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Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds
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 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.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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 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.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
8 people are currently reading
106 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 27, 2013
One of the most important books anyone could read. A readable explanation of the science and anti-science behind genetic engineering, the scientific and legal history, gene patenting, agri-chemicals, globalization, seed-saving, farm debt, colonialism and its impact on indigenous agricultural practices, storytelling and food, religion and farming. 200 pages of insight about the most basic thing about us: how we feed ourselves.
Each chapter is located in a particular place and a story about that place: The little-known destruction of a seed bank in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood of Baghdad (and US attempts to establish Iraqi dependence upon genetically engineered seed), genetic engineering field tests in Hawai'i and the contamination they cause in one of the most fertile places on earth, corporate control of research at land-grant Universities, focusing on the UCal Berkeley site, etc.
Each chapter then addresses the scientific, political, economic, nutritional, and pragmatic issues inherent in each story and each place. Some of the stories are appalling and heart-breaking, some made me feel fiercely proud of my fellow human beings. Some were so beautiful and hopeful they brought tears to my eyes.
The last three chapters (2 chapters and epilogue) stand on their own. In them, Cummings illustrates the wisdom of indigenous approaches to farming and food, the contamination of the birthplace of corn and the likely consequences of that contamination. She discusses the need to tell stories about our food and its growing, to link food to place, to have and teach a hands-on approach to growing food, and the spirituality of seeds. (She points out that, in the event of an oil crisis, natural disaster, or food-security crisis, communities that know "how to get along with each other," are autonomous, diverse, and engaged in growing their food, will not need to rely on the dubious comforts of FEMA or Homeland Security [181:].)
In the Epilogue, Cummings reminds the reader of the story of the Garden of Eden, and discusses its similarities to other creation narratives, in which the Creator gives abundant food to human beings, with a test or string attached. When the humans fail the test, their relationship to their food becomes fraught with hardship and heavy labor. The act which causes them to fail the test s often a act of transgressing a boundary: trying to become gods, ignoring their place in the community of the living, repudiating their dependence on and interdependence with other parts of nature. Since this is a big part of Chapter Two of m dissertation, I was delighed to see evidence that I'm on the right track. But I think everyone can learn from this chapter, and the book as a whole, that food and the new life of seeds are sacred things, full of the potential to give life in new ways, and that "our survival depends on returning to a sense of the sacred" (186).
She includes Howard Nemerov's poem, "A Cabinet of Seeds Displayed":
"These are the original monies of the earth,
In which invested, as the spark in fire,
They will produce a green wealth toppling tall,
A trick they do by dying, by decay,
In burial becoming each his kind
To rise in gory and be magnified
A million times above the obscure grave.
"Reader, these samples are exhibited
For contemplation, locked in potency
And kept from act for reverence’s sake.
May they remind us while we live on earth
That all economies are primitive;
And by their reservations may they teach
Our governors, who speak of husbandry
And think the hurricane, where power lies."
Amen.
Each chapter is located in a particular place and a story about that place: The little-known destruction of a seed bank in the Abu Ghraib neighborhood of Baghdad (and US attempts to establish Iraqi dependence upon genetically engineered seed), genetic engineering field tests in Hawai'i and the contamination they cause in one of the most fertile places on earth, corporate control of research at land-grant Universities, focusing on the UCal Berkeley site, etc.
Each chapter then addresses the scientific, political, economic, nutritional, and pragmatic issues inherent in each story and each place. Some of the stories are appalling and heart-breaking, some made me feel fiercely proud of my fellow human beings. Some were so beautiful and hopeful they brought tears to my eyes.
The last three chapters (2 chapters and epilogue) stand on their own. In them, Cummings illustrates the wisdom of indigenous approaches to farming and food, the contamination of the birthplace of corn and the likely consequences of that contamination. She discusses the need to tell stories about our food and its growing, to link food to place, to have and teach a hands-on approach to growing food, and the spirituality of seeds. (She points out that, in the event of an oil crisis, natural disaster, or food-security crisis, communities that know "how to get along with each other," are autonomous, diverse, and engaged in growing their food, will not need to rely on the dubious comforts of FEMA or Homeland Security [181:].)
In the Epilogue, Cummings reminds the reader of the story of the Garden of Eden, and discusses its similarities to other creation narratives, in which the Creator gives abundant food to human beings, with a test or string attached. When the humans fail the test, their relationship to their food becomes fraught with hardship and heavy labor. The act which causes them to fail the test s often a act of transgressing a boundary: trying to become gods, ignoring their place in the community of the living, repudiating their dependence on and interdependence with other parts of nature. Since this is a big part of Chapter Two of m dissertation, I was delighed to see evidence that I'm on the right track. But I think everyone can learn from this chapter, and the book as a whole, that food and the new life of seeds are sacred things, full of the potential to give life in new ways, and that "our survival depends on returning to a sense of the sacred" (186).
She includes Howard Nemerov's poem, "A Cabinet of Seeds Displayed":
"These are the original monies of the earth,
In which invested, as the spark in fire,
They will produce a green wealth toppling tall,
A trick they do by dying, by decay,
In burial becoming each his kind
To rise in gory and be magnified
A million times above the obscure grave.
"Reader, these samples are exhibited
For contemplation, locked in potency
And kept from act for reverence’s sake.
May they remind us while we live on earth
That all economies are primitive;
And by their reservations may they teach
Our governors, who speak of husbandry
And think the hurricane, where power lies."
Amen.
July 4, 2011
Sometimes the biggest questions involve the littlest things. Take seeds, for example. Or even smaller, DNA.
Cummings takes on the genetic engineering of crops, asserting that we are on the road to dangers we are only beginning to understand or notice. Our food supply increasingly is governed and controlled by large corporations whose scientists manipulate the genes of seeds. Corporations portray the genetic engineering as a boon to humans because it greatly increases yield and reduces the damage done by pests. With major financial interests now dominating food production, it is logical that our politicians are deferential to the major corporations leading this process.
Cummings attacks the argument that genetically engineered crops are good from several points of view: the science, the economic impact, biodiversity,global warming, legal, and cultural impact.
While there may be some flaws in some of the points she makes, it is difficult not to be deeply concerned about where corporate agriculture is taking us.
You may never see a field of corn the same way again.
Cummings takes on the genetic engineering of crops, asserting that we are on the road to dangers we are only beginning to understand or notice. Our food supply increasingly is governed and controlled by large corporations whose scientists manipulate the genes of seeds. Corporations portray the genetic engineering as a boon to humans because it greatly increases yield and reduces the damage done by pests. With major financial interests now dominating food production, it is logical that our politicians are deferential to the major corporations leading this process.
Cummings attacks the argument that genetically engineered crops are good from several points of view: the science, the economic impact, biodiversity,global warming, legal, and cultural impact.
While there may be some flaws in some of the points she makes, it is difficult not to be deeply concerned about where corporate agriculture is taking us.
You may never see a field of corn the same way again.
September 29, 2012
This book was awful. Some of the information might have been good, but it was totally hidden under conspiracy theories and generalizations. I read this book because I was writing a paper on genetic engineering and needed some information; however, I ended up throwing it across the room because in almost 200 pages there was nothing I could use in my scientific research paper. Any quote I put would totally destroy the validity of the entire thing. For in addition to the generalizations she almost never quotes a scientific study directly; she always quotes a source who's quoting a source who quoted the scientific study. Ever played telephone? Yeah, then you know why I'm pretty skeptical. Maybe I'll reread it when I'm not focusing on finding quotes I could use for my paper; but probably not. I instead would probably be better off rereading Genetically Modified Crops by G.H Liang, which although definitely a denser read had a scientific basis instead of a sensational journalism one.
