Hi, Folks!
Here's my latest book review. I retain copywrite so if you'd like to
publish it somewhere, let me know. What with the drought all summer, then
5 1/2 inches of rain in October, I need to make some cash somehow because
it won't be from growing anything! ;-)
Dorene
Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden
A mission of
St. John's United Church of Christ, 315 Gay Street, Phoenixville, PA 19460
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Eating in the Dark: America's Experiment with Genetically Engineered Food
by Kathleen Hart, Pantheon Books, 2002, ISBN: 0-375-42070-3, $25.00.
A more accurate subtitle for this book would be "A History of Genetically
Engineered Food from May 1997 through 2001." Hart, a reporter for Food
Chemical News, has complied a detailed history of genetically engineered
foods from their initial hope as profit centers for the biotechnology
industry to the current storm in the marketplace over whether such food
should be there at all. When your children take college classes in late
20th/early 21st century history, you'll probably find this book on their
reading list.
All the players (Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro, Dennis Avery, Ronnie Cummins,
Dan Glickman, the EPA, the FDA, etc) and all the events (NewLeaf potatoes
uprooted in Ireland, Bt corn pollen killing Monarch butterfly larvae, the
Terminator Technology uproar, the meltdown that was the WTO meeting in
Seattle, and of course, StarLink corn in the food supply) are laid out in
chronological order for the reader with plenty of space for quotes from
official documents and interviews with those most involved in the
technologies. Like the reporter she is, Hart does not take sides, but
simply gives everyone the room to explain themselves as fully as they wish,
so that readers can make their own decisions about both technology and
participants.
Those who have kept track of what's happening with genetically modified
foods (For instance, through Biodemocracy News, the Organic Consumers
Association monthly e-mail newsletter on biotechnology; sign up available
at http://listsrv.organicconsumers.org/mailman/listinfo/biodemocracy) will
not find any players or events they haven't read about before. However,
the advantage of this book is that Hart is able to give entire chapters to
scientists such as Arpad Pusztai (whose findings that genetically modified
potatoes caused immune system damage in rats caused a global controversy)
and John Losey (the first to find that Bt corn pollen could kill Monarch
butterfly larvae) so that they can explain (and defend) their research in
their own words. As a science and food writer herself, Hart is also able
to prod government officials and industry management into explaining their
decisions with greater clarity because she knows the right questions to ask
them.
Each chapter is meticulously documented with additional technical
information, but since footnote numbers do not appear in the chapter text,
you'll have to keep your finger in the "Notes" section, then match each
chapter's page with sentence fragments to find the reference
information. Numbered notes in the text that correspond with the
documentation in the Notes section would have been a lot easier --
hopefully, this "no footnote numbers in the text" is a publishing trend
that ends with this book.
If you just want to learn what genetic engineering is and why folks have
concerns about it, read Genetic Engineering, Food and Our Environment by
Luke Anderson (ISBN: 1-890132-55-1) . It's quick, clear, concise and three
years after its publication date, still completely on target. If you
prefer the full background on how genetically engineered food has developed
into a global issue, featuring the words and documents of those who
influenced and lived this history, pick up Eating in the Dark.
Reviewed by Dorene Pasekoff, Coordinator
St. John's United Church of Christ Organic Community Garden
Phoenixville, PA
