Creating a monster

Taking the Scare Out of Biotech Crops
The author of a new book on the 'Frankenfood Myth' argues that excess regulation of genetically modified food unnecessarily frightens the public and impedes research. (Technology Review)

In the late 1990s, political scientist Gregory Conko had been studying food and pharmaceutical regulation as a fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, and noticed the rising concerns in the European Union over genetically modification of crop plants. “I saw this was an issue that was getting much bigger and that it would likely also become a bigger issue in the United States,” he says. So he began shifting his focus almost exclusively to examining issues of the regulation of genetically engineered foods. Last month, Conko and Henry I. Miller, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, published (Praeger Publishers), a book that examines some of what they say are the major misunderstandings about agricultural biotechnology. More here

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