April 23, 2012
Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds is a manifesto strongly opposing our current use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As someone pursuing a PhD in bioinformatics and generally comfortable with the idea of genetic engineering, I expected to be entirely unconvinced by the author’s arguments. In fact, I almost didn’t pick this book up at all, because I wasn’t sure I could read it objectively enough. However, I think avoiding reading books by author’s with viewpoints opposed to my own would seriously limit the amount I learn from this project. Surprisingly, I ended up agreeing with a lot of the author’s points, even though I was sometimes shocked by her completely one-sided rhetoric.
Read more here...
Read more here...
December 13, 2016
A damning indictment of agribusiness. However, while I agree that agribusiness has used means both fair and foul to dominate, this is not the same as saying that GMOs are all bad, which seems to be her reasoning. GMOS themselves involve questions of botany, environment, and health, which need to be investigated on their own merits. Cummings draws upon far too many topics to make a coherent argument.
The last section of the book goes awry. Cummings of course is not required to offer solutions to the problems she exposes. But when she does, she looks with some romance at traditional farming practices of cultures in New Mexico, Mexico, and Hawaii., which offer little today in terms of feeding entire nations. And the fantasy that “multi-dimensional” thinking and ancient myths are going to guide us offers lovely dreams, but not much to chew on.
The last section of the book goes awry. Cummings of course is not required to offer solutions to the problems she exposes. But when she does, she looks with some romance at traditional farming practices of cultures in New Mexico, Mexico, and Hawaii., which offer little today in terms of feeding entire nations. And the fantasy that “multi-dimensional” thinking and ancient myths are going to guide us offers lovely dreams, but not much to chew on.
May 25, 2012
Oy, one of those books which...the notes you take about it are almost as long as the book itself. I already knew various drills about GMOs, but Cummings, a former EPA lawyer, throws in a lot of institutional histories about testing, funding, agencies, and politicians--Clarence Thomas, for instance, used to work for Monsanto. And wrote a key verdict on a key he might have recused himself from re: permitting a whole class of seeds to go un-scrutinized through the regulatory process. Depressing news about (non)self-regulation by the industry, GMO experiment stations in Hawaii, and other sobering stuff. Not a "flow" book, like Silent Spring, but tons of interesting stuff, to refer back to for sure.
June 9, 2010
Complaints about poor organization and misplaced or missing data are warranted but I did appreciate Cummings hashing out some of the problems with the privatization of seed stock and gene patents held by large [unethical:] corporations. I don't think many books about biotechnology focus so intently on seeds which is why this was still interesting to me.
April 28, 2008
I found much of the book fascinating and disturbing, but the last chapter almost spoiled the entire book for me.
January 17, 2015
"Without being alarmist, Cummings has written a most alarming book, one that demands our attention." -- Michael Pollan
In Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, Claire Hope Cummings exposes the real, behind-the-scenes history of the rise of industrial agriculture and botanical biotechnology; the fall of public interest science; and the folly of patenting seeds. She examines how farming communities are coping with declining availability of water, deterioration of soils, and decreasing availability of fossil fuels, as well as with new commercial technologies that are of dubious value.
Humanity has co-evolved with seed plants, adjusting our farming practices as needed to take full advantage of the bounty and beauty which plants so generously offer us. And yet scientists know little of the history of our crop plants and the evolution of our relationship with them.
For thousand of years, using the accumulated wisdom of all the farmers who have gone before them, farmers have worked with the land and the plants they have sown in it, learning to tailor their treatment of the land and of the seeds they plant in ways that maximize yields and minimize damage to the land and the plants growing in it. But in the last 20 years (written in 2014), agricultural science has become almost completely divorced from the public interest and has instead embraced private corporate interests. Scientists working for these corporations are trained to hold massive contempt for the public; they are taught that the only objections the public has to their technological advances originate in ignorance of science and superstitious, irrational fear. And they and the corporations they work for are hell-bent on shoving their products down the throats of the public -- in many cases literally -- with no regard for the rights of the public and the state governments that speak for them, health concerns associated with the use of their products, or the impact that those products might have on the living world, the biosphere on which all of us depend for life itself. In other words, they and the corporations they work for want total control over us all, down to and including what foods we choose to produce and how, and what foods we eat. And that is bringing about a crisis of epic proportions involving the ecological health of the land, the physical health of humanity, the deleterious economic trends brought about by the actions of these corporations, and the viability of our living world.
