Genetically Modified Planet: Environmental Impacts of Genetically Engineered Plants

by C. Neal Stewart Jr.

Overview

Genetically modified plants are currently causing controversy worldwide; a great deal has been written about their supposed environmental effects. However, the newspaper headlines and public debates often provide a level of reasoning akin to "this is your brain on genetically modified corn," which is to say, they exclude or exaggerate the actual scientific research on the impacts of these plants. Genetically Modified Planet goes beyond the rhetoric to investigate for concerned consumers the actual state of scientific research on genetically modified plants. Stewart argues that while there are indeed real and potential risks of growing engineered crops, there are also real and overwhelmingly positive environmental benefits.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199882700
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/19/2004
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

University of Tennessee

Table of Contents

1.	Introduction: Catastrophic Calamities and Clucking Cacophonies	3
2.	Crops and Weeds: It's Hard to Be a Wild Thing When You're Domesticated	11
3.	Plant Biotechnology: The Magic of Making GM Plants	23
4.	Gene Flow: It's a Weed, It's a Transgene, It's Superweed!	39
5.	Contamination: Transgenes in Mexican Corn?	73
6.	Killer Corn: Monarch Butterfly Exterminators?	87
7.	Better Living through Biology: Not Killing the Good Insects by Accident	109
8.	Bt Resistance Management: Getting Off the Treadmill	129
9.	Swap Meet from Heck: Trading Sequences between Viruses and Transgenes	143
10.	Superweeds Revisited: Tall Stacks of Transgenes and Waffling Gene Flow	153
11.	Green and Greener: Environmentalism, Agriculture, and GM Plants	173
12.	Futurama: Greenetic Engineering for a Greener Tomorrow	195
13.	Conclusion: Out of Right Field and into Home	213
	References	225
	Index	237