Brewster Kneen thinks all this biotechnology stuff might be a case of bad attitude.
"Modern biotechnology—genetic engineering—is an assault on life; not an altruistic exercise in curiosity but a demand to control," writes Kneen. "Genetic engineering is an expression of ingratitude and disrespect, if not contempt. It is a vehicle, in practice, of an attitude of domination and ownership, as expressed in the assumption that it is possible, reasonable, and morally acceptable to claim ownership over life."

If you want to learn the ins and outs of genetically engineered foods, and the companies and bad attitudes behind them, you won’t do much better than to read Kneen’s new book, Farmageddon: Food and the Culture of Biotechnology (New Society Publishers, 1999).

Farmageddon is a terrific look at the madness of biotechnology. Kneen, a farmer and author of several books on the global food system, helps readers understand the basics of such issues as pesticidal potatoes, the terminator seed and hormonized milk. Readers learn about the science behind genetic engineering, as well as the substantial environmental and health risks.

Along the way, Kneen debunks the claim that genetic engineering can feed the world. "The biotech industry has no intention of feeding anyone who cannot pay well," he writes. "But the hungry and deprived can be used to prey on the guilt of the affluent so the corporations can get their way with the politicians and the regulatory agencies, get new products to market, keep the industrial farmers of the north on the technology treadmill, and make their investors happy."

And Kneen spends ample time putting biotechnology in a broad context. The book’s first chapter is titled "Undertones of Death". While biotechnology companies claim they are practicing "life sciences," Kneen notes that what they’re really about is death.

"The suggestion that biotechnology is really about administering death may sound harsh," Kneen writes, "but consider the GE crops that have been developed by the life sciences industry. Canola, soybeans, corn and cotton have all been genetically altered (immunized, so to speak) so that they are able to withstand lethal doses of particular agrotoxins (herbicides) aimed at anything else green that grows in their midst….Up to now, the agrotoxin industry has been surprisingly successful in dressing up and obscuring the essential lethal function of its products."

One of the biggest examples of this is the terminator seed (see story, p. 5). "The intent of this elegant feat of genetic engineering is to produce seeds that are sterile. It is an engineered defeat of the life force—the drive to reproduce—dreamed up for the sole purpose of extending corporate control and profit."