Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods by Nina V. Fedoroff

Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods Reviews

• 
  Sarah

  This might have been better for a non-scientist, because it was pretty basic and only superficially covered the issues of GMOs. The argument was more "this is how we feed people" and less "these are the consequences." When potentially negative impacts were considered, some were quickly dismissed because "they could happen, but they haven't." Other impacts were, again, a little superficial. The last couple of chapters (the "future directions" section) were okay but not as great a discussion as I would have liked.
• 
  Brandt Kurowski

  Consider this a textbook for understanding modern agriculture (where "modern" spans the last several hundred, nay, thousand years). Beginning with a fascinating narrative describing the rich interplay between humans and our crops, from selective breeding to grafting to hybridization to somaclonal variation to mutagenesis to genetic engineering, this book establishes a richly detailed history in which to understand the context of transgenic organisms.
  
  Next up is a tour of the evolution and internal workings of bacteria, plants, and mammals, which will serve as a refresher course for anyone who studied biology and o-chem in college. Then it dives into modern genetic techniques from gel electrophoresis to PCR to recombinant plasmids and promoters and post-transcriptional gene silencing. This whirlwind tour is brief enough to remain interesting, but detailed enough to give the reader a solid grasp on the exact changes that genetic engineering has on plant DNA, and ultimately the expression of that DNA in the plant itself.
  
  Finally a series of chapters examines the regulatory environment for genetically engineered foods and the public backlash against them, including a particularly enlightening chapter on organic farming. Rather than taking a blindly pro-GMO stance or bashing more traditional methods of agriculture, this book examines the environmental, economic, and human impacts of a variety of aspects of a variety of agricultural practices. Above all else, the book continues to make the point that different techniques are more or less appropriate for specific contexts, and that in our modern age of booming populations, continued poverty in developing nations, environmental pollution, climate change, and increasing encroachment of human development on wild lands, we no longer have the luxury of ignoring the large scale consequences of our agricultural practices.
  
  If you care at all about where your food comes from and how your consumption affects the planet, this is fascinating stuff. I cannot recommend this book highly enough, it's easily the most important book I've read in the last 15 years since graduating college.
• 
  Nancy

  Genetic engineering from the point of view of someone who approves of it. It's a book to start looking at the arguments for GMO foods. But a little biased. Which would make my friend who works for Monsanto happy.
• 
  Danielle

  This is one of the few books that went back to where it came from - the library. This was just a little too hardcore science for me to finish. Sorry!
• 
  Cindy

  Many people view genetically modified food with suspicion. 'I would never eat that stuff,' you might say. But if you live in the United States and have eaten apples, wheat, corn, potatoes, soy products, sweet potatoes, or papaya, you might just have eaten genetically modified food (GM food) without knowing it.
  
  My mom and I had a discussion about GM food after I forwarded her this mailing I got from an organic food site. Did I realize, she asked, that strictly speaking, any hybrid food is genetically modified? That would include almost every apple grown in this country. Enjoy a Golden Delicious or a Macintosh? Try planting the seeds. What results will be nothing like the apple it came from. That's because most apple trees are created by grafting several varieties together. This has been going on for 200 years, and in that time, people have eaten a lot of apples.
  
  But most people, when they think of GM food, think of the so-called Frankenfoods - the tomato with a fish gene in it, designed to help it withstand the cold. And yet, few of us outside the genetic research community really know or understand the process by which such a tomato is created. This book by Nina Fedoroff takes the reader step by step through the process of creating such a seed. She also answers the challenges of the opponents of such food with hard science, explaining why many of their complaints simply do not make sense.
  
  Fedoroff, a leading geneticist and molecular biologist, makes a strong argument for the future of agriculture. I, like many consumers, thought that local, organic produce is the ideal kind of food. I still think that buying local whenever possible is a great way to help the environment and get the freshest, best tasting produce at the same time. But as Fedoroff points out, if every farmer switched to strictly organic farming methods, we would need another 2 or 3 planets just to feed the current population, to say nothing of projected population growth. And that would be cultivating every single arable acre of land, including those currently reserved for wildlife, the entire rainforest, and many other wildlife habitats. Organic farming simply can't come close to providing enough food for our planet.
  
  So is GM food the answer? I have to admit that I'm coming around to her way of thinking. Scientist have developed some of these crops especially to solve nutritional problems. The book opens with Swiss scientist Ingo Potrykus coming up with a rice that contains a gene from a flower which contains the code for making beta carotene. The rice, Golden Rice, would be a simple way for even the poorest people to avoid the results of Vitamin A Deficiency, including blindness.
  
