Engineering the Farm: The Social And Ethical Aspects Of Agricultural Biotechnology - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1559639474 ISBN 13: 9781559639477

Publisher: Island Press, 2002

Synopsis

Engineering the Farm offers a wide-ranging examination of the social and ethical issues surrounding the production and consumption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), with leading thinkers and activists taking a broad theoretical approach to the subject. Topics covered include: the historical roots of the anti-biotechnology movement ethical issues involved in introducing genetically altered crops questions of patenting and labeling the "precautionary principle" and its role in the regulation of GMOs effects of genetic modification on the world's food supply ecological concerns and impacts on traditional varieties of domesticated crops potential health effects of GMOsContributors argue that the scope, scale, and size of the present venture in crop modification is so vast and intensive that a thoroughgoing review of agricultural biotechnology must consider its global, moral, cultural, and ecological impacts as well as its effects on individual consumers. Throughout, they argue that more research is needed on genetically modified food and that consumers are entitled to specific information about how food products have been developed.Despite its increasing role in worldwide food production, little has been written about the broader social and ethical implications of GMOs. Engineering the Farm offers a unique approach to the subject for academics, activists, and policymakers involved with questions of environmental policy, ethics, agriculture, environmental health, and related fields.

About this title

About the Author

Britt Balley is senior associate and Marc Lappe is director of the Center for Ethics and Toxics in Gualala, California. They are co-authors of Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food (Common Courage Press, 1998).

Edition details

• Publisher: Island Press
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1559639474
• ISBN 13: 9781559639477
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 200
• Editor: Lappe Marc, Bailey Britt