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The Poison Squad
- One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
A New York Times Notable Book.
The inspiration for PBS's American Experience film The Poison Squad.
From Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times best-selling author Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change
By the end of 19th century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. "Milk" might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses. Decaying meat was preserved with both salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical, and borax, a compound first identified as a cleaning product. This was not by accident; food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before the health of their customers. By some estimates, in New York City alone, thousands of children were killed by "embalmed milk" every year. Citizens - activists, journalists, scientists, and women's groups - began agitating for change. But even as protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then, in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as, "The Poison Squad".
Over the next 30 years, a titanic struggle took place, with the courageous and fascinating Dr. Wiley campaigning indefatigably for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking reporter Upton Sinclair, whose fiction revealed the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry J. Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as "Dr. Wiley's Law".
Blum brings to life this timeless and hugely satisfying "David and Goliath" tale with righteous verve and style, driving home the moral imperative of confronting corporate greed and government corruption with a bracing clarity, which speaks resoundingly to the enormous social and political challenges we face today.
Critic reviews
"Full of fascinating detail...a valuable contribution to understanding the politics of food.” (Nature)
“[Blum’s] prose is graceful, and her book is full of vivid, unsettling detail.... The Poison Squad offers a powerful reminder that truth can defeat lies, that government can protect consumers and that an honest public servant can overcome the greed of private interests.” (Eric Schlosser, New York Times Book Review)
“[E]ngrossing.... Blum’s well-informed narrative - complete with intricate battles between industry lobbyists and a coalition of scientists, food activists, and women’s groups - illuminates the birth of the modern regulatory state and its tangle of reformist zeal, policy dog-fights, and occasional overreach.... [A] page-turner.” (Publishers Weekly)
“A detailed, highly readable history of food and drink regulation in the United States.... [The Poison Squad] shows the push and pull of competing economic, political and social interests. The journey our country has taken in establishing food, drink and drug regulation is an important one to understand because it is still going on.” (Wall Street Journal)
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Imagine walking into a restaurant and finding chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides, or neonicotinoid insecticides listed in the description of your entree. They may not be printed in the menu, but many are in your food.These are a few of the literally millions of pounds of approved synthetic substances dumped into the environment every day, not just in the US but around the world.
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A Frightening Wake Up Call!
- By Exec. Chef 'Special K' on 07-02-14
By: E. G. Vallianatos, and others
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The Unhealthy Truth
- One Mother's Shocking Investigation into the Dangers of America's Food Supply - and What Every Family Can Do to Protect Itself
- By: Robyn O'Brien, Rachel Kranz
- Narrated by: Traci Odom
- Length: 10 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Robyn O'Brien is not the most likely candidate for an anti-establishment crusade. A Houston native from a conservative family, this MBA and married mother of four was not someone who gave much thought to misguided government agencies and chemicals in our food - until the day her youngest daughter had a violent allergic reaction to eggs, and everything changed.
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Transparency at its best
- By N_Kaur_Atl on 09-26-17
By: Robyn O'Brien, and others
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US of AA
- How the Twelve Steps Hijacked the Science of Alcoholism
- By: Joe Miller
- Narrated by: Sean Patrick Hopkins
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Five years in the making, this brilliant, in-depth investigative reporting on the history, politics, and science of alcoholism will show how AA became our nation's de facto treatment policy, even as evidence for more effective remedies accumulated. US of AA is a character-driven, beautifully written exposé, full of secrecy, irony, liquor industry money, the shrillest of scare tactics and, at its center, a grand deception. US of AA shines a much-needed spotlight on the addiction treatment industry. It will forever change the way we think about the entire enterprise.
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A Detailed History of Alcoholism
- By Tricia O. on 04-03-19
By: Joe Miller
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Louis D. Brandeis
- A Life
- By: Melvin I Urofsky
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
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a Listen to Louis D. Brandeis
- By J on 07-11-10
By: Melvin I Urofsky
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Bourbon Empire
- The Past and Future of America's Whiskey
- By: Reid Mitenbuler
- Narrated by: Brian O'Neill
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Unraveling the many myths and misconceptions surrounding America's most iconic spirit, Bourbon Empire traces a history that spans frontier rebellion, Gilded Age corruption, and the magic of Madison Avenue. Whiskey has profoundly influenced America's political, economic, and cultural destiny, just as those same factors have inspired the evolution and unique flavor of the whiskey itself.
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Great whiskey history great American history
- By Larry G. on 06-16-15
By: Reid Mitenbuler
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Citizen Coke
- The Making of Coca-Cola Capitalism
- By: Bartow J. Elmore
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Outsourcing and a trim corporate profile enabled Coke to scale up production of a low-price beverage and realize huge profits. But the costs shed by Coke have fallen on the public at large. Coke now uses an annual 79 billion gallons of water, an increasingly precious global resource, and its reliance on corn syrup has helped fuel our obesity crisis. Bartow J. Elmore explores Coke through its ingredients, showing how the company secured massive quantities of coca leaf, caffeine, sugar, and other inputs.
