The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution

By Henry I. Miller and Gregory Conko

Book Overview

Few topics have inspired as much international furor and misinformation as the development and distribution of genetically altered foods. For thousands of years, farmers have bred crops for their resistance to disease, productivity, and nutritional value; and over the past century, scientists have used increasingly more sophisticated methods for modifying them at the genetic level. But only since the 1970s have advances in biotechnology (or gene-splicing to be more precise) upped the ante, with the promise of dramatically improved agricultural products--and public resistance far out of synch with the potential risks.

In this provocative and meticulously researched book, Henry Miller and Gregory Conko trace the origins of gene-splicing, its applications, and the backlash from consumer groups and government agencies against so-called Frankenfoods--from America to Zimbabwe. They explain how a happy conspiracy of anti-technology activism, bureaucratic over-reach, and business lobbying has resulted in a regulatory framework in which there is an inverse relationship between the degree of product risk and degree of regulatory scrutiny. The net result, they argue, is a combination of public confusion, political manipulation, ill-conceived regulation (from such agencies as the USDA, EPA, and FDA), and ultimately, the obstruction of one of the safest and most promising technologies ever developed--with profoundly negative consequences for the environment and starving people around the world. The authors go on to suggest a way to emerge from this morass, proposing a variety of business and policy reforms that can unlock the potential of this cutting-edge science, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and moving environmentally friendly products into the hands of farmers and consumers. This book is guaranteed to fuel the ongoing debate over the future of biotech and its cultural, economic, and political implications.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0275978796
• ISBN13: 9780275978792
• Release Date: August 2004
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 296 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Comfort Food

The authors do a masterful job of exposing the misapprehension -- spread by regulators and activists, and abetted by the media -- that "genetic modification" is untested, unproven or unregulated. In fact, it is none of these things, but rather is a more precise tool than earlier techniques that can be used to craft various, extraordinarily useful plants, microbes and animals. That is, it could be used for all these things if over-regulation and the objections of activists can be overcome. The book is not a defense of biotechnology as much as it is a demand for public policy that is based on science and common sense. It is very readable and very persuasive.

Honest reading

Miller and Conko deserve much credit for their painstaking presentation and research. They document and present the issues of what has gone wrong with biotechnology regulation and public confusion and unawareness of the issues. A MUST for anyone who has any interest in thinking about our world.

Some needed fresh air to lend to a stale debate

Dr. Miller and Mr. Conko have done a tremendous service to all of those who care about intellectual honesty. This is a no-holds barred, gloves-off attack, not of the critics of biotechnology, but of the intellectual dishonesty and rampant hucksterism that passes for enlightened debate about issues of complexity nowadays. Some readers will find the frank, prescriptive nature of some parts of the book unsettling. Good. That is precisely what is required today, to balance the gusher of not-so-frank, less than honest and dictatorial "information" and policy recommendations coming from the other side of the debate. This book is long overdue, and I cannot recommend it more highly. Miller and Conko challenge you to disagree, and you should feel free to do so. Just make sure you have facts and empirically-based arguments, rather than vague principles in hand, before you venture forth.

It's about time

It is time for people to stop being frightened of gene splicing, etc. when it is the answer to so much hunger and resource consumption. If we are really serious in helping third world countries as well as our own, we must quell these fears of genetic engineering causing us to erupt with three eyes or similar deformities while those in need of such resources are denied the benefit of crops that could relieve their situation.

A Balance of Science and Nature for the Benefit of Mankind

What a welcome prospective from such a distinguished duo! Extremely well written and informative. Anyone who loves food; is interested in distinguishisng myths of paranoia from scientific reality; and anyone who cares about feeding the starving populations of the world, will enjoy reading this book. It should be required reading for every member of the European Parliament. Their outdated and self-serving "Precautionary Principle" needs to be replaced by a more reasonable approach to GM foods. Kudos to Dr. Miller and Mr. Conko for their pages of enlightenment!