Our Daily Poison

From Pesticides to Packaging, How Chemicals Have Contaminated the Food Chain and Are Making Us Sick

Translated by Allison Schein and Lara Vergnaud

A muckraking exposé of the dangerous chemical compounds that have infiltrated our food chain and, as a result, our bodies

“What Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking Silent Spring did for the environmental movement, Robin is doing for awareness of toxins in the food chain.” —Publishers Weekly

Called “terrifying” by L’Express and “a gripping and urgent book for anyone concerned about democracy, corporate power, or public health” by Stuffed and Starved author Raj Patel, Our Daily Poison takes award-winning journalist and filmmaker Marie-Monique Robin across North America, Europe, and Asia. The book documents the many ways in which we encounter a shocking array of chemicals in our everyday lives—from the pesticides that blanket our crops to the additives and plastics that contaminate our food—and their effects over time.

“Full of facts, stories, and wisdom” (The Huffington Post), Our Daily Poison follows the trail of the synthetic molecules in our environment and our food, tracing the ugly history of industrial chemical production, as well as the shoddy regulatory system for chemical products that still operates today. Mustering scientific studies, expert testimony, and interviews with farmworkers suffering from acute chronic poisoning, Robin makes a shocking case for how corporate interests and our ignorance may be costing us our lives.

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Praise

“Pull at the corner of any recent public health scandal, and you can find the fingerprints of the multinationals that profit from lax regulation. In this muckraking exposé, Marie-Monique Robin lays bare the hidden history of the chemical industry and its long trail into the present. Unless you’re part of the international lobbying set, you’ll be shocked by the global connections between regulatory agencies, the corporations that have nestled into them, and the betrayal of public health that they have licensed. For anyone concerned about democracy, corporate power or public health, this is a gripping and urgent book.”
—Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved
“Marie-Monique Robin’s Our Daily Poison is a gift to citizens across the world. She brings us scientific facts about pesticides and poisons in a period when this evidence is being kept from the public. Whether you are interested in your health and the safety of your food, the protection of species and ecosystems, or the independence of science and laws from corporate law, this is a book you must read.”
—Vandana Shiva, author of Stolen Harvest and Making Peace with the Earth
“For readers with a strong interest in environmental and public health and food safety policy, this may be one of the most important books of the year.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Robin has done it again, writing a book that reads like a thriller. But it is much more dramatic since each of us is a victim in this tale of greed. A must-read for anyone who cares about their health or wants to know why and how we came to be exposed to thousands of dangerous synthetic chemicals in our food.”
—Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and author of Foodopoly
“An enlightening and deeply disturbing account. . . . Robin’s research, facts, and writing are stellar.”
—Booklist

News and Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews recommends Our Daily Poison as "one of the most important books of the year" for readers interested in environmental, public health and food safety policy.

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Books by Marie-Monique Robin

The World According to Monsanto

The World According to Monsanto

Pollution, Corruption, and the Control of Our Food Supply

Marie-Monique Robin

Goodreads Reviews