Page 75 - Summer2015

All Thumbs Book Reviews

Altered Genes, Twisted Truth tional Academy of Sciences (NAS). It has gotten
Steven M. Druker to the point where anyone who questions the
Distributed by Chelsea Green Publishing wisdom of genetic engineering is quickly and
viciously labeled anti-science. Those who issue
This tome has received rave reviews from such statements seem not to notice the obvious
a number of luminaries, described as one of the hypocrisy. How dare you question our sacrosanct
most important books of the last fifty years, a scientific paradigm, you unwashed heathen?
compelling page-turner. I can’t promise this Science in the U.S. for the most part no longer
would be a page-turner for everyone but it does studies different views objectively but picks the
a fantastic job of clearing the fog surrounding one that suits the prevailing agenda and makes
the murky topic of genetic engineering. Druker the most money. The science card has been
gives a detailed blow-by-blow account of how played to the hilt. It has become a religion. The
GMO food has been foisted on the world as fore- NAS headquarters is referred to as the temple of
told in the book’s subtitle: “How the Venture to science.
Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Eisenhower made a well-known and
Science, Corrupted Government and Systemati- prescient statement about the dangers of the
cally Deceived the Public.” military-industrial complex. That was just part
One key to success in the approval of GMO of a larger, perhaps more important point. He
food is corruption at the FDA. Not only did the spoke of the rapidly increasing interconnection
agency ignore many of the scientific details, they between scientists and government, and the dan-
ignored the law. Contrary to popular belief, there ger that public policy would become if captive to
is no legal requirement for consumers, FDA, or a scientific-technological elite.
anyone else to prove new foods or additives are Druker details many arguments that reveal
dangerous. Rather, the producers of the new the insanity of genetic engineering. It is the tech-
Frankenfoods must prove that they are safe. That nological argument he makes toward the end of
has not even remotely been accomplished. One the book that I find most compelling.
of the favorite industry arguments is that genetic Most would agree that the analogy compar-
modification is not only safe but can’t be danger- ing DNA to computer software is about as good
ous. One of the first instances of genetic tinkering as we can do. I think most would also agree that Science in the
that was released for public consumption was comparing human-generated software to DNA U.S. for the
an L-tryptophan supplement. It was a disaster. code is like comparing a paper airplane to the most part no
People died. Others were made severely ill. starship Enterprise. The difference is actually
In another case, Germans developed a soil more extreme than that but that’s the best I can longer studies
bacterium called K. planticola that they hoped articulate. different
would increase ethanol production. When put Druker goes into some detail describing how views
to the test, all plants exposed to it died. Because software is developed, maintained and repaired.
K. planticola is involved in the root systems of As a computer engineer with much experience objectively
all plants and multiplies rapidly, some scientists in the field I can certify that he is right on. He but picks the
believe that its release into the wild could con- has done his homework well. Newbie software one that suits
ceivably wipe out all life on the planet. So much programmers are prone to writing what we call
for the claim of inherent safety of GMOs. spaghetti code. Spaghetti code is very unstruc- the prevailing
The Reagan era of relaxed regulation abet- tured, complicated and unreadable, even to the agenda and
ted GMO acceptance nearly everywhere in this person who wrote it. The code is so intercon- makes the
country. Industry also managed to win the favor nected and elaborate that even the tiniest change
of prestigious scientific institutions like the Na- can completely wreck it. most money.
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