Beyond Evolution: The Genetically Altered Future of Plants, Animals, the Earth...and Humans [Hardcover]

Dr. Michael W. Fox (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558219013 | ISBN-13: 978-1558219014 | Publication Date: September 1, 1999 | Edition: 1st

Laboratories around the world are experiencing a "bioexplosion," as they busily sequence, identify, and switch genes among different species. In Beyond Evolution, Dr. Michael Fox addresses the potential ramifications of this burst of technology. From the creation of herbicide-resistant soybeans to the splicing of human genes into pigs and goats, new developments in biotechnology pose serious questions: How has genetic engineering put animals' health at risk? What are the economic and biological consequences of a genetically altered future? Will this new technology mean the end of natural evolution? Without fostering "biotechnophobia," Fox investigates and discusses how a new world order - one based on genetic-engineering biotechnology - will affect the course of life on earth. From the state of agri-biotechnology (an estimated 60 percent of processed foods now contain genetically engineered ingredients) to concerns about genetic pollution and the loss of wildlife to the disruption of ecological and evolutionary processes, Fox presents a full picture of the life-science industry for public review. Supported with documented research reports throughout and including a helpful resource list of organizations concerned with biotechnology, this comprehensive book provides a critical, in-depth look at modern science's most controversial frontier.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From bioethicist (Eating with Conscience) and animal-rights activist Fox comes an eloquent and scathing indictment of the biotechnology industry that could trigger a national debate. Whereas biotech's supporters welcome pigs bioengineered to produce human hemoglobin, transgenic plants that secrete their own insecticides and "supercrops" that presumably will feed the world's hungry, Fox views the creation of these transgenic animals and plants (made by inserting a gene from a dissimilar organism) as fundamentally unethical, as well as unnecessary. An advocate of traditional husbandry practices and sustainable organic farming, he argues that biotechnologyAcoupled with industrial, chemical-based agricultureAwill only accelerate the adverse environmental and consumer-health consequences of factory farming. He also contends that agribiotechnology is a nail in the coffin of Third World and indigenous peoples, as multinational companies use patents on genetically engineered organisms to gain monopolistic control of the world's markets for food and medicine, turning farmers into contract growers under the yoke of corporate feudalism. About 60% of the processed foods we now eatAcorn, potatoes, salmon, soy, tomatoes, etc.Acontain some genetically engineered ingredients. Blasting the FDA for its failure to implement labeling requirements, Fox warns that "genetic pollution" is inevitable as bioengineered crops, bacteria, fish and other organisms spread their anomalous transgenes into Earth's life-stream, with utterly unknown consequences for human health and a very real potential for cross-contamination of conventional crops. Pointing to the Clinton White House's ties with the agribiotechnology industry, Fox calls for widespread public involvement in the decision-making process of how this new technology is applied, and he sets forth bioethical criteria, including safety, environmental and animal welfare considerations. Fox's succinct book is the most cogent and persuasive to date on a global issue that, if he is right, has already reached nightmarish proportions. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The success of Scottish scientists in cloning a sheep has stirred widespread fears about genetic engineering: Will biologists be cloning made-to-order humans next? Fox seeks not to allay but to refocus these anxieties, directing our concern away from a hypothetical future toward a troubling current reality: a mammoth bioengineering industry already recklessly manipulating the genetic codes of numerous plant and animal species without regard for the ethical or ecological implications of their acts. Breaking ranks with scientists who view biotechnology with ebullient confidence, Fox poses the hard questions: What are the hidden dangers of transplanting genes from one species to another? What suffering do animals experience when subjected to genetic engineering--and can such suffering be justified? What happens to the natural dynamics of evolution when genetically altered species are released into the environment? Hardly a Luddite calling for an end to experimentation, Fox writes as a concerned scientist challenging his colleagues to rethink their theoretical and moral premises more carefully: the enormous possibilities of genetic engineering ought not blind its practitioners to the equally enormous dangers. Fox also writes as a citizen summoning the electorate to an overdue public debate over scientific practices that introduce potentially dangerous new foods into our diet and that threaten to disrupt the earth's ecological harmonies. Some readers will resist the call for more government regulation of bioengineering; others will dispute Fox's eight bioethical criteria for making scientific decisions. But few can doubt the profound urgency of the issues he raises. Bryce Christensen

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 260 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press; 1st edition (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558219013
• ISBN-13: 978-1558219014
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,636,309 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Beyond Evolution - Where Science meets Philosophy, February 16, 2000

By 

Charles Schaub (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Evolution: The Genetically Altered Future of Plants, Animals, the Earth...and Humans (Hardcover)

Beyond Evolution by Dr. Michael W Fox

A wake up call to the general public about what is really happening in the exploding arena of Biotechnology. A blend of esoteric fact and holistic philosophy. Many charges and a few tirades against an industry he obviously has resisted for some time on a technical level with little success. He does a good job of convincing the reader of a misguided chase by international biotech conglomerates for globalized control of all resources, food, and wealth...and of prying at the lid of Pandora's box. Even a casual reader of this book and the Kolatas book on the 1918 flu pandemic together can visualize a fuse being put into a bomb. A pandemic large enough to wipe out a significant portion of mankind. I makes me want to go to the organic market for the first time in my life. Vote with my food money..and start asking more questions.