  Potrykus wasn't hoping for fame, exactly, or fortune. He just wanted to help. Instead, he was vilified. Protesters went crazy. The term 'Frankenfood' was first used to describe this rice. Potrykus was at a loss. This was still rice. And today, 35 years after he started his research, not a single field anywhere in the world is growing Golden Rice. And Vitamin A Deficiency continues to cause blindness in third world countries.
  
  I am not a scientist, so I would have a hard time putting Fedoroff's words into my own. And even other scientists still don't all agree with genetic modification. But she tackles their arguments, one a time, quoting other geneticists and plant breeders. I could go on and on, but there's not enough room.
  
  Will I buy GM food in the future? Yes. I do admit I still feel a little uneasy about irradiated produce, such as strawberries, but in reality, such strawberries are safer than the produce in the recent E. Coli scare.
  
  My only complaint about the book is that the illustrations and diagrams provided were a little too technical for me to understand. And I could have really used a glossary. Still, I didn't have too much trouble following along, even if I occasionally had to reread a paragraph once in a while.
  
  In short, I have to thank my mom. If we hadn't had that discussion, I would not have noticed this book at the library. Now that I am a more informed consumer, I feel like I can make some better choices for my family. Highly recommended book for any American consumer.
• 
  Jess Laratonda

  Biased, Pro-GMO. The many problems with GM foods are overlooked. These crops are currently created & used for reasons that are harmful and unethical, such as to be able to patent staple crops to monopolize profits, and to create crops that withstand more drastic chemical dowsing & increase herbicide and pesticide sales. This book is obviously in favor of GM foods but does not address these problems in their entirety. It's easy to ignore the problems and just go on with your life eating whatever is on the grocery store shelf or fed to you at a restaurant. The process of genetically modifiying an organism requires the joining of genes with genes of viruses to invade the cells. I don't know how this could be considered safe, especially after all of the tests that have shown infertility and cancer in laboratory animals. Also, if GM crops are so standard, why are they banned in almost all European countries?
• 
  Samantha

  This is really quite interesting and a good read for those of you who are sceptical and not exactly sure about GM foods. Nina Fedoroff does a splendid job of communicating to a general audience (which is to say she isn't writing to geneticists but to the general public) about the history of our food concerning cross breeding and selection and genetic modification.
  I never finished because I wasn't particularly engaged at the time. But would like to again at some point.
• 
  Vance

  A very informative discussion around the mechanics of biotechnology and genetically modified organisms (GMO). I received a needed education and have amended my opinion of efforts in this milieu, without embracing this avenue as our one and only savior. This would have been more convincing without bias in the opposite direction, though the arguments are well presented.
  
  What astonishes me most is how attitudes against GMO's remain antagonistic --- reading this book fifteen years after publication, I started with the same prejudices the author was battling way back then...and I do not get the sense things have changed much. In fact, I visited a web site on "Golden Rice" which was referenced in the notes at the end of the book and see it is still struggling to gain government blessings.
  
  The biggest takeaway was my own foolishness at accepting negative hype without attempting to validate it. Though friends deem me an environmentalist, "Mendel in the Kitchen" makes me much more comfortable with applying science in nature --- the two do not have to be opponents.
• 
  Leanna Aker

  Powerful book that people really need to read. Gives numerous examples that demonstrate how blurry the line is between "traditional," "natural" methods of increasing crop production, yield, taste, and viability and those methods that are considered "unnatural," such as genetic modification and irradiation. Like most arguments in society right now, people find a side and dig in. The most cogent arguments in this book were for a marriage of the best parts of organic agriculture and genetic modification. Would be 5 stars, but the language got very technical in places. I have a biology degree, so I didn't mind, but I think for the layperson, those sections get really bogged down.
• 
  Amanda

  Well researched and easier for the layman to grasp than many books about genetically modified foods. They do a very good job citing examples to back up their points. However, this book is older and barely touches on more modern gene editing technologies and the possibilities and drawbacks to these methods.
• 
  Nik Conwell

  Highly recommended, good fresh look at some of the genetic engineering issues we have been grappling with today.
• 
  Bram

  Quite insightful & not overly tendentious.
• 
  Ayla

  It got a rating of 2 because I saw no fault in the writing. I found that this book had a lot of facts but they were biased to show Monsanto as a promoter of seeds that would be resistant to pest and herbicides. It made no mention of the suits put out by Monsanto on farmers whose crops had been cross-pollinated by nearby GMO fields, nor of their terminator seeds seed that would not be able to germinate forcing farmers to buy the seeds yearly. These crops also came with the need to buy fertilizer conveniently also marketed by Monsanto as in its highly publicized Roundup. Nor does it address the issue of mono-culture and the lost of heritage and diverse seeds. We are at risk of losing these varieties of seeds that could literally as foreseen in "Interstellar" leave us with blights that could wipe out our food crops. It use of herbicides has shown to produce "super-weeds" and their solution is to produce another toxin to eliminate it, meanwhile our environment and water is being more and more polluted with the run off from these toxins. When she says that these toxins only work on plants she negates the fact that we are essentially bacteria which often is effected by these toxins. Is Monsanto the only producer of genetically engineered plants? Because it seems that its the only name company I came across in numerous pages, almost as if she was trying to make them look better than what the press and anti-gmo advocates claim. She quotes a lot of figures and statistics that most of the common laymen would skim over. I have no problem with traditional farming with grafting, and cross breeding of genetically similar species. I am a proponent for organic farming and pasture fed animals. I read this book because in “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth: How the Venture to Genetically Engineer Our Food Has Subverted Science, Corrupted Government, and Systematically Deceived the Public,” by Steven M Druker, he mentioned this as a proponent book written in favor of GMO. The fact is that organic foods have less risk of pesticides and by eating a diverse diet eliminating highly processed foods containing corn, wheat, soy, and high fructose corn syrup, which are mainly GMO crops, you will be healthier. Getting away from feedlot cattle which are fed grains(GMO) that cause them to need anti-biotics ( which over 80 percent of anti-biotics produced in the US goes to animals raised for food). Cattle have 4 stomachs meant for digesting cellulose material as in grass, grains cause increase of acids leading to indigestion and gastro issues. We can get better nutrition by avoiding wheat,corn ,soy and high fructose corn syrup, and filling our plates with a variety of vegetables and some fruits.
• 
  J.P.

  I got this book because I wanted to understand the science & facts behind GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) as opposed to going off of hearsay. It has become a polarizing issue & I wanted to understand why. As with most things, I think it is because people fear what they don't understand & the general scientific illiteracy of the general public. It is a complex subject & a basic understanding of biology & chemistry would go a long way towards understanding the facts provided.
  
  The history of discoveries that led to the biotechnology that makes this possible is detailed enough. There is also some history of agriculture & how the techniques humans have used for thousands of years have also led to us altering our foods. Biotechnology simply speeds up the process of something that could otherwise take hundreds of years to get the desired results. That is time we do not have to waste due to population concerns & the lack of land that can be used for farming that isn't already being use to do so.
  
  Humans have been tinkering with the genes of our foods for as long as agriculture has been around. Being given the details of how certain crops have been modified along with the understanding of chemical reactions goes a long way towards understanding why most of the fears of this technology is unwarranted. In addition to understanding that, the harm that is being done to people in countries that have to deal with food insecurity is made clear towards the end of the book due to propaganda, misinformation & misunderstandings. It causes some countries to reject the food for fear that it isn't safe or even if they did want to accept the food it would cripple them economically if they are connected to the European Union, which would only make their already unstable situation worse.
  
  It gives an honest account, detailing not just the success that has come with the development of this technology but also the failures. While it doesn't go about attacking the opposing view point by point, the demonstration of the facts make it unnecessary as once it is clear how things work it is hard to argue against it. I would recommend this book to anyone with questions about GMO's, how they have are developed, how they have are used and to demonstrate why the fear is unwarranted.
• 
  Gina Rheault

  This is the pro-GMO scientist point of view, which is an honest perspective. It places GMO as nothing more than a successor technique to things like irradiation and chemical blasting that are used to induce random mutation in traditional plant breeding. The argument is that in rejecting GMO mindlessly, you are throwing away 'good' GMO, like the modified papaya that saved the Hawaiian papaya industry or vitamin-enriched rice. The author breaks down the chemistry of food to argue that no modification at the gene level can be harmful, and shows that government product testing safeguards used on GMO breeding are much more stringent than on arguably more brutal, traditional plant breeding.
  
  What is missing is the factoid that GMO is used almost exclusively in corn, soy, wheat and cotton monoculture. No mention is made of sustainablity of monoculture, its dependence on herbicides, pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers. And thus no answer to Michael Pollans description of GMO today as "a bandaid on monoculture". As for super-weeds, and super-bugs, well the answer is more GMO, and so on.
  
