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jon_a's review against another edition
5.0
This was a really excellent book that gives a firm grounding on the definition of GM Crops, as well as the risks and rewards they pose. It was really enlightening to learn how the negative connotation of GMO is so arbitrary, compared to the myriad methods of cross-breeding and hybridization used. And also that there are extensive protocols and procedures that protect consumers from possible contamination, despite claims to the contrary.
People on either side of the GMO debate should take a look at this book just to get a better understanding of the issue. Though the book is written with a heavy bias towards the pro-GMO side, I think the author does a fine job laying out their points without ignoring any major argument of the anti-GMO factions.
People on either side of the GMO debate should take a look at this book just to get a better understanding of the issue. Though the book is written with a heavy bias towards the pro-GMO side, I think the author does a fine job laying out their points without ignoring any major argument of the anti-GMO factions.
brandtkurowski's review against another edition
5.0
Consider this a textbook for understanding modern agriculture (where "modern" spans the last several hundred, nay, thousand years). Beginning with a fascinating narrative describing the rich interplay between humans and our crops, from selective breeding to grafting to hybridization to somaclonal variation to mutagenesis to genetic engineering, this book establishes a richly detailed history in which to understand the context of transgenic organisms.
Next up is a tour of the evolution and internal workings of bacteria, plants, and mammals, which will serve as a refresher course for anyone who studied biology and o-chem in college. Then it dives into modern genetic techniques from gel electrophoresis to PCR to recombinant plasmids and promoters and post-transcriptional gene silencing. This whirlwind tour is brief enough to remain interesting, but detailed enough to give the reader a solid grasp on the exact changes that genetic engineering has on plant DNA, and ultimately the expression of that DNA in the plant itself.
Finally a series of chapters examines the regulatory environment for genetically engineered foods and the public backlash against them, including a particularly enlightening chapter on organic farming. Rather than taking a blindly pro-GMO stance or bashing more traditional methods of agriculture, this book examines the environmental, economic, and human impacts of a variety of aspects of a variety of agricultural practices. Above all else, the book continues to make the point that different techniques are more or less appropriate for specific contexts, and that in our modern age of booming populations, continued poverty in developing nations, environmental pollution, climate change, and increasing encroachment of human development on wild lands, we no longer have the luxury of ignoring the large scale consequences of our agricultural practices.
If you care at all about where your food comes from and how your consumption affects the planet, this is fascinating stuff. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it's easily the most important book I've read in the last 15 years since graduating college.
Next up is a tour of the evolution and internal workings of bacteria, plants, and mammals, which will serve as a refresher course for anyone who studied biology and o-chem in college. Then it dives into modern genetic techniques from gel electrophoresis to PCR to recombinant plasmids and promoters and post-transcriptional gene silencing. This whirlwind tour is brief enough to remain interesting, but detailed enough to give the reader a solid grasp on the exact changes that genetic engineering has on plant DNA, and ultimately the expression of that DNA in the plant itself.
Finally a series of chapters examines the regulatory environment for genetically engineered foods and the public backlash against them, including a particularly enlightening chapter on organic farming. Rather than taking a blindly pro-GMO stance or bashing more traditional methods of agriculture, this book examines the environmental, economic, and human impacts of a variety of aspects of a variety of agricultural practices. Above all else, the book continues to make the point that different techniques are more or less appropriate for specific contexts, and that in our modern age of booming populations, continued poverty in developing nations, environmental pollution, climate change, and increasing encroachment of human development on wild lands, we no longer have the luxury of ignoring the large scale consequences of our agricultural practices.
If you care at all about where your food comes from and how your consumption affects the planet, this is fascinating stuff. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it's easily the most important book I've read in the last 15 years since graduating college.
leannaaker's review against another edition
4.0
Powerful book that people really need to read. Gives numerous examples that demonstrate how blurry the line is between "traditional," "natural" methods of increasing crop production, yield, taste, and viability and those methods that are considered "unnatural," such as genetic modification and irradiation. Like most arguments in society right now, people find a side and dig in. The most cogent arguments in this book were for a marriage of the best parts of organic agriculture and genetic modification. Would be 5 stars, but the language got very technical in places. I have a biology degree, so I didn't mind, but I think for the layperson, those sections get really bogged down.
cmbohn's review against another edition
4.0
Many people view genetically modified food with suspicion. 'I would never eat that stuff,' you might say. But if you live in the United States and have eaten apples, wheat, corn, potatoes, soy products, sweet potatoes, or papaya, you might just have eaten genetically modified food (GM food) without knowing it.
My mom and I had a discussion about GM food after I forwarded her this mailing I got from an organic food site. Did I realize, she asked, that strictly speaking, any hybrid food is genetically modified? That would include almost every apple grown in this country. Enjoy a Golden Delicious or a Macintosh? Try planting the seeds. What results will be nothing like the apple it came from. That's because most apple trees are created by grafting several varieties together. This has been going on for 200 years, and in that time, people have eaten a lot of apples.
