The Mirage of Genetic Engineering
Publication: American Journal of Alternative Agriculture, Volume 17, Number 1, 2002, pp. 41-43.
Senior scientist Stan Cox and his daughter, Sheila, cut and bind wheat that he is breeding through traditional crosses and selection.
The extensive adoption of transgenic plants now underway has provoked heated debate about its effects on human health, rural life, and the environment. But too many critics are neglecting to zero in on transgenic technology’s Achilles heel: its inherent inability to deliver on its promises. Longstanding theory and practice predict, and growing evidence confirms, that transgenes cannot dramatically accelerate plant breeding, let alone revolutionize agriculture, save the family farm, or feed the world.