Redesigning Life?: The Worldwide Challenge to Genetic Engineering

In today's world genetic engineering, animal cloning and new reproductive technologies are being promoted as the keys to a brighter future. But plenty of farmers, scientists, and concerned citizens disagree. Growing evidence shows that genetically engineered foods are hazardous to our health and the environment. Animal cloning and human genetic engineering raise troubling ethical questions. This book examines the hidden hazards, and controversy, of these new genetic technologies.

Scientists and activists offer many reasons why it might not be a good idea, and might well be a very bad idea, to mix and match genes in crops, livestock, and even people. Their arguments break down into two main categories: health, food, and the environment; medical genetics, science, and human rights; and patents, corporate power, and the theft of knowledge and resources. They also survey some of the movements to resist the economic and political interests pushing genetic engineering. Renowned Indian environmentalist and feminist Vandana Shiva contributes to three of the sections. Distributed in the US by Palgrave.

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Brian Tokar has been an activist since the 1970s, and is curently a faculty member at Goddard College and the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont.