The Frankenfood Myth
Subtitle: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution
Publisher: Praeger Publishers; Praeger
Published: August 30, 2004
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 296
ISBN-13: 9780275978792
Subjects: POLITICS & GOVERNMENT; Business & Economics; Business / Economics / Finance; Business/Economics; Government & Business; Industries - Agribusiness; Business & Economics / Government & Business; Biotechnology; Government policy; Political aspects; Social aspects
First sentence: IMAGINE A SITUATION in which an impoverished developing country suffering severe food shortages in the midst of a years-long drought receives food aid shipments of grain from industrialized nations to help fill the void.
Description: "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"--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."--Jacket.