I knew of Bt Corn and the butterfly controversy but after reading the book I was shocked by what the biotech industry is working on according to Mr Fox.

Just one example: Transgenic swine, with inserted human genes, bred to be human blood donors? You don't have to be an Old Testament scholar to realize the horridness of the symbolism...

I found myself hovering between science, philosophy, and spirituality in order to place the book in my understanding... We need more thinkers like Mr. Fox who is not ashamed to mix the systems of knowledge...and tell what he thinks with passion. A must read for those who don't know some of the background of the recent demonstration in Seattle about the WTO.

Perhaps his critics are right by saying "bioengineering really is evolution": but what the bioengineers may not realize is that a higher intelligence has decided it time to for us to "evolve" modern mankind back to the stone age for the good of the planet and it's future children...but there I go: from science to philosophy - along with him.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why isn't this on Ophrah's reading list?, August 22, 2000

By 

Christine Menendez (St. Andreu de Llavaneres, Barcelona Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Evolution: The Genetically Altered Future of Plants, Animals, the Earth...and Humans (Hardcover)

Only one customer review other than mine? Oh well, I guess genetics isn't a very popular subject. But it should be. As the other reviewer stated, this book is indeed a "wake-up call." The amount of genetic manipulation being done on plants and animals, the numbers of unnatural transgenic organisms being cavalierly loosed into the environment is positively frightening, and it is something about which all of us should be aware and informed. Granted, the author does lapse into philosophy and religiousness, but I happen to agree with his world-view and so forgive him these lapses. Especially in consideration of the amount of information he imparts in a very objective manner. Genetic engineering can be for the greater good, as he states, but the paucity of bioethics and primary interest in profit has turned it into a boogyman, a monster. I deeply thank the author for this book, which has greatly raised my awareness of just how much damage we humans are inflicting on our environment. Everyone should read this book, should be aware of the invisible threats present in every bite of food and every breath of air. This year I only planted broccoli,lettuce, and tomatoes; next year, it will be everything else.

4.0 out of 5 stars After Superpig, November 19, 2007

By 

Cecil Bothwell "Author of "Whale Falls: A... (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beyond Evolution: The Genetically Altered Future of Plants, Animals, the Earth...and Humans (Hardcover)

If you are curious about the fuss surrounding Genetically Engineered (GE) foods, this book can get you up to speed. BEYOND EVOLUTION briefly recounts the history of recombinant DNA and transgenic research and goes on to carefully evaluate the current state of the art and implications for the future. While many agribiotechnologists have signed off on GE crops, other scientists are worried - some even warning that the potential danger to life on earth is considerably greater than that posed by nuclear weapons. By developing microbes which can deliver genetic material into cell nuclei, and then releasing the newly created organism into the environment, we are throwing open the doors to new forms of mutation, new diseases, new insect pests, and extinctions. Genetically altered species have already crossed out into wild populations, and new mutants are being developed and released at a breathtaking pace. At the same time, transgenic research is stirring a genetic soup concocted of a wild diversity of creatures to manufacture pharmeceuticals. (A "transgenic" organism contains DNA from non-related species: such as human genes inserted in mice, pigs, or cows; flounder genes in strawberries; spider genes in beans; and on, and on, and on, and on.) The problem with such pharmeceutical uses - which researchers are trying to overcome - is that organisms tend to resist material from other species. Our immune systems reject foreign biochemicals. Overcoming the resistance, however, looks like another Pandora's box. Resisting foreign invaders is essential to staying healthy. On top of the rejection problem, and perhaps worse, is the potential for cross-over diseases like Mad Cow syndrome (Creutzfeld-Jakob disease) which is just one of the zoonotic illnesses that such genetic mucking around might enhance. (Note that HIV seems to be a hominid disease to which wild creatures have adapted - the reason imprisoned chimps in labs refuse to get AIDS - but to which humans are susceptible. AIDS is only one painful example of the danger of zoonotic infection. Humans who have had pig-part transplants exhibit infection with porcine retrovirus - again, the practice is only permitted in the U.S. Retroviruses, you might recall, are involved in fun diseases like Ebola.) Meaningful testing of GE material would be slow and expensive - our understanding of genetic function is very incomplete. Proving saftey of a slight modification of even one plant or animal gene and its subsequent effect on a human consumer would require painstaking inquiry - not to mention the effect on the whole natural world. The U.S. government's solution has been to decide that it is simply unnecessary. Author Fox, who visited his subject a decade earlier in SUPERPIGS AND WONDERCORN, is well versed in his topic, more balanced in his views than this reviewer, and very adept at explaining a sometimes complicated and often bewildering subject. His discussion of the the ethical and technical issues involved in humanity's meddling with evolution are clear and as simple as his very complex subject will permit. A very, very frightening book.