Ms. Cummings addresses all such concerns and much, much more. She describes the impact of the new biotechnology and the way it is being shoved down our collective throats in places ranging from Iraq's Fertile Crescent to the island of Kauai'i, from Oaxaca, Mexico to Vietnam's Mekong Delta. She discusses the plight of farmers who have planted transgenic seeds, the products of biotechnology corporations such as Monsanto, and of scientists who have been savagely persecuted for revealing to the public the dangers of modifying the genes of the plants we eat and those we use for landscaping and flower gardens.
Always, Mrs. Cummings looks deeply into the relationship between humanity and plants. She examines the possibilities of both scarcity and abundance. She tells the stories of local communities that are sustainably producing food and fuel and providing for the future, versus those that have been trapped by biotech corporations and government agencies into planting and raising crops that do not produce viable seed, but do generate dangerous poisons within themselves that harm the health of those who eat those plants and the biosphere itself. We are currently making decisions as to whether seeds will continue to provide our sustenance and remain the common heritage of humanity -- or not. Whoever controls the future of seeds controls the future of life on Earth -- and in the last twenty years, giant corporations that don't care about anything but the bottom line, don't respect the public, don't care about people's health, and don't even give a damn about the biosphere itself have been obtaining more and more control over our food production in all its aspects.
It's time for people to wake up, take a good look at what's being done to the plants we depend on for our food and medicine and so many other things, and how and why. It's time for them to decide whether they want that to continue or else take back the processes of food production and the creation of medicines from plants, and determine for themselves just what sort of future the generations to come will inherit.
GMO corporations are now responsible for the escalating suicide rate of farmers in India who, trapped in an ever-increasing debt spiral as a result of contracting with MO corporations for their seed and other products used on their farms, and obligated by law to continue doing so for life, take the only way out that exists for them. Similar horrors are playing out in numerous other countries and even in America. Farmers are having to sell their souls to Monsanto's and Syngenta's company store to be able to eke out an unsatisfactory living on the soil. Something terrible has happened to us, that we allow these things to happen. It's time to take back our lands, kick out the monsters who are doing this to us all, and return to living on the land as our ancestors did, eating good food uncontaminated by hideously toxic poisons and weird genes, free of the enormous burdens of debt-slavery that the GMO corporations are trying to impose on us all.
In Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds, Claire Hope Cummings exposes the real, behind-the-scenes history of the rise of industrial agriculture and botanical biotechnology; the fall of public interest science; and the folly of patenting seeds. She examines how farming communities are coping with declining availability of water, deterioration of soils, and decreasing availability of fossil fuels, as well as with new commercial technologies that are of dubious value.
Humanity has co-evolved with seed plants, adjusting our farming practices as needed to take full advantage of the bounty and beauty which plants so generously offer us. And yet scientists know little of the history of our crop plants and the evolution of our relationship with them.
For thousand of years, using the accumulated wisdom of all the farmers who have gone before them, farmers have worked with the land and the plants they have sown in it, learning to tailor their treatment of the land and of the seeds they plant in ways that maximize yields and minimize damage to the land and the plants growing in it. But in the last 20 years (written in 2014), agricultural science has become almost completely divorced from the public interest and has instead embraced private corporate interests. Scientists working for these corporations are trained to hold massive contempt for the public; they are taught that the only objections the public has to their technological advances originate in ignorance of science and superstitious, irrational fear. And they and the corporations they work for are hell-bent on shoving their products down the throats of the public -- in many cases literally -- with no regard for the rights of the public and the state governments that speak for them, health concerns associated with the use of their products, or the impact that those products might have on the living world, the biosphere on which all of us depend for life itself. In other words, they and the corporations they work for want total control over us all, down to and including what foods we choose to produce and how, and what foods we eat. And that is bringing about a crisis of epic proportions involving the ecological health of the land, the physical health of humanity, the deleterious economic trends brought about by the actions of these corporations, and the viability of our living world.
