NOTES

Prologue

Tom Brokaw said the tomato: Michael Winerip, “You Call That a Tomato?” New York Times, June 24, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/booming/you-call-that-a-tomato.html?smid=tw-share&_r=1.

Genetically modified wheat: Philip Jones, “While Popularity Eludes GE Foods, AgBiotech Companies Shift Tactics,” Information Systems for Biotechnology (May 2014), http://www.isb.vt.edu/news/2014/May/Jones.pdf.

In fact, just one-half: Anne Weir Schechinger, “Feeding the World: Think U.S. Agriculture Will End World Hunger? Think Again,” Environmental Working Group, October 5, 2016, http://www.ewg.org/research/feeding-the-world.

This trend has given rise: “Global Agrochemicals Industry 2014–2019: Trend, Profit and Forecast Analysis,” PR NewsWire (May 26, 2015), http://www.thestreet.com/story/12911088/1/global-agrochemical-industry-2014-2019-trends-profits-and-forecast-analysis.html; Marie-Monique Robin, The World According to Monsanto: Pollution, Corruption and the Control of Our Food Supply (New York: The New Press, 2010), 5; “Pesticides in Paradise: Hawaii’s Health and Environment at Risk,” Hawaii Center for Food Safety (May 2015), http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/pesticidereportfull_86476.pdf.

The World Health Organization recently declared glyphosate: Lizzie Dearden, “One of World’s Most Used Weedkillers ‘Possibly’ Causes Cancer, World Health Organization Says,” Independent, June 23, 2015, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/one-of-worlds-most-used-weedkillers-possibly-causes-cancer-world-health-organisation-says-10338363.html.

In a nod to anxious mothers: Oliver Nieburg, “Hershey’s Milk Chocolate and Kisses to Go Non-GM,” Confectionary News, March 2, 2015, http://www.confectionerynews.com/Ingredients/Hershey-in-non-GMO-and-no-high-fructose-corn-syrup-pledge?utm_source=AddThis_twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=SocialMedia#.VPYk_vvu—s.twitter.

Cheerios are made mostly of oats: “Great-Granddaughter of General Mills Founder Urges Company to Stop Using GMOs,” Friends of the Earth, Oct. 1, 2014, http://www.foe.org/news/archives/2014-10-great-granddaughter-of-general-mills-founder-urges-c. General Mills’ position did not sit well with Harriet Crosby, an heir to the company fortune, who wrote to its board urging that the company stop using GMOs altogether. GMOs “are only good for big biotech companies like Monsanto that sell both the genetically engineered seeds and the pesticides they are designed to tolerate,” Crosby wrote. “The promises of biotechnology are yet unrealized, especially the erroneous claim that they require fewer pesticides. Just the opposite is true. I believe that General Mills can become an even better, more profitable company by taking global leadership in producing healthy, wholesome, good food without GMOs.”

In early 2015, thousands of Polish farmers: Sophie McAdam, “Anti-GMO Protests Rock Poland as Farmers Demand Food Sovereignty Rights,” True Activist, March 4, 2015, http://www.trueactivist.com/anti-gmo-protests-rock-poland-as-farmers-demand-food-sovereignty-rights/.

Chapter 1

These techniques are no more risky: B. S. Ahloowalia, M. Maluszynski, and K. Nichterlein, “Global Impact of Mutation-Derived Varieties,” Euphytica 135, no. 2 (April 2014): 187–204; Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 89.

There is truth on both sides of this debate: Tamar Haspel, “Genetically Modified Foods: What Is and Isn’t True,” Washington Post, October 15, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/genetically-modified-foods-what-is-and-isnt-true/2013/10/15/40e4fd58-3132-11e3-8627-c5d7de0a046b_story.html; Tamar Haspel, “The GMO Debate: Five Things to Stop Arguing,” Washington Post, October 27, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/the-gmo-debate-5-things-to-stop-arguing/2014/10/27/e82bbc10-5a3e-11e4-b812-38518ae74c67_story.html. For more on Earth Open Source, see http://earthopensource.org. For more on “GMO Answers,” see http://GMOAnswers.com.

“The quest for greater certainty”: Nathanael Johnson, “The Genetically Modified Food Debate: Where Do We Begin?” Grist, July 8, 2013, http://grist.org/food/the-genetically-modified-food-debate-where-do-we-begin/.

