Waubonsee Community College

Lords of the harvest, biotech, big money, and the future of food, Daniel Charles

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-328) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Lords of the harvest

48071336

Daniel Charles

"The food we eat is being transformed before our eyes. Biotech companies are creating designer crops with strange powers - from cholesterol-reducing soybeans to tobacco plants that act as solar-powered pharmaceutical factories. They promise great benefits: better health for consumers and more productive agriculture. But the vision has a dark side, awakening fears of profit-driven tampering with life." "In Lords of the Harvest, Daniel Charles tells the real story behind "Frankenstein foods"--The one you won't hear from the biotech companies or their fiercest opponents. He reveals for the first time the cutthroat scientific competition and backroom business deals that led to the first genetically engineered foods: Flavr Savr tomatoes, Roundup Ready soybeans, and insect-poisoning corn and cotton. And he exposes the secrets of campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic aimed at bringing down the biotech industry. It's a tale of scientific, business, and political intrigue, unfolded in stunning detail."--Jacket

biotech, big money, and the future of food

Acknowledgments -- Prologue -- First transformation -- Marching on Washington -- Everything was worth doing -- First useful gene : bacillus thuringiensis and its many inventors -- Gifts of God -- Genes that love poisons -- Triumphs of tinkering -- Forces in opposition -- Seed wars -- Tomato that ate calgene -- Tremors of anticipation -- Summers of triumph, summers of discord -- Power plays -- Backlash -- Wheels come off -- Deluge -- Global claims -- Perched on a precipice -- Infinite horizons -- Epilogue