By Christine Thomas


FOOD FRAY: Inside the Controversy over Genetically Modified Food. Lisa H.
Weasel. Amacom. 234 pages. $23.


We may not realize it, but our country has been awash in genetically
modified foods and products for more than a decade. In 2008 alone, Food Fray
author Lisa Weasel enlightens us, ``80 percent of all corn, 86 percent of
all cotton, and 92 percent of all soybeans grown in the United States were
GM varieties.''

Yet more than half of Americans still believe they've never eaten GM foods,
and corporations and interest groups continually justify their pro-GM stance
by asserting that consumers just don't care. This frightening misconception
drove renowned scientist Weasel's research into the GM food issue, funded by
a National Science Foundation grant and presented in this vital and readable
narrative.

What Weasel determined is that we absolutely do care; we simply don't know
what's happening.

''At best,'' she writes, ``a smokescreen of ignorance and uncertainty cloaks
the topic of GM food for most Americans.''

Planning to focus primarily on science and ethics, Weasel soon discovered
that the issue's inextricable intersection with politics couldn't be denied.
So Food Fray isn't the pure science book she envisioned. Instead it takes a
complex and charged issue shrouded in secrecy and pushes back the curtains,
as Weasel calmly and clearly explains the science, breaks down complicated
processes in digestible bites and examines history and background events
that led us to this point.

Thus Food Fray's canvas is broad, encompassing GM's roots in the U.S.
scientific community, including the first homegrown warnings against it in
the 1970s; crucial differences from the Green Revolution; the underpinnings
of Europe's staunch opposition; Zambia's refusal of U.S. GM food aid during
the 2002 food crisis; India, where GM crops are arguably doomed since they
aren't drought-resistant, and the current widespread refusal of the United
States to use dairy products with Monsanto's rGBH, a growth hormone that
enables cows to produce more milk.

Peppered throughout is the ubiquitous name Monsanto, a Cold War chemical
warfare manufacturer turned biotech innovator and GM superpower. As each
debate point is elucidated, the public relations campaign asserted by such
companies as Monsanto and even George W. Bush that GM foods will help solve
world hunger is revealed to be a gross overstatement at best and at worst an
outright lie. Likewise, the claim that GM foods are healthy to eat is as
unfounded as the counter-argument that they aren't healthy, while the
''We've eaten it, and nothing has happened to us'' argument many pro-GM
scientists offer is underscored as a most unscientific reassurance.

A riveting and disturbing reality check, Food Fray is a crucial reminder
that it's time to be informed, not passive. Weasel's is a compelling voice
affirming that the desire to know more about GM foods before eating them and
to allay concerns about safety and environmental impacts, isn't at all
anti-science. It's a decidedly pro-human stance.

Christine Thomas is a writer in Hawaii.
www.checkbiotech.org