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Highly Recommend
- By Laura on 02-22-20
By: Bartow J. Elmore
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Caffeinated
- How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us
- By: Murray Carpenter
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The most popular drug in America is a white powder. No, not that powder. This is caffeine in its most essential state. And Caffeinated reveals the little-known truth about this addictive, largely unregulated drug found in coffee, energy drinks, teas, colas, chocolate, and even pain relievers. Drawing on the latest research, Caffeinated brings us the inside perspective at the additive that Salt Sugar Fat overlooked.
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Caffeine in all its myriad presentations
- By Bonny on 04-12-14
By: Murray Carpenter
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The Chain
- Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food
- By: Ted Genoways
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Interviewing scores of line workers, union leaders, hog farmers, and local politicians and activists, Genoways reveals an industry pushed to its breaking point. Along the way, he exposes alarming new trends: sick or permanently disabled workers, abused animals, water and soil pollution, and mounting conflict between small towns and immigrant labor.
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Great Writing, Performance and Content
- By Kevin S. Grail on 09-29-19
By: Ted Genoways
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Fast Food Nation
- The Dark Side of the All-American Meal
- By: Eric Schlosser
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Abridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
To a degree both engrossing and alarming, the story of fast food is the story of postwar America. Fast Food Nation is a groundbreaking work of investigation and cultural history that may change the way America thinks about the way it eats.
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Uncritical alarmist rant
- By Mark Freeman on 12-23-03
By: Eric Schlosser
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Hippie Food
- How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat
- By: Jonathan Kauffman
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Food writer Jonathan Kauffman journeys back more than half a century - to the 1960s and 1970s - to tell the story of how a coterie of unusual men and women embraced an alternative lifestyle that would ultimately change how modern Americans eat. Impeccably researched, Hippie Food chronicles how the longhairs, revolutionaries, and back-to-the-landers rejected the square establishment of President Richard Nixon's America and turned to a more idealistic and wholesome communal way of life and food.
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If you grew up eating health food you'll love it
- By Susie Wyshak on 05-09-18
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Polio
- An American Story
- By: David M. Oshinsky
- Narrated by: Jonathan Hogan
- Length: 14 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
This comprehensive and gripping narrative, which received the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for history, covers all the challenges, characters, and controversies in America's relentless struggle against polio. Funded by philanthropy and grassroots contributions, Salk's killed-virus vaccine (1954) and Sabin's live-virus vaccine (1961) began to eradicate this dreaded disease.
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Wonderful
- By Patricia B Tripoli on 07-22-08
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John Adams
- By: John Patrick Diggins
- Narrated by: Richard Rohan
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Perhaps no U.S. president was less suited for the practice of politics than John Adams. A gifted philosopher who helped lead the movement for American independence from its inception, Adams was unprepared for the realities of party politics that had already begun to dominate the new country before Washington left office. But, as John Patrick Diggins shows, Adams's contributions still resonate today.
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A Worthy Addition
- By Terry on 01-18-04
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This is Your Country on Drugs
- The Secret History of Getting High in America
- By: Ryan Grim
- Narrated by: Milton Bagby
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Past antidrug campaigns actually encouraged drug use. A few years ago, America stopped dropping acid altogether. The meth epidemic peaked a long, long time ago. NAFTA opened the border and created a bonanza for cocaine and meth traffickers just as President Clinton knew it would. President Reagan may have inadvertently caused the crack epidemic. Kids today are doing fewer illegal drugs than kids from any time in the recent past, and for a surprising reason.
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A good book but....
- By steve on 10-28-10
By: Ryan Grim
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The Forgotten Man
- By: Amity Shlaes
- Narrated by: Terence Aselford
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation.
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a story of forgotten times
- By Debb Robinson on 10-11-07
By: Amity Shlaes
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Nothing to Fear
- FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America
- By: Adam Cohen
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Nothing to Fear brings to life a fulcrum moment in American history - the tense, feverish first 100 days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, when he and his inner circle completely reinvented the role of the federal government.
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Important contribution
- By R.S. on 03-05-09
By: Adam Cohen
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Computer-generated Narrator. Dated Humour.
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The year was 1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks, and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous - the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls. As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses.
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A simple way to improve the robotic narration
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Unlocking the Hidden History of DNA
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Locked inside the DNA of every species that ever lived are endless stories - about origins, ancestors, fate, and much more. Until recently, these secrets were completely inaccessible. But with the help of new technologies, scientists are now reading the hidden history of DNA, making remarkable discoveries about ourselves and our fellow species. Your gateway to this treasure trove of information is Unlocking the Hidden History of DNA, 12 informative and accessible lectures delivered by New York Times best-selling author Sam Kean.