“no adverse health effects attributed to genetic engineering”: National Research Council and Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods: Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2004), http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=10977&page=8.

“Contrary to popular misconceptions”: American Academy for the Advancement of Science Board of Directors, “AAAS: Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods,” October 20, 2012, http://archives.aaas.org/docs/resolutions.php?doc_id=464.

“have passed risk assessments in several countries”: World Health Organization, “WHO Answers Questions on Genetically Modified Food,” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/notes/np5/en/.

“There is no more risk in eating GMO food”: Jeremy Fleming, scientific adviser to the European Commission, “No Risk With GMO Food, Says EY Chief,” EurActive.com, July 24, 2012, http://www.euractiv.com/section/science-policymaking/news/no-risk-with-gmo-food-says-eu-chief-scientific-advisor/.

A recent meta-analysis of studies: A. L. Van Eenennaam and A. E. Young, “Prevalence and Impacts of Genetically Engineered Feedstuffs on Livestock Populations,” Journal of Animal Science 92, no. 10 (May 28, 2014).

“we all know what can happen”: John Vandermeer, “Discovering Science,” FoodFirst.org, January 8, 2013, http://www.gmwatch.org/news/archive/2013/14571-professor-john-vandermeer-challenges-lynas-on-gmos.

a short-term (thirty-one-day) study: Maria Walsh et al., “Effects of Short-Term Feeding of Bt MON810 Maize on Growth Performance, Organ Morphology and Function in Pigs,” British Journal of Nutrition 107 (2012): 364–371, http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FBJN%2FBJN107_03%2FS0007114511003011a.pdf&code=c23ec46ee6bbe8ab3592b187924f0996.

A two-year study of pigs: Judy Carman et al., “A Long-Term Toxicology Study on Pigs Fed a Combined Genetically Modified (GM) Soy and GM Maize Diet,” Journal of Organic Systems 8, no. 1 (2013): 38–54, http://www.organic-systems.org/journal/81/8106.pdf; Judy Carman, “Evidence of GMO Harm in Pig Study,” GMO Judy Carman, June 5, 2013, http://gmojudycarman.org/new-study-shows-that-animals-are-seriously-harmed-by-gm-feed.

Huerta’s skepticism is well founded: See, for instance, Claire Hope Cummings, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds (Boston: Beacon Press, 2008), 41. See also Richard Lacey’s testimony in Alliance for Bio-Integrity et al. v. Donna Shalala et al., U.S. District Court, Civil Action No. 98-1300 (CKK), May 28, 1998, http://www.saynotogmos.org/scientists_speak.htm.

residues of the compound routinely show up in British bread: Arthur Neslen, “EU Scientists in Row over Safety of Glyphosate Weedkiller,” Guardian, January 13, 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/13/eu-scientists-in-row-over-safety-of-glyphosate-weedkiller.

A study by David Mortensen: Natasha Gilbert, “Case Studies: A Hard Look at GMO Crops,” Nature 497, no. 7447 (May 1, 2013): 24–26, http://www.nature.com/news/case-studies-a-hard-look-at-gm-crops-1.12907.

a recent report by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment: “The BfR Has Finalised Its Draft Report for the Re-evaluation of Glyphosate,” Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung, http://www.bfr.bund.de/en/the_bfr_has_finalised_its_draft_report_for_the_re_evaluation_of_glyphosate-188632.html.

President George H. W. Bush appointed: Robin, The World According to Monsanto, 187.

During the Obama administration: Isabella Kenfield, “Michael Taylor: Monsanto’s Man in the Obama Administration,” Organic Consumers Association, August 14, 2009, https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/michael-taylor-monsantos-man-obama-administration; Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, “98 Organizations Oppose Obama’s Monsanto Man, Islam Siddiqui, for US Agricultural Trade Representative,” Organic Consumers Association, February 22, 2010, https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/98-organizations-oppose-obamas-monsanto-man-islam-siddiqui-us-agricultural-trade-representative.

“From the 1940s to the dawn”: E. G. Vallianatos with McKay Jenkins, Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), ix.

the debate over the safety of farm chemicals: Dearden, “One of World’s Most Used Weedkillers ‘Possibly’ Causes Cancer.”