Ms. Cummings addresses all such concerns and much, much more. She describes the impact of the new biotechnology and the way it is being shoved down our collective throats in places ranging from Iraq's Fertile Crescent to the island of Kauai'i, from Oaxaca, Mexico to Vietnam's Mekong Delta. She discusses the plight of farmers who have planted transgenic seeds, the products of biotechnology corporations such as Monsanto, and of scientists who have been savagely persecuted for revealing to the public the dangers of modifying the genes of the plants we eat and those we use for landscaping and flower gardens.
Always, Mrs. Cummings looks deeply into the relationship between humanity and plants. She examines the possibilities of both scarcity and abundance. She tells the stories of local communities that are sustainably producing food and fuel and providing for the future, versus those that have been trapped by biotech corporations and government agencies into planting and raising crops that do not produce viable seed, but do generate dangerous poisons within themselves that harm the health of those who eat those plants and the biosphere itself. We are currently making decisions as to whether seeds will continue to provide our sustenance and remain the common heritage of humanity -- or not. Whoever controls the future of seeds controls the future of life on Earth -- and in the last twenty years, giant corporations that don't care about anything but the bottom line, don't respect the public, don't care about people's health, and don't even give a damn about the biosphere itself have been obtaining more and more control over our food production in all its aspects.
It's time for people to wake up, take a good look at what's being done to the plants we depend on for our food and medicine and so many other things, and how and why. It's time for them to decide whether they want that to continue or else take back the processes of food production and the creation of medicines from plants, and determine for themselves just what sort of future the generations to come will inherit.
GMO corporations are now responsible for the escalating suicide rate of farmers in India who, trapped in an ever-increasing debt spiral as a result of contracting with MO corporations for their seed and other products used on their farms, and obligated by law to continue doing so for life, take the only way out that exists for them. Similar horrors are playing out in numerous other countries and even in America. Farmers are having to sell their souls to Monsanto's and Syngenta's company store to be able to eke out an unsatisfactory living on the soil. Something terrible has happened to us, that we allow these things to happen. It's time to take back our lands, kick out the monsters who are doing this to us all, and return to living on the land as our ancestors did, eating good food uncontaminated by hideously toxic poisons and weird genes, free of the enormous burdens of debt-slavery that the GMO corporations are trying to impose on us all.
May 16, 2021
Informative but arguably insufficient. Interesting & fascinating content (gene altering, bioagriculture) that’s written user-friendly. Pros: there’s plenty of info & quotes, the absence of footnotes on every page makes for swift reading (or skimming); laudable attempt to tackle monstrous & difficult subject of Monsanto, GMOs, DuPont & Dow chemical, & Syngenta. Cons: doesn’t voice agribusiness proponents' & supporters’ arguments, achievements & accomplishments; repetitive, redundant; no overall scheme or organization discernable; not meticulous.
Depending on former knowledge, the book either increases enthusiasm, interest, or advocacy for the methods of guarding against contamination of natural, organic crops; protecting farmers’ livelihoods from conglomerate encroachment; preserving the extant, myriad seeds; educating populations about genetic diversity, & how best to preserve it; or it diminishes the scope of a complex matter into no clear resolution, for the advances progress, and it’s not fathomable that the genie of gene-editing can be put back into the lamp of the past. Packed into no more than 200 pgs is an afternoon, or an airport read, that summarizes the thorny issue of gene editing and the consequences thereof. It touches on farming, biotech, chronology, has some quotes about the terrible implications of modern science, even includes a fair bit of solutions, namely, to use natural ways & means to tend to the earth.
