The Frankenfood Myth ─ How Protest And Politics Threaten The Biotech Revolution

Few topics have inspired as much international furor and misinformation as the development and distribution of genetically altered foods. For thousands of years, farmers have bred crops for their resistance to disease, productivity, and nutritional value; but only since the 1970s have advances in biotechnology (or gene-splicing to be more precise) upped the ante, with the promise of dramatically improved agricultural products--and public resistance far out of synch with the potential risks. In this provocative and meticulously researched book, Henry Miller and Gregory Conko trace the origins of gene-splicing, its applications, and the backlash from consumer groups and government agencies against so-called "Frankenfoods"--from America to Zimbabwe. They explain how a "happy conspiracy" of anti-technology activism, bureaucratic over-reach, and business lobbying has resulted in a regulatory framework in which there is an inverse relationship between the degree of product risk and degree of regulatory scrutiny. The net result is a combination of public confusion, political manipulation, ill-conceived regulation, and ultimately, the obstruction of one of the safest and most promising technologies ever developed. The authors go on to suggest a way to emerge from this morass, proposing a variety of business and policy reforms that can unlock the potential of this cutting-edge science, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and moving environmentally friendly products into the hands of farmers and consumers around the world.

HENRY I. MILLER, M.D., is a Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, where, since 1994, he has focused on the relationship between science and regulation, models for regulatory reform, and federal and international oversight of new advances in biotechnology. A physician and molecular biologist, he served for 17 years at the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He is the author or editor of six books, includingTo America's Health and Public Controversy in Biotechnology, as well as hundreds of articles in such publications asForbes, the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Policy Review, andNature Biotechnology.

GREGORY CONKO is Director of Food Safety Policy with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an interest group based in Washington, D.C. He is also co-founder and Vice President of the AgBioWorld Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides information to teachers, journalists, policymakers, and the general public about developments in plant science, biotechnology, and sustainable agriculture. His writings have appeared in scholarly journals, newspapers, and magazines, and he frequently participates in international conferences on food safety and trade.