Are we ready for Roundup Ready TM foods?

The world s food production is undergoing rapid and revolutionary transformation, but little is known about it and less is being done to question it. Within a very few years, much of what we eat may have been genetically modified (GM), that is to say developed using high-tech recombinant DNA technology. The book Against the Grain looks into the tensions between the promises and the perils of genetically engineered crops. It provides a full account of the technologies involved in producing transgenic plants. It explains the arguments pro and contra biotechnology and the scale and speed of what is going on. It shows what the consequences are for herbicide usage, food production, and agriculture in general in the long term. Genetic modification not only has consequences for our food, which cannot be predicted right now, it also influences agricultural production. GM crops are industry based, from seed to harvest. The authors argue that the power of a few agrochemical companies is growing rapidly. Since these companies own the technology seed, herbicides, fertilisers they determine the course of agrotechnical developments. According to the authors, the companies are perpetuating the trend towards monoculture. Short-range economic considerations have driven the selection of genetic products, rather than long-term issues like world hunger, health, crop pests, and biodiversity. The book does not suggest complete opposition to genetic modification. The authors have left out the political and emotional arguments against genetic engineering and restricted themselves largely to facts and figures. Against the Grain might be an important contribution to a necessary debate, which has yet to take place. It argues for full public accountability and control of new developments. Against the Grain, The Genetic Transformation of Global Agriculture. M Lappe and B Bailey. Earthscan Publications Ltd, 1998. 176 pp. ISBN 1 85383 657 5. £10.99 17.15 Earthscan Publications Ltd, 120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK. Fax: + 44 171 278 1142 Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk

Bibliographic Details

Main Author:	Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation
Format:	News Item biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation 1999
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/46578 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/99586
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