Category: Media

Dinner at the New Gene Café expertly lays out the battle lines of the impending collision between a powerful but unproved technology and a gathering resistance from people worried about the safety of genetic change.

If you want to explore the story behind the controversy over “Frankenstein Foods” – genetically engineered crops like corn and soybeans – this is the book for you. It’s a story, rather than an argument on behalf of one side or the other. That story begins in the scientific breakthroughs of the early 1980s and the decision by one midwestern chemical company, Monsanto, to dive headfirst into biotechnology.

The explosive exposé Seeds of Deception reveals how industry manipulation and political collusion-not sound science-allow dangerous genetically engineered food into your daily diet. Company research is rigged, alarming evidence of health dangers is covered up, and intense political pressure applied.

Robin reports that, following its long history of manufacturing hazardous chemicals and lethal herbicides, Monsanto is now marketing itself as a “life sciences” company, seemingly convinced about the virtues of sustainable development. However, Monsanto now controls the majority of the yield of the world’s genetically modified corn and soy – ingredients found in more than 95 percent of American households – and its alarming legal and political tactics to maintain this monopoly are the subject of worldwide concern.

I simply had to read Food Heroes. Why? One of my neighbors is a food hero! I knew he was unique, but now the world knows. Georgia Pellegrini profiles sixteen “artisanal food devotees” and one of them happens to be Jon Rowley; a neighbor who lives just blocks away.