaminants can generate. Whether through ignorance, the dishonest protection of private interests in a well-established system of expertise, or the desire to avoid a scandal, the frontier is well guarded.
Even French haute cuisine of the highest quality can be abused by authorisations of toxic products, which can appear to aid progress. Gilles-Eric Séralini, a professor and researcher at the University of Caen, and a specialist in GMOs and pesticides – known for his recent experiments establishing a link with tumours and kidney and liver disease – and Jérôme Douzelet, chef and manager, decided to join forces to reveal their illuminating experiences of the dishonesty of regulatory authorisations of chemical products and the possibility of developing a joyful, natural, and organic cuisine, full of flavour, colour, and texture, in harmony with biodiversity and health – in line with the sense of the word “restaurateur” as one who restores health.
Over a delightful meal, they explain why the way we produce and consume our food constitutes a social choice. Do we want to continue along the industrial and chemical path, risking our health and contaminating the environment, or do we want to seek another path – that of the development of flavours and of people, preserving life in all its forms?
Gilles-Eric Séralini is a professor of molecular biology at the University of Caen, a researcher on the health effects of pesticides, various pollutants, and GMOs.He is currently chairman of the Scientific Council of CRIIGEN (Committee for Independent Research and Information on Genetic Engineering). From 1993 totoday he has supervised eighteen experimental PhD theses, in particular on sex hormones and cancer. He has published over three hundred internationaland national articles and several books on these subjects.
Jérôme Douzelet is a trustee and member of the administrative council of CRIIGEN, representing the profession of restaurant management. Standing up for his values and developing his own “living, natural, and organic” cuisine led him to travel the world with Gilles-Eric Séralini to give lectures on the subject. With his family at Mas de Rivet, Barjac, in Gard, he cultivates his organic garden and local networks of high quality suppliers.
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