Genetic Engineering Biotechnology News

In 2001 the Human Genome Project announced that it had successfully mapped the entire genetic content of human DNA. Scientists, politicians, theologians, and pundits speculated about what would follow, conjuring everything from nightmare scenarios of state-controlled eugenics to the hope of engineering disease-resistant newborns. As with debates surrounding stem-cell research, the seemingly endless possibilities of genetic engineering will continue to influence public opinion and policy into the foreseeable future. Beyond Biotechnology: The Barren Promise of Genetic Engineering distinguishes between the hype and reality of this technology and explains the nuanced and delicate relationship between science and nature. Authors Craig Holdrege and Steve Talbott evaluate the current state of genetic science and examine its potential applications, particularly in agriculture and medicine, as well as the possible dangers. The authors show how the popular view of genetics does not include an understanding of the ways in which genes actually work together in organisms. Simplistic and reductionist views of genes lead to unrealistic expectations and, ultimately, disappointment in the results that genetic engineering actually delivers. The authors explore new developments in genetics, from the discovery of "non-Darwinian" adaptative mutations in bacteria to evidence that suggests that organisms are far more than mere collections of genetically driven mechanisms. While examining these issues, the authors also answer vital questions that get to the essence of genetic interaction with human biology: Does DNA "manage" an organism any more than the organism manages its DNA? Should genetically engineered products be labeled as such? Do the methods of the genetic engineer resemble the centuries-old practices of animal husbandry? Written for lay readers, Beyond Biotechnology is an accessible introduction to the complicated issues of genetic engineering and its potential applications. In the unexplored space between nature and laboratory, a new science is waiting to emerge. Technology-based social and environmental solutions will remain tenuous and at risk of reversal as long as our culture is alienated from the plants and animals on which all life depends.

Provides an overview, chronology of events, glossary and annotated bibliography on biotechnology and genetic engineering.

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).

Life on earth is facing unprecedented challenges from global warming, war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less visible but no less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are essential to maintaining our food supply and our ability to cope with a changing climate. In Uncertain Peril, environmental journalist Claire Hope Cummings exposes the stories behind the rise of industrial agriculture and plant biotechnology, the fall of public interest science, and the folly of patenting seeds. She examines how farming communities are coping with declining water, soil, and fossil fuels, as well as with new commercial technologies. Will genetically engineered and "terminator" seeds lead to certain promise, as some have hoped, or are we embarking on a path of uncertain peril? Will the "doomsday vault" under construction in the Arctic, designed to store millions of seeds, save the genetic diversity of the world's agriculture? To answer these questions and others, Cummings takes readers from the Fertile Crescent in Iraq to the island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i; from Oaxaca, Mexico, to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. She examines the plight of farmers who have planted transgenic seeds and scientists who have been persecuted for revealing the dangers of modified genes. At each turn, Cummings looks deeply into the relationship between people and plants. She examines the possibilities for both scarcity and abundance and tells the stories of local communities that are producing food and fuel sustainably and providing for the future. The choices we make about how we feed ourselves now will determine whether or not seeds will continue as a generous source of sustenance and remain the common heritage of all humanity. It comes down to this: whoever controls the future of seeds controls the future of life on earth. Uncertain Peril is a powerful reminder that what's at stake right now is nothing less than the nature of the future.

An examination of the uneasy relationship between business and medical science, this book throws a generous bucket of cold water on the original expectations of genetic engineering. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR