Redesigning Life?
The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering
Description
New discoveries in biotechnology are often touted as the answer to many contemporary problems. Genetic engineering, animal cloning, and reproductive technologies are promoted as the keys to a brighter future, while genetic engineers promise more productive agriculture, medical miracles, and solutions to environmental problems. But increasing numbers of farmers, scientists, and concerned citizens disagree. There is growing evidence that genetically engineered foods are hazardous to our health and to the environment. Farmers all over the world are encountering an increasingly monopolized seed and agrichemical industry. Animal cloning and human genetic engineering raise troubling ethical questions and genes from plants, animals, and humans have become objects to be bought, sold, and patented by private interests. Worldwide resistance to genetic engineering and other biotechnologies has brought these issues to the forefront of public controversy. Contributors include Beth Burrows (Edmonds Institute), Mitchel Cohen (freelance writer and activist, US), Martha Crouch (formerly of Indiana University), Marcy Darnovsky (Sonoma State University), Michael Dorsey (environmental justice activist), Steve Emmott (Green delegation to the European Parliament), Alix Fano (Campaign for Responsible Transplantation, NY), Jennifer Ferrara (freelance writer, CA), Chaia Heller (Institute for Social Ecology, VT), David King (GenEthics News, UK), Jack Kloppenburg (University of Wisconsin), Orin Langelle (Native Forest Network), Zoë C. Meleo-Erwin (activist and researcher, PA), Barbara Katz Rothman (City University of New York), Sonja Schmitz (doctoral candidate, University of Vermont), Thomas G. Schweiger (Greenpeace International), Sarah Sexton (The Corner House, UK), Robin Seydel (La Montañita Food Co-op, NM), Hope Shand (Rural Advancement Foundation International, Canada), Lucy Sharratt (Sierra Club of Canada), Vandana Shiva (Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, India), Ricarda Steinbrecher (Econexus, UK), Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Tebtebba Foundation, Philippines), Jim Thomas (Greenpeace UK), Brian Tokar, Kimberly Wilson (Greenpeace USA).
Reviews
"Biotechnology is truly revolutionary, enabling scientists to move genes across species barriers at will. But it is far from a precise science and our ability to predict the behaviour of transgenes and transgenic organisms is still primitive. The alliance of government, industry and universities to profit from genetic engineering has resulted in extravagant claims of benefits that are highly speculative. We've had enough experience with DDT, nuclear power and CFCs to know that revolutionary technologies have enormous hidden costs. Redesigning Life? provides a welcome perspective that is missing from all the biotechnology hype. For anyone concerned about the real implications and potential hazards of gene manipulation, this is an excellent starting point." David Suzuki