Genetically Modified Planet: Environmental Impacts of Genetically Engineered Plants

C. Neal Stewart Jr.9780195157451, 0-19-515745-1

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.

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Table of contents :
Contents……Page 10
1. Introduction: Catastrophic Calamities and Clucking Cacophonies……Page 14
2. Crops and Weeds: It’s Hard to Be a Wild Thing When You’re Domesticated……Page 22
3. Plant Biotechnology: The Magic of Making GM Plants……Page 34
4. Gene Flow: It’s a Weed, It’s a Transgene, It’s Superweed!……Page 50
5. Contamination: Transgenes in Mexican Corn?……Page 84
6. Killer Corn: Monarch Butterfly Exterminators?……Page 98
7. Better Living through Biology: Not Killing the Good Insects by Accident……Page 120
8. Bt Resistance Management: Getting Off the Treadmill……Page 140
9. Swap Meet from Heck: Trading Sequences between Viruses and Transgenes……Page 154
10. Superweeds Revisited: Tall Stacks of Transgenes and Waffling Gene Flow……Page 164
11. Green and Greener: Environmentalism, Agriculture, and GM Plants……Page 184
12. Futurama: Greenetic Engineering for a Greener Tomorrow……Page 206
13. Conclusion: Out of Right Field and into Home……Page 224
References……Page 236
B……Page 248
G……Page 249
P……Page 250
W……Page 251