OPINION/COMMENTARY

The Frankenfood Myth

Do the words "genetically modified," "GMO," or "bioengineered" evoke images of Greenpeace demonstrators pushing props of monstrous tomatoes and corn with teeth? Perhaps they bring to mind packages in the health food aisle or Eurocrats in Brussels, both righteously advertising freedom from this technological taint? These implicit claims, the result of a concerted publicity effort by regulators, activists, and even major agribusinesses, flatly contradict a vast body of scientific evidence. Henry I. Miller of Stanford's Hoover Institution and Gregory Conko of the Competitive Enterprise Institute make the case that foods modified by recombinant DNA splicing present no new or special dangers, but in fact may improve the lives of countless millions worldwide. The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution is a sound defense of this technology and a relentless, detailed critique of the antiscientific alliance that seeks to defeat it....