Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto--The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest [Paperback]

Peter Pringle (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 8, 2005

For most people, the global war over genetically modified foods is a distant and confusing one. The battles are conducted in the mystifying language of genetics.

A handful of corporate "life science" giants, such as Monsanto, are pitted against a worldwide network of anticorporate ecowarriors like Greenpeace. And yet the possible benefits of biotech agriculture to our food supply are too vital to be left to either partisan.

The companies claim to be leading a new agricultural revolution that will save the world with crops modified to survive frost, drought, pests, and plague. The greens warn that "playing God" with plant genes is dangerous. It could create new allergies, upset ecosystems, destroy biodiversity, and produce uncontrollable mutations. Worst of all, the antibiotech forces say, a single food conglomerate could end up telling us what to eat.

In Food, Inc., acclaimed journalist Peter Pringle shows how both sides in this overheated conflict have made false promises, engaged in propaganda science, and indulged in fear-mongering. In this urgent dispatch, he suggests that a fertile partnership between consumers, corporations, scientists, and farmers could still allow the biotech harvest to reach its full potential in helping to overcome the problem of world hunger, providing nutritious food and keeping the environment healthy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Imagine a world where yellow beans are patented, aromatic basmati rice has lost its fragrance because of genetic tinkering and Canadian farmers are sued by multinational behemoths because pollen from GM (genetically modified) crops somehow got into their fields and fertilized their plants. You don't have to imagine it: this, says Pringle, is the world we live in today. A widely published journalist, Pringle (Those Are Real Bullets) paints a troubling picture of the world's food supply. Multinational corporations are able to patent genes from crops that have been cultivated by farmers for centuries; governments of starving African nations refuse GM food they fear is poisonous; scientists hastily publish research that is blown out of proportion by the news media; and "green" activists vandalize greenhouses and fields where scientists are conducting GM research. Pringle roundly castigates all sides. Scientists, he says, have been remarkably inventive in their endeavors to improve the food we eat, using a gene from daffodils, for example, in growing golden rice with high levels of vitamin A that can help prevent blindness in the undernourished. But large corporations, he asserts, have squandered the public's good will toward GM products as they rushed so-called "Frankenfoods" into stores without adequate testing or disclosure of what makes it different. Pringle gives some glimmer of hope for the future through time-honored methods of cross-pollination, but his main story is of an industry with great potential for feeding starving millions and reducing our reliance on chemical pesticides, but that has instead created a global mess.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Biotechnology inspires hope in some and horror in others. A complex topic, it invokes many contemporary concerns-third world famine, biodiversity, corporate responsibility, the ethics of corporate ownership of the processes of life itself-and involves a bewildering array of interrelated national and international legal, political, scientific, and economic forces. Public discourse is polarized with scaremongering on one side and arrogance on the other, and it is difficult for the nonspecialist to arrive at an informed opinion. Here, in readable, journalistic fashion, Pringle provides what has been missing: facts and explanations, reasoned argument, and common ground. He reveals many dimensions of several controversies that will be familiar to most readers from media coverage, yet remain poorly understood: Is the monarch butterfly endangered by pesticide-laced corn? Are we throwing away our heritage of biodiversity? Are plant hunters cultural pirates? As the title indicates, Pringle points out the danger of a few large and poorly regulated corporations owning and controlling so much of the world's agriculture and genetic technology, but he doesn't demonize. Rather than simplifying a complicated subject, he accomplishes the more difficult task of presenting the complexities of genetic science, academic politics, corporate strategies, or international treaties in such a clear and interesting manner that readers come to appreciate and understand them. This is a book to satisfy curiosity and engender concern, and any of its chapters would provide an excellent subject for discussion groups.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (February 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074326763X
• ISBN-13: 978-0641695766
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.7 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #487,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #9 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Nutrition > Genetically Engineered Food
  • #89 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Agronomy

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Many Sides of a Complicated Problem October 6, 2003