The net result?: Wilhelm Klumper and Matin Qaim, “A Meta-Analysis of the Impacts of Genetically Modified Crops,” PLoS ONE 9, no. 11 (November 2014): e111629, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111629; Charles Benbrook, “Impacts of Genetically Engineered Crops on Pesticide Use in the US—The First Sixteen Years,” Environmental Sciences Europe 24 (2012), doi:10.1186/2190-4715-24-24.

“The majority of food”: David Pimentel, “Environmental and Economic Costs of the Application of Pesticides Primarily in the United States,” Environment, Development and Sustainability (2005) 7:229–252.

of the six hundred pesticides now in use: Vallianatos with Jenkins, Poison Spring, 29.

And those numbers tabulate just: David Pimentel et al., “Assessment of Environmental and Economic Impacts of Pesticide Use,” in David Pimentel and Hugh Lehman, eds., The Pesticide Question: Environment, Economics and Ethics (New York: Chapman & Hall, 1993), 51.

Some scientists wonder: Anthony Samsel and Stephani Seneff, “Glyphosate, Pathways to Modern Diseases II: Celiac Sprue and Gluten Intolerance,” Interdisciplinary Toxicology 6, no. 4 (December 2013): 159–184, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3945755/; Anthony Samsel and Stephanie Seneff, “Glyphosate, Pathways to Modern Diseases III: Manganese, Neurological Diseases, and Associated Pathologies,” Surgical Neurology International 6 (March 24, 2015), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4392553/.

This, then, is not a question: Nancy L. Swanson, André Leu, Jon Abrahamson, and Bradley Wallet, “Genetically Engineered Crops, Glyphosate and the Deterioration of Health in the United States of America,” Journal of Organic Systems 9, no. 2 (2014), http://www.organic-systems.org/journal/92/JOS_Volume-9_Number-2_Nov_2014-Swanson-et-al.pdf.

“It got to the point where some farmers”: Quoted in Gilbert, “Case Studies: A Hard Look at GMO Crops,” http://www.nature.com/news/case-studies-a-hard-look-at-gm-crops-1.12907.

The EPA’s recent decision: Philip J. Landrigan and Charles Benbrook, “GMOs, Herbicides, and Public Health,” New England Journal of Medicine 373 (August 20, 2015): 693–695, doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1505660.

Relying on the seed and chemical companies: McKay Jenkins, “Coming Soon: Major GMO Study (Shhh, It Will Be Done in Secret by Russians),” Huffington Post, December 18, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mckay-jenkins-phd/coming-soon-major-gmo-stu_b_6344812.html.

In 1996, the German division: Diahanna Lynch and David Vogel, “The Regulation of GMOs in Europe and the United States: A Case Study of Contemporary European Regulatory Politics,” Council on Foreign Relations Press, April 5, 2001, http://www.cfr.org/agricultural-policy/regulation-gmos-europe-united-states-case-study-contemporary-european-regulatory-politics/p8688.

“GMOs are dead”: Peter Pringle, Food Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto—The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 16.

More recently, nineteen members: “Majority of EU Nations Seek Opt-Out from Growing GMO Crops,” Reuters, October 4, 2015, http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/04/eu-gmo-opt-out-idUSL6N0M01F620151004#qT5acaZpFMvUoIzp.97.

“The GMO issue is something”: Stephanie Strom, “FDA Takes Issue with the Term ‘Non-GMO,’” New York Times, November 21, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/21/business/fda-takes-issue-with-the-term-non-gmo.html.

Companies have responded aggressively: Eric Lipton, “Food Industry Enlisted Academics in GMO Lobbying War, Emails Show,” New York Times, September 5, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html?_r=0; Jacob Bunge, “Monsanto CEO: ‘We Need to Do More,’” Wall Street Journal, January 28, 2014, http://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2014/01/28/monsanto-ceo-we-need-to-do-more-to-win-gmo-debate/.

The story repeated itself: Molly Ball, “Want to Know If Your Food Is Genetically Modified?” Atlantic, May 14, 2014, http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/want-to-know-if-your-food-is-genetically-modified/370812/.

Almost 90 percent of scientists: Cary Funk and Lee Rainie, “Public and Scientists’ Views on Science and Society,” Pew Research Center, January 29, 2015, http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/.

recent Nielsen study . . . “There’s no doubt that the industry”: Stephanie Strom, “Many GMO-Free Labels, Little Clarity over Rules,” New York Times, January 30, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/business/gmo-labels-for-food-are-in-high-demand-but-provide-little-certainty.html.