It’s not a textbook, & I skimmed ~20 pgs. It lacks weight, density, depth, probity, scholarship & sparkliness. For me, this was fine & I didn’t mind. It was like a review, refresher, & importantly, a reminder. For readers that are only now learning about the inherent corruption in {industry, science, business, academia, politics} there are probably better book-alternatives but this one is suitable introductory, & user-friendly enough. For more thirsty, & passionate, or more knowledgeable folk, it’s probably enough to just read the summary, or skim thru the index.
Depending on former knowledge, the book either increases enthusiasm, interest, or advocacy for the methods of guarding against contamination of natural, organic crops; protecting farmers’ livelihoods from conglomerate encroachment; preserving the extant, myriad seeds; educating populations about genetic diversity, & how best to preserve it; or it diminishes the scope of a complex matter into no clear resolution, for the advances progress, and it’s not fathomable that the genie of gene-editing can be put back into the lamp of the past. Packed into no more than 200 pgs is an afternoon, or an airport read, that summarizes the thorny issue of gene editing and the consequences thereof. It touches on farming, biotech, chronology, has some quotes about the terrible implications of modern science, even includes a fair bit of solutions, namely, to use natural ways & means to tend to the earth.
It’s not a textbook, & I skimmed ~20 pgs. It lacks weight, density, depth, probity, scholarship & sparkliness. For me, this was fine & I didn’t mind. It was like a review, refresher, & importantly, a reminder. For readers that are only now learning about the inherent corruption in {industry, science, business, academia, politics} there are probably better book-alternatives but this one is suitable introductory, & user-friendly enough. For more thirsty, & passionate, or more knowledgeable folk, it’s probably enough to just read the summary, or skim thru the index.
September 2, 2012
With a very entertaining journalistic style, Cummings tells of the perils of genetic engineering and its relationship to big agriculture dominance and the loss of one of the fundamentals of agriculture—its seed that has been traditionally collected and saved by growers themselves. The result is the loss of species and cultivars.
This book begins on the wrong foot for me when the author prefaces the work by apologizing, in advance, for generalizations to come. This immediately put my guard up. I anticipated a few, but her generalizing is blatant throughout the work. For example, she begins by making broad statements about herbicides. However, there are vast differences between herbicides in chemical and toxicological properties, modes of action, environmental fate and the like. There is no mention of this. Instead she continues to generalize, reducing her credibility. In addition, her synonamous use of the terms "biotechnology" and "genetic engineering" I deem inaccurate when genetics accounts for just a small piece of the world of
biotechnology.
Furthermore, I felt that there was weakness in the structure and organization of the work. “Facts” were almost haphazardly thrown at the reader. I do agree, however, that there are holes in the regulatory framework that need to be addressed.
She mentions the concern of genes escaping into the wild, creating resistant weeds. Weeds have developed resistance. A more likely pathway to resistance is the combination of mutation (naturally occurring) and the over-use of a single herbicide, glyphosate or Roundup in this case. I wished to read some of the bibliography, especially that concerning weed resistance and the safety of certain pesticides. I found it to be scant.
This book begins on the wrong foot for me when the author prefaces the work by apologizing, in advance, for generalizations to come. This immediately put my guard up. I anticipated a few, but her generalizing is blatant throughout the work. For example, she begins by making broad statements about herbicides. However, there are vast differences between herbicides in chemical and toxicological properties, modes of action, environmental fate and the like. There is no mention of this. Instead she continues to generalize, reducing her credibility. In addition, her synonamous use of the terms "biotechnology" and "genetic engineering" I deem inaccurate when genetics accounts for just a small piece of the world of
biotechnology.
Furthermore, I felt that there was weakness in the structure and organization of the work. “Facts” were almost haphazardly thrown at the reader. I do agree, however, that there are holes in the regulatory framework that need to be addressed.
She mentions the concern of genes escaping into the wild, creating resistant weeds. Weeds have developed resistance. A more likely pathway to resistance is the combination of mutation (naturally occurring) and the over-use of a single herbicide, glyphosate or Roundup in this case. I wished to read some of the bibliography, especially that concerning weed resistance and the safety of certain pesticides. I found it to be scant.