  I liked this book because it allowed me to grasp the underlying technology, and thus to think intelligently about food safety and ecological safety. I did not buy its arguments wholesale because it did not do much to address GMO as a bandaid on a real gusher of a problem: mindless mono-culture.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Sage Livingstone

  This book was a great read, packed with information instead of action. It helped me to understand how and why genetically modified organisms are created. It also taught me how GMOs are made from seed, as well as how that seed was changed. The whole thing was very confusing at first, but it got easier to understand as Nina Fedoroff, the author, went more into depth about the process if genetically modified organisms. The importance of GMOs was highlighted in nearly every section and the author also worked to prove the legitimacy of altered plants. Some of the most common complaints against GMOs were countered by Fedoroff with a large amount of scientific evidence. There was no arguing with her. I really liked the book because of all this evidence and information on a topic I am interested in. However, there was also a lot of vocabulary and concepts that I couldn't quite grasp because of my limited knowledge, so I didn't like it because of the complexity.
• 
  Nici Mccrary

  This book does an amazing job of explaining all the reasons why genetically modified organisms are not the problem but hold all the potential to be the solution to saving the environment and helping people across the world become more food secure. It explains how greed and economics is getting in the way of true change and sustainable practices that will better every single person on the planet's quality and existence of life. It was a science intensive read in some places but thankfully I have a bio degree, so a lay person or someone who doesn't have time to look things up a little bit would probably find this a very difficult read but I promise you if you have any opinions about genetically modified organisms from social media BS you should really consider reading this just so you know what you're talking about. It also speaks a lot about Monsanto and the Missouri botanical gardens which are very relevant to a St. Louisan such as myself.
• 
  Jen

  I don't know why I'm attracted to books that are difficult to read lately, but I did enjoy this book although I felt like I had to have my highlighter out again, cramming for another bio test for the next day.
  
  I learned that not all Frankenfood is really chemically altered (i.e. zapped with radiation or some other hazardous chemicals). I found out that most all of our food that people have been cultivating and harvesting for thousands of years has actually been genetically modified by cross-breeding just so we can eat it.
  
  I also found out that pigs really got great food in the middle ages - tomatoes and potatoes - before people found out how good those veggies and fruits really are. Lucky pigs.
• 
  Lance

  With an Internet stuffed to the brim with misinformation and outright lies about GMO's in our food, this book is like a bubble of oxygen In a sea of hydrogen. Written for the general reader (although a few parts are technical), it relates the history of genetic modification to food (which goes back, oh, to the first person to grow food), and provides REAL answers to the questions that the public has about them. It's almost the ONLY book on the subject that isn't academic or expensive, which is a real failing of the scientists involved. If only they would have done more to educate the public in the early years, we might not be dealing with all the pseudoscientific nonsense surrounding this issue today.
  
• 
  Travis

  Fantastic! Informative, reasonable, fair, fascinating. This (or other similar books) should be mandatory reading before voting on GMO issues.
  
  The early chapters are heavier on the details of genetic engineering; great if you're interested, but perhaps not as relevant for the average consumer/voter. The later chapters are where the book really shines; they're organized around key topics (are GMOs safe to eat? will they "contaminate" nature? are they compatible with growing food organically? ...sustainably?), and can almost each be read as independent essays. If the early chapters are providing to much biochemical detail for you, skip ahead to 7 (how are GMOs regulated?) or 8 (are they safe to eat?) and continue from there.
• 
  Kyle O'Shields

  This book addresses the subject in a way that's accessible to people with little formal training in the subject, but is also detailed enough to give an accurate portrayal of where the concepts and research stands (at the time of the writing of the book. As the book is more than ten years old, some of the information is slightly dated and some developments that have happened since the book's publication are obviously not included). I found it a thoroughly enjoyable read and would recommend it to someone who is relatively unfamiliar with and uninformed about the subject.
• 
  Joanna Mounce

  I really liked this book, and I would give it 4 or 5 stars for its ability to hold my interest while still being quite technical. However, I got the feeling while reading that I was only getting half the story from the author. I am very pro-GMO/pro-biotech, but the way she presents the evidence is clearly very one-sided, and I felt like I had to constantly look up the "real" stories while reading.
• 
  Lauren

  This is not a book to change minds. This is a detailed analysis of the science and reality of GM and GMOs. It is dense and heavy and intricate. No one who doesn't understand GMOs would concede to read this, and people who already understand don't need to. That said, probably everyone should read it: to confront their own errors or confirm their own understandings.
• 
  Callee

  Very informative. The first 7 chapters were hard to get through. A lot of science and background information. I should have started with chapter 8. That is where it really starts to pick up. Written for those without a lot of scientific knowledge, detailed. I finally know some of the pesticides ok'd for organic farming. For anyone interested in the GM debate.
• 
  Mitch Allen

  An excellent introduction to plant genetics engineering. Clearly presented by an advocate, the book is nonetheless a balanced presentation of the history, practices and state-of-the-art in plant genetics, and a thorough review of policies and issues.
• 
  Beth Bennett

  great overview of GM foods from a science perspective but also a great history of plant breeding and development of cultivars; some really scary tools like massive mutation by radiation and chemo- that should make people who are scared of GM reconsider.
• 
  Kevin

  A very scientific-oriented view on genetically engineered foods