Farmageddon: Food and the Culture of Biotechnology - Softcover

Kneen, Brewster

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0865713944 ISBN 13: 9780865713949

Publisher: New Society Publishers, 1999

Synopsis

Farmageddon: Late-twentieth-century conflict apparently over control of crops and food, with prospects of turning into the final struggle between the forces of life and the forces of death early in the twenty-first century - from The Farmageddon Lexicon.
Farmageddon lifts the veil of secrecy to reveal exactly what is going on down on the farm and on the supermarket shelf. Cutting through both corporate rhetoric and government misinformation, it lays bare the dark culture that permeates biotechnology, as well as who stands to benefit from this Faustian tinkering with the very stuff of life. Unashamedly critical, Farmageddon deals head-on with the 21st century equivalent of the nuclear industry. It also demonstrates that biotechnology can be resisted. It will appeal to all who value healthy food and a healthy society.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

Supporters of biotechnology claim that genetically engineered food is the only hope for feeding the world's hungry. On the contrary, asserts Canadian environmentalist Kneen in a hard-hitting, thoughtful critique. If the biotech industry gets its way, he argues, five or six giant corporations will ultimately gain control (via patents on seeds) of all major commercial crops planted anywhere on earth. This enforced monoculture production, Kneen contends, will jeopardize the self-reliance and food security of many nations. If that sounds paranoid, Kneen points out that a handful of global supermarket chains now dominate food distributionAand their shelves are increasingly stocked with unlabeled, genetically altered potatoes, corn, soybeans and other products whose long-term health effects on humans are unknown. Publisher of the magazine The Ram's Horn, devoted to food systems analysis, Kneen brands as a whitewash the FDA's refusal to impose labeling requirements on milk produced by cows fed recombinant bovine growth hormone; flimsy evidence and circular logic, he says, conceal the fact that this milk may pose real health hazards. He makes a forceful case that biotechnology's creation and owning of novel life forms for commercial purposes is unethical, inherently unsafe, born of a hubristic attitude of control and domination over nature. His up-to-date report exposes how the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand are attempting to change the rules of international trade so that companies like Nestl?, Monsanto and Unilever will be able to move bioengineered food across bordersAand down our throatsAwithout hindrance. This is an important book for anyone seriously concerned about the nature of the food they eat. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0865713944
• ISBN 13: 9780865713949
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240