But most people, when they think of GM food, think of the so-called Frankenfoods - the tomato with a fish gene in it, designed to help it withstand the cold. And yet, few of us outside the genetic research community really know or understand the process by which such a tomato is created. This book by Nina Fedoroff takes the reader step by step through the process of creating such a seed. She also answers the challenges of the opponents of such food with hard science, explaining why many of their complaints simply do not make sense.
Fedoroff, a leading geneticist and molecular biologist, makes a strong argument for the future of agriculture. I, like many consumers, thought that local, organic produce is the ideal kind of food. I still think that buying local whenever possible is a great way to help the environment and get the freshest, best tasting produce at the same time. But as Fedoroff points out, if every farmer switched to strictly organic farming methods, we would need another 2 or 3 planets just to feed the current population, to say nothing of projected population growth. And that would be cultivating every single arable acre of land, including those currently reserved for wildlife, the entire rainforest, and many other wildlife habitats. Organic farming simply can't come close to providing enough food for our planet.
So is GM food the answer? I have to admit that I'm coming around to her way of thinking. Scientist have developed some of these crops especially to solve nutritional problems. The book opens with Swiss scientist Ingo Potrykus coming up with a rice that contains a gene from a flower which contains the code for making beta carotene. The rice, Golden Rice, would be a simple way for even the poorest people to avoid the results of Vitamin A Deficiency, including blindness.
Potrykus wasn't hoping for fame, exactly, or fortune. He just wanted to help. Instead, he was vilified. Protesters went crazy. The term 'Frankenfood' was first used to describe this rice. Potrykus was at a loss. This was still rice. And today, 35 years after he started his research, not a single field anywhere in the world is growing Golden Rice. And Vitamin A Deficiency continues to cause blindness in third world countries.
I am not a scientist, so I would have a hard time putting Fedoroff's words into my own. And even other scientists still don't all agree with genetic modification. But she tackles their arguments, one a time, quoting other geneticists and plant breeders. I could go on and on, but there's not enough room.
Will I buy GM food in the future? Yes. I do admit I still feel a little uneasy about irradiated produce, such as strawberries, but in reality, such strawberries are safer than the produce in the recent E. Coli scare.
My only complaint about the book is that the illustrations and diagrams provided were a little too technical for me to understand. And I could have really used a glossary. Still, I didn't have too much trouble following along, even if I occasionally had to reread a paragraph once in a while.
In short, I have to thank my mom. If we hadn't had that discussion, I would not have noticed this book at the library. Now that I am a more informed consumer, I feel like I can make some better choices for my family. Highly recommended book for any American consumer.
My mom and I had a discussion about GM food after I forwarded her this mailing I got from an organic food site. Did I realize, she asked, that strictly speaking, any hybrid food is genetically modified? That would include almost every apple grown in this country. Enjoy a Golden Delicious or a Macintosh? Try planting the seeds. What results will be nothing like the apple it came from. That's because most apple trees are created by grafting several varieties together. This has been going on for 200 years, and in that time, people have eaten a lot of apples.
But most people, when they think of GM food, think of the so-called Frankenfoods - the tomato with a fish gene in it, designed to help it withstand the cold. And yet, few of us outside the genetic research community really know or understand the process by which such a tomato is created. This book by Nina Fedoroff takes the reader step by step through the process of creating such a seed. She also answers the challenges of the opponents of such food with hard science, explaining why many of their complaints simply do not make sense.
Fedoroff, a leading geneticist and molecular biologist, makes a strong argument for the future of agriculture. I, like many consumers, thought that local, organic produce is the ideal kind of food. I still think that buying local whenever possible is a great way to help the environment and get the freshest, best tasting produce at the same time. But as Fedoroff points out, if every farmer switched to strictly organic farming methods, we would need another 2 or 3 planets just to feed the current population, to say nothing of projected population growth. And that would be cultivating every single arable acre of land, including those currently reserved for wildlife, the entire rainforest, and many other wildlife habitats. Organic farming simply can't come close to providing enough food for our planet.
So is GM food the answer? I have to admit that I'm coming around to her way of thinking. Scientist have developed some of these crops especially to solve nutritional problems. The book opens with Swiss scientist Ingo Potrykus coming up with a rice that contains a gene from a flower which contains the code for making beta carotene. The rice, Golden Rice, would be a simple way for even the poorest people to avoid the results of Vitamin A Deficiency, including blindness.
Potrykus wasn't hoping for fame, exactly, or fortune. He just wanted to help. Instead, he was vilified. Protesters went crazy. The term 'Frankenfood' was first used to describe this rice. Potrykus was at a loss. This was still rice. And today, 35 years after he started his research, not a single field anywhere in the world is growing Golden Rice. And Vitamin A Deficiency continues to cause blindness in third world countries.
I am not a scientist, so I would have a hard time putting Fedoroff's words into my own. And even other scientists still don't all agree with genetic modification. But she tackles their arguments, one a time, quoting other geneticists and plant breeders. I could go on and on, but there's not enough room.
Will I buy GM food in the future? Yes. I do admit I still feel a little uneasy about irradiated produce, such as strawberries, but in reality, such strawberries are safer than the produce in the recent E. Coli scare.