“The sad truth is many”: “GMOs and Your Family,” Non-GMO Project, http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/gmos-and-your-family/.

The Non-GMO Project: Strom, “FDA Takes Issue with the Term ‘Non-GMO.’”

Pro-labeling groups: Ronni Cummins, “‘QR’ Barcodes: The Latest Plot to Keep You in the Dark About GMOs,” Organic Consumers Association, October 28, 2015, https://www.organicconsumers.org/essays/%E2%80%98qr%E2%80%99-barcodes-latest-plot-keep-you-dark-about-gmos; Andrew Kimbrell, “Obama’s GMO Embarrassment: Why the New Labeling Bill Just Signed Into Law Is a Sham,” Salon, August 7, 2016, http://www.salon.com/2016/08/07/obamas-gmo-embarrassment-why-the-new-labeling-bill-just-signed-into-law-is-a-sham_partner/.

As with the regulation: “Big Food’s ‘DARK Act’ Introduced in Congress,” Environmental Working Group, April 9, 2014, http://www.ewg.org/release/big-food-s-dark-act-introduced-congress.

Opponents of the measure: Ibid.

the law accomplished most of what Big Food desired: Kimbrell, “Obama’s GMO Embarrassment.” See also Ramona Bashshur, “FDA and Regulations of GMOs,” American Bar Association Health eSource 9, no. 6, February 2013.

Chapter 2

In the 1950s alone, some 10 million people: Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 123; McKay Jenkins, “The Era of Suburban Sprawl Has to End. So, Now What?” Urbanite, May 30, 2012; “How Long Is the Interstate System?” Federal Highway Administration, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/faq.cfm#question3.

These new foods were cheap: Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation (New York: Harper Perennial, 2002), 3; Katherine Muniz, “20 Ways Americans Are Blowing Their Money,” USA Today, March 24, 2014, http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2014/03/24/20-ways-we-blow-our-money/6826633/.

As industrial farms continued to grow: “Report: Number of Animals Killed in US Increases in 2010,” Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), http://farmusa.org/statistics11.html.

As farms consolidated and grew: Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney, Shattering: Food, Politics and the Loss of Genetic Diversity (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1990), 81.

Over the course of the twentieth century: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, “Field Crops,” http://www.nass.usda.gov/Charts_and_Maps/Field_Crops/.

Wallace was right: Jack Kloppenberg, First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology 1492–2000 (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 283, cited by Max John Pfeiffer, “The Labor Process and Capitalist Development of Agriculture,” Rural Sociologist 2, no. 2 (1982): 72–80.

Suddenly, farmers (and their crops): Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (New York: Penguin, 2006), 45.

A similar pattern emerged . . . Today, the six top: “The World’s Top 10 Pesticide Firms—Who Owns Nature?” Organic Consumers Association, November 1, 2008, https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/worlds-top-10-pesticide-firms-who-owns-nature.

This transition, from wartime chemicals: Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, 43; Jill Richardson, “How Monsanto Went from Selling Aspirin to Controlling Our Food Supply,” TruthOut, April 21, 2013, http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15856-how-monsanto-went-from-selling-aspirin-to-controlling-our-food-supply.

True, it cranked up: Balu Bumb and Carlos Baanante, “World Trends in Fertilizer Use and Projections to 2020,” International Food Policy Research Institute, 2020 Brief 38, October 1996, http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/16353/1/br38.pdf; Smil quoted in Carl Jordan, An Ecosystem Approach to Sustainable Agriculture (New York: Springer, 2013), 51.

Similar changes were under way: Steven Lipin, Scott Kilman, and Susan Warren, “DuPont Agrees to Purchase of Seed Firm for $7.7 Billion,” Wall Street Journal, March 15, 1999, http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB921268716949898331.

Monsanto rejected the bid: Jacob Bunge, “Monsanto Rejects Bayer Merger Offer, Says It’s Open to Talks,” Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2016, http://www.wsj.com/articles/monsanto-rejects-bayer-merger-offer-says-its-open-to-talks-1464110057.

“This is an important moment in human history”: Quoted in Peter Pringle, Food, Inc.: Mendel to Monsanto—The Promises and Perils of the Biotech Harvest (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), 116.