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Great course
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White Nights
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“White Nights” tells the story of a lonely man who wanders the streets of St. Petersburg over the course of four nights, searching for an escape from his isolation.
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Great Narrator
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What listeners say about The Poison Squad
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Lady K
- 01-21-20
Food Chemist
As a former Food Chemistry Laboratory Director at the FDA for 31 years I am proud and blessed to be a member of Wiley's professional legacy. We are all global citizens and as such we must be more vigilant in protecting the food supply for all.
Excellent historical account of a public servant. Much respect to Blum!
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6 people found this helpful
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- Kasi
- 01-30-19
Amazing how history repeats itself!
Listening to the ways that our lawmakers were owned by corporations in the past, and seeing examples everyday in the news of exactly the same horsesh*t happening today makes me sick to my stomach. We really have not progressed as a society. I loved this book for it's eye-opening ability.
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5 people found this helpful
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- amy kaster
- 04-15-19
poison squad
so informative. this book makes me appreciate how far we've come and realize how far we've yet to go in the pesticide ,/herbicide industries.
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3 people found this helpful
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- D. Frrazier
- 03-17-19
Interesting & important book but misleading title
I was hesitant to read this book because of the title, which suggests the book is about people ingesting poisons as part of an experiment or study. That sounded like it might be a book about sickness, death and the horrors that come with being poisoned. That might be a very long slog. But the so-called "poison squad" is only one small part of this story. And while sickness, death and the horrors of being poisoned do make an unavoidable appearance in the pages of this book, the reader is not accosted on every page with such material. A better title for this book might be "Harvey Wiley and the Battle for Food Safety in America." Much of the book is about legal battles and political maneuvering at the dawn of food safety regulations in America. Some might find such material dry or tedious, but I found it fairly interesting. It certainly made me appreciate the relatively pure and wholesome food we enjoy today. One thing I did not realize was how long arguments over the safety of saccharine and caffeine have been going on. After so much discussion about this, it would have been nice if the book had included information about how these additives are regulated today.
My biggest complaint is the first chapter of the book, which is simply a list of the many people who make an appearance in the book, along with brief descriptions of each. There are dozens (or scores?) of people in this list and it seems to go on and on. I finally skipped this section entirely. I think including it in the audio version of the book was a serious mistake. It should have been provided as a downloadable PDF, or just skipped entirely. The audio book seems fine without it, and is certainly not enhanced by such a long and tedious list.
I thought the reading was more than adequate. But I did notice that a couple of paragraphs that required thick foreign accents seemed like they might have been read by a different narrator.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Chris Johnson
- 10-23-18
I learned so much!
I never knew what used to be in our food. Amazing! She does such a nice job telling the story.
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- toni
- 08-20-20
The story of Food Safety I never knew
This read connects the dots that I had heard of but never had all of the pieces of the puzzle. When the dots are connected the big picture emerges!
I now see that things have not changed they have just repeated themselves . Rules, regulations, and laws can and are all manipulated to protect corporations before the people. God bless the scientists who try to protect us!
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- Adele S.
- 12-04-20
Couldn't have finished this without the narration.
I bought both the ebook and Audible version of this book and never would have made it through without the narration. The reader did what they could with the material, so I give it an extra star for that here in my Audible rating and review. The content of this book is just so dull. If it were actually about The Poison Squad, what it did, how and why and what the ultimate conclusions of the tests were then that would be interesting. This is a book about politics, though, and how they bs hasn't changed or stopped in over 100 years. So, I do not recommend it, but if it's required for any course that you may be taking then definitely get the narration.
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- Michelle Deboraw
- 09-22-20
Truth is better than fiction
This book has it all-a love story, backstabbing treachery, commitment in the face of insurmountable odds... history is so much better than a novel. The author has a way of spinning the tale in a very engaging manner. It saddens me to think that we are still dealing with some of the exact same things that they were fighting over 100 years ago-nitrates in foods, aluminum in baking powder, labeling of all ingredients on alcohol, truth and transparency in product labeling, and the corruption of lobbyists influencing political decisions in favor of corporate profits vs the good of the consumer. I highly recommend the book. Worth it from start to finish.
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- Jerry
- 11-27-18
If you eat you must read this book!
Deborah Blum has done an extraordinary job in gathering the history of food safety and presenting it in a clear and lively manner. If you worry about the safety of today’s food and long to return to early times, you will be shocked by just how unsafe our food used to be, and how much good FDA has done over the years.
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- Lynn
- 03-18-24
Everyone should read this book
I loved this book! I am proud and ashamed of our country for their part in food safety
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