My only complaint about the book is that the illustrations and diagrams provided were a little too technical for me to understand. And I could have really used a glossary. Still, I didn't have too much trouble following along, even if I occasionally had to reread a paragraph once in a while.
In short, I have to thank my mom. If we hadn't had that discussion, I would not have noticed this book at the library. Now that I am a more informed consumer, I feel like I can make some better choices for my family. Highly recommended book for any American consumer.
federico's review
5.0
Den mest interessante boken jeg har lest kanskje noen gang!
Jeg skal lese den om igjen med en gang.
Jeg skal lese den om igjen med en gang.
drdreuh's review
5.0
I grew up in the worst of the worst days of ag biotech – as appalled as the next blossoming vegetarian, environmentalist by the vicious slaughter of monarch butterflies who had feasted on poisonous pollen and visions of dancing tomatoes with fish heads. But as I got older I did a lot of research on the topic of genetically modified foods. And the more I read (of reputable literature – not the plethora of information online), the more I became comfortable with the science behind it.
But I’m not a scientist and until reading ‘Mendel in the Kitchen’ I couldn’t have told you anything terribly specific about the science involved in genetic modification. Just that I found comfort in the logic of the scientific method and the possibilities that lay there within.
The lead author of ‘Mendel in the Kitchen’, Nina Fedoroff, is a scientist in the area of molecular biology (as well as the Science and Technology Advisor to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice) and skillfully explains the science behind genetic modification and its context of use. She starts with the fundamentals of biology, makes effective use of diagrams and uses lots of examples to illustrate the progress of the research through time.
The most important contribution of this book is that it provides context and perspective to the history of food production. For so many of us, the dawning days of GM was the first time we thought about the food we ate – where it came from, how it was grown, how it got to our plate. GM sounded so sterile, so scientific, so unnatural, so scary… What we couldn’t understand (in our naiveté about the reality of modern agriculture) is how methodical and scientific food production had become irrespective of GM.
The reality is that much of the food we eat may seem shockingly “unnatural” by many city dwellers’ standards. And I’m not talking Twinkies and Ho-Hos here. I’m talking papaya and oranges and bananas and apples.
And so Fedoroff continues by breaking down the issues around GM from a scientific perspective, differentiating the substantive ones from those that are not. As with any research, many observations can be made about GM but laymen like me rely on experts to tell us which are the most significant. The greatest injustice in our modern world of ubiquitous information is the abuse – intentional or otherwise – of this trust. Self-proclaimed experts easily lead us to false conclusions or worse yet, to the conclusion that nothing is to be trusted.
Fedoroff earned my trust by methodically working through the issues, tracing the path of logic back through the scientific research and publications. She then goes on to explain the policy ramifications that have resulted and explores the future possibility of GM … and all related methods of food science innovation.
‘Mendel in the Kitchen’ is representative of one of my favorite genres, one I tag ‘readable science’. We may not all be PhDs but – when it comes to issues with such broad social and environmental impact as the food with which we sustain ourselves - scientists need to be able to talk about their work in a way the rest of us can understand.
The book is well written and a great counter-balance to the bulk of information available.
But I’m not a scientist and until reading ‘Mendel in the Kitchen’ I couldn’t have told you anything terribly specific about the science involved in genetic modification. Just that I found comfort in the logic of the scientific method and the possibilities that lay there within.
The lead author of ‘Mendel in the Kitchen’, Nina Fedoroff, is a scientist in the area of molecular biology (as well as the Science and Technology Advisor to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice) and skillfully explains the science behind genetic modification and its context of use. She starts with the fundamentals of biology, makes effective use of diagrams and uses lots of examples to illustrate the progress of the research through time.
The most important contribution of this book is that it provides context and perspective to the history of food production. For so many of us, the dawning days of GM was the first time we thought about the food we ate – where it came from, how it was grown, how it got to our plate. GM sounded so sterile, so scientific, so unnatural, so scary… What we couldn’t understand (in our naiveté about the reality of modern agriculture) is how methodical and scientific food production had become irrespective of GM.
The reality is that much of the food we eat may seem shockingly “unnatural” by many city dwellers’ standards. And I’m not talking Twinkies and Ho-Hos here. I’m talking papaya and oranges and bananas and apples.
And so Fedoroff continues by breaking down the issues around GM from a scientific perspective, differentiating the substantive ones from those that are not. As with any research, many observations can be made about GM but laymen like me rely on experts to tell us which are the most significant. The greatest injustice in our modern world of ubiquitous information is the abuse – intentional or otherwise – of this trust. Self-proclaimed experts easily lead us to false conclusions or worse yet, to the conclusion that nothing is to be trusted.
Fedoroff earned my trust by methodically working through the issues, tracing the path of logic back through the scientific research and publications. She then goes on to explain the policy ramifications that have resulted and explores the future possibility of GM … and all related methods of food science innovation.
‘Mendel in the Kitchen’ is representative of one of my favorite genres, one I tag ‘readable science’. We may not all be PhDs but – when it comes to issues with such broad social and environmental impact as the food with which we sustain ourselves - scientists need to be able to talk about their work in a way the rest of us can understand.
The book is well written and a great counter-balance to the bulk of information available.
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