DNA was known to be: Ania Wieczorek and Mark Wright, “History of Agricultural Biotechnology: How Crop Development has Evolved,” Nature, Education Knowledge 3, no. 3 (2012): 9–15.

In the late 1980s: Joe Entine and XioaZhi Lim, “Cheese: The GMO Food Die-Hard GMO Opponents Love (and Oppose a Label For),” GMO Literacy Project, May 15, 2015, http://www.geneticliteracyproject.org/2015/05/15/cheese-gmo-food-die-hard-gmo-opponents-love-and-oppose-a-label-for/.

Monsanto’s most important push: Robin, The World According to Monsanto, 138–142.

“It was like the Manhattan Project”: Daniel Charles, Lords of the Harvest: Biotech, Big Money, and the Future of Food (Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 2002), 67.

It took four years: Robin, The World According to Monsanto, 139.

Americans have become very comfortable: Alyssa Battistoni, “Americans Spend Less on Food Than Any Other Country,” Mother Jones, February 1, 2012, http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/01/america-food-spending-less.

Because this system has become: Luke Anderson, Genetic Engineering, Food and Our Environment (New York: Chelsea Green, 1999), 70; Stefan Lovgren, “One-Fifth of Human Genes Have Been Patented, Study Reveals,” National Geographic News, October 13, 2005, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1013_051013_gene_patent.html; Matthew Albright, “The End of the Revolution,” Council for Responsible Genetics, 2002, http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=168.

It is also evident: “U.S. Regulation of Genetically Modified Crops,” Case Studies in Agricultural Biosecurity, Federation of American Scientists, http://fas.org/biosecurity/education/dualuse-agriculture/2.-agricultural-biotechnology/us-regulation-of-genetically-engineered-crops.html.

But in reality: Doug Gurian-Sherman, “Holes in the Biotech Safety Net: FDA Policy Does Not Assure the Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods,” Center for Science in the Public Interest, http://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/fda_report__final.pdf.

U.S. policy “tends to minimize”: Emily Marden, “Risk and Regulation: U.S. Regulatory Policy on Genetically Modified Food and Agriculture,” Boston College Law Review 44, no. 3 (May 2003), https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/files/schools/law/lawreviews/journals/bclawr/44_3/02_TXT.htm. Marden gives an excellent summary of FDA, USDA, and EPA regulatory history.

“Our concern for the possible”: Paul Berg, “Potential Biohazards of Recombinant DNA Molecules,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 71, no. 7 (July 1974): 2593–2594.

After Berg’s letter was published: Marcia Barinaga, “Asilomar Revisited: Lessons for Today,” Science 28, no. 5458 (March 2000): 1584.

James Watson, one of the discoverers: James Watson and John Tooze, The DNA Story: A Documentary History of Gene Cloning (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1981), 49.

Watson had nothing but contempt: Quoted in Diane B. Dutton, Worse Than the Disease: Pitfalls of Medical Progress (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 195, 327.

“In the 1970s, we were all trying”: Quoted in Steven Druker, Altered Genes, Twisted Truth (Salt Lake City: Clear River Press, 2015), 37.

“As genetic engineering became”: Susan Wright, Molecular Politics: Developing American and British Regulatory Policy for Genetic Engineering, 1972–1982 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 107.

If nothing else: Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, 206.

“The unintended effects cannot”: Quoted in Druker, Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, 135.

The director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine: Ibid., 133–135.

“This technology is being promoted”: Suzanne Wuerthele, quoted in Jeffrey Smith, “An FDA-Created Health Crisis Circles the Globe,” quoted ibid., 186.

“it was clearer than ever that the careers”: Quoted in Druker, Altered Genes and Twisted Truth, 132.

Despite this backbeat: Memorandum from David Kessler to the Secretary for Health and Human Services, March 20, 1992, quoted in Robin, The World of Monsanto, 259. For more on the effectiveness of federal oversight on GMOs, see William Freese and David Schubert, “Safety Testing and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods,” Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering Reviews 21 (November 2004), http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/freese_safetytestingandregulationofgeneticallyebgineeredfoods_nov212004_62269.pdf.

The FDA policy made it official: “Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties,” Federal Register 57, no. 104, sec. VI (May 29, 1992): 22991.

