Lords Of The Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, And The Future Of Food - Softcover

Biotech companies are creating designer crops with strange powers-from cholesterol-reducing soybeans to tobacco plants that act as solar-powered pharmaceutical factories. They promise great benefits: better health for consumers and more productive agriculture. But the vision has a dark side. In Lords of the Harvest, Daniel Charles tells the real story behind "Frankenstein foods"-the story you won't hear from the biotech companies or their fiercest opponents. He reveals for the first time the cutthroat scientific competition and backroom business deals that led to the first genetically engineered foods. And he exposes the secrets of campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic aimed at bringing down the biotech industry. A riveting tale of boundless ambition, political intrigue, and the quest for knowledge, Lords of the Harvest is ultimately a story of idealism and conflicting dreams about the shape of a better world.

Science reporter Daniel Charles has been a technology correspondent for National Public Radio and the Washington correspondent for New Scientist. He lives in Washington, D.C.