January 6, 2010
Thank heavens for audio books: this would have been long and tedious in print. But stop! It is also highly informative, and even inspirational.
The venerable seed has become the pawn of politicians and genetic tinkerers like Monsanto. Seeds are the only thing standing between humanity and starvation. Cummings makes an excellent case here: we simply cannot continue to let big business and governments play with the future of our food.
Yes, the book is a bit verbose and not particularly well organized. But download the audio version from your library and immerse yourself in this detailed and insightful story of the first crops, the frightening secrets of genetic engineering, the shameful pliability of government policies, and a renewed respect for seeds. I'm going to be a LOT more selective in choosing what I plant and eat from now on!
The venerable seed has become the pawn of politicians and genetic tinkerers like Monsanto. Seeds are the only thing standing between humanity and starvation. Cummings makes an excellent case here: we simply cannot continue to let big business and governments play with the future of our food.
Yes, the book is a bit verbose and not particularly well organized. But download the audio version from your library and immerse yourself in this detailed and insightful story of the first crops, the frightening secrets of genetic engineering, the shameful pliability of government policies, and a renewed respect for seeds. I'm going to be a LOT more selective in choosing what I plant and eat from now on!
April 12, 2010
This is one of those subjects that is so important, and yet so few people are willing to grapple with and that would be so easy to change.
It's a book that I have to pick up, read for a little bit and then put down for two reasons:
1. There is so much to think about,
2. I get so angry at all the horrid agribusiness corporations, government and people who are pushing and perpetuating this disgusting business of destroying the earth's seeds and agriculture through hybrid, GMO seeds and chemical dependence.
I like how Cummings actually shows different real occurrences of how big money is changing/destroying the world's ability to feed and sustain itself.
It's a book that I have to pick up, read for a little bit and then put down for two reasons:
1. There is so much to think about,
2. I get so angry at all the horrid agribusiness corporations, government and people who are pushing and perpetuating this disgusting business of destroying the earth's seeds and agriculture through hybrid, GMO seeds and chemical dependence.
I like how Cummings actually shows different real occurrences of how big money is changing/destroying the world's ability to feed and sustain itself.
August 5, 2011
Scary, thought-provoking book. The message boils down to GMOs, Factory Farming, Big Agriculture = BAD ... Organic Food, Family Farms, Biological Diversity = GOOD. The author does belabor the point a bit at times, but there is no denying what she is saying. Hopefully this book will help bring about change in the destructive ways that we (as a nation and a species) have developed in the name of profit and "progress".
March 5, 2010
If you have kids you need to read this book.
If you eat food you need to read this book.
If you have a garden you should read this book.
If you're too lazy to spend a night reading this very short book, then go rent Food,Inc.
So quit screwing around on the internet already and go read this book!!!!
If you eat food you need to read this book.
If you have a garden you should read this book.
If you're too lazy to spend a night reading this very short book, then go rent Food,Inc.
So quit screwing around on the internet already and go read this book!!!!
June 4, 2008
read about 25 pages and then got fed up with how poorly organized this book is. there's some good information in here, i'm sure. but it's thrown around so haphazardly that it made for an unpleasant reading experience. it's going back to the library.
January 25, 2013
Though I may have agreed with many of the points she made, I gave it two stars because of the one sidedness throughout the entire book. There are two sides to every controversial topic and she failed to address the other side's point of view which sadly discredited much of what she had to say.
Read
August 12, 2010It was so so. I wanted more on the genetically engineered food and less on the seed saving and culture.
Currently reading
March 7, 2012good book....
September 29, 2012
I hate GMOs. Such a waste of money, resources, and talent.
March 18, 2014
Depressing to learn how. easily. GMO seeds can polinate original seeds and take over the kinds of foods we eat
December 14, 2014
An important presentation of the implications of GMO's and the need to return to the basic principles of farming on smaller local levels.
January 20, 2016
Listened along with Kindle book.
Want to read
October 10, 2008Litquake author.
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