By R. Hardy HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

One of the hardest contemporary stories to cover is genetically modified food. It is tangled with pure science, technology, industrialization, profiteering, and world politics. In the past ten years, there have been loud boasts and loud denunciations about GM crops. Those who invent and stand to profit from new herbicide-resistant, insect-resistant, salt-resistant, nutrient-added species have promised that farmers, starving third-world children, and the environment will all be benefited. On the other side are those equally insistent that "Frankenfood" promises nothing but superweeds, distorted genomes for traditional crops, allergies, decimation of fauna, and benefit to no one but giant corporations. Peter Pringle has entered this zone of contention almost like a war correspondent, and his bulletins from the front form _Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto - The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest_ (Simon & Schuster). Pringle has tried not to take sides, but to report on the curiosities, colorful characters, and paradoxes of the new technology. Because of this, the volume will probably be unsatisfactory to anyone with strong feelings on one side or the other, but it is a good overall look at the controversy. Pringle insists that people are going to have to make informed decisions on these issues, and his book is a good step in that direction.

Pringle starts with the story of Ingo Potrykus, one of the researchers who invented "golden rice." Potrykus coaxed genes from daffodils (of all things) into rice so that the grains contained beta carotene, which can be converted in the body to vitamin A. Getting the vitamin to third-worlders who didn't have it was supposed to put a humanitarian face on the worrisome technology. It didn't happen because a mega-company had to be paid off, and the biotech industry was accused of various other infractions. While Pringle certainly covers the overreactions of anti-biotech forces, he has the most criticism for Monsanto and its fellow corporations. He gives many examples of how GM food has been cavalierly treated and regulated.

There is potential that GM crops might help us, but we are stumbling. Environmental activists shout whenever there is any product from GM agriculture, and the corporations have a skuzzy record of bullying Mexican bean importers and Canadian rapeseed growers for punitive royalties, as well as lying about the possible dangers of the crops. The dangers are considerable; what is going to happen, for instance, when genes to produce medicines are inserted into our grain and we get tetanus vaccine in our corn flakes? The industry has done so bad of job of safety issues that rightly or wrongly, the European Union will not import GM plants, and starving Zimbabwe has refused relief from GM corn. There is surprisingly little evidence that GM crops actually help in any way; even the financial benefits of Bt crops have been no better than marginal. The problems are not going to go away; having tinkered with the basics of plant identities, humans are unlikely to stop. _Food, Inc._ is a thoughtful and unalarmist look at the problems. GM plants have promise and hazard, and neither their promoters or detractors, nor governmental regulators, are providing sufficient service to those of us at the bottom of the food chain.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars From a Science view December 26, 2004

By Marie

Format:Hardcover

I am often frustrated by the bias nature of these books, I was very impressed by the authors work. Having a science background and working in the biotech arena, I appreciated the factual information that did not seem to promote the anit-GE view that much of the literature in the area does (like I said, a very balanced report). It is written at a level that most people will be able to understand and is very entertaining. This book is great no matter what side of the debate you stand on and I highly recomend it .

33 of 41 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Written by a journalist, not an expert May 21, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

My main reservation with the book is that it really doesn't give you enough information to make up your own mind, it covers a lot of different 'events' in the history of GM but it doesn't go below the surface, beyond what you would read in a newspaper article.

For example, it talks about the work of Berkeley researchers showing contamination of Mexican crops with American GM ones, and it talks about how the critics claimed the researchers made mistakes 1st year grad students are taught not to make, and it talks about how it is the only article Nature has taken away support after publishing it. And that's it, then it moves on to another topic.

But: What was the flaw in the study? What was the defense of the authors? What have follow up studies concluded? I don't know, because it is not in the book. So what did I learn from this? That GM is a research topic that raises controversies, which is the reason I bought the book in the first place! But I did not learn about the true potential danger of contamination from GM to non-GM crops.

This is not an isolated example, most of the book (written by a journalist) is consistent with the cynical view that journalists know a bit of everything, but a lot about nothing...

I will have to read another book on GM-food to really make up my mind, not a lot of informative information here. Just a bunch of facts and anecdotes leaving out the true scientific value of them out!