Genetic manipulation was no different: Kessler’s comments are from Warren Leary, “Cornucopia of New Foods Is Seen As Policy on Engineering Is Eased,” New York Times, May 27, 1992, http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/27/us/cornucopia-of-new-foods-is-seen-as-policy-on-engineering-is-eased.html.

The victory of agribusiness: Kurt Eichenwald, Gina Kolata, and Melody Petersen “Biotechnology Food: From the Lab to a Debacle,” New York Times, January 25, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/01/25/business/25FOOD.html.

Such policy “will speed up”: Quoted ibid.

“What Monsanto wanted (and demanded)”: Druker, Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, 138.

In 2002, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences: National Research Council, “Environmental Effects of Transgenic Plants: The Scope and Adequacy of Regulation,” National Academies Press, 2002, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK207495/. For more on the effectiveness of federal oversight on GMOs, see Freese and Schubert, “Safety Testing and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods.”

The agency’s own policy states: Freese and Schubert, “Safety Testing and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods.” And take, for example, the letter the FDA sent to Monsanto about a strain of GMO corn the company hoped to take to market: “Based on the safety and nutritional assessment you have conducted, it is our understanding that Monsanto has concluded that corn products derived from this new variety are not materially different in composition, safety, and other relevant parameters from corn currently on the market, and that the genetically modified corn does not raise issues that would require premarket review or approval by FDA,” the FDA’s letter said. “As you are aware, it is Monsanto’s responsibility to ensure that foods marketed by the firm are safe, wholesome and in compliance with all applicable legal and regulatory requirements.”

Companies are not always forthcoming: Nathanael Johnson, “The GM Safety Dance: What’s Rule and What’s Real,” Grist, July 10, 2013, http://grist.org/food/the-gm-safety-dance-whats-rule-and-whats-real/.

For four decades, the American legal system: E. Freeman, “Seed Police? Part 4,” Monsanto.com (November 10, 2008), http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/Seed-Police-Part-4.aspx; E. Freeman, “Farmers Reporting Farmers, Part 2,” Monsanto.com (October 10, 2008), http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/Pages/Farmers-Reporting-Farmers-Part-2.aspx; Jessica Lynd, “Gone with the Wind: Why Even Utility Patents Cannot Fence in Self-Replicating Technologies,” American University Law Review 62, no. 3 (2013): 681–682; “Why Does Monsanto Sue Farmers Who Save Seeds?” Monsanto.com, http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/why-does-monsanto-sue-farmers-who-save-seeds.aspx.

“The truth is Percy Schmeiser”: “Percy Schmeiser,” a case summary, Monsanto.com, http://www.monsanto.com/newsviews/pages/percy-schmeiser.aspx.

This is in direct contrast: “In-Depth: Genetic Modification: Percy Schmeiser’s Battle,” CBC News, May 21, 2004; Phil Bereano and Martin Phillipson, “Goliath vs. Schmeiser: Canadian Court Decision May Leave Multinationals Vulnerable,” GeneWatch 17, no. 4 (July–August 2004); Roger McEowen and Neil Harl, “Key Supreme Court Ruling on Plant Patents,” Ag Decision Maker Newsletter, March 2002, https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/articles/harl/HarlMar02.htm.

It’s not just that such company-directed: John Vandermeer and Ivette Perfecto, “The AgroEcosystem: A Need for the Conservation Biologist’s Lens,” Conservation Biology 11, no. 3 (June 1997).

Without broader research: “Fields of Gold: Research on Transgenic Crops Must Be Done Outside Industry If It Is to Fulfill Its Early Promise,” Nature 497, no. 7447 (May 1, 2013). “How FDA Regulates Food from Genetically Engineered Plants,” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/GEPlants/ucm461831.htm.

Chapter 3

Complete sequences (the “chapters”): “DNA, Genes, and Chromosomes,” University of Leicester, http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/genetics/vgec/highereducation/topics/dnageneschromosomes.

All together, an organism’s chromosomal chapters: “Learn.Genetics,” Genetic Science Learning Center, University of Utah, http://learn.genetics.utah.edu. This website offers a useful interactive graphic showing everything from the size of nucleotides and other cellular material to the mechanics of epigenetics.

A five-year project called ENCODE: Francie Diep, “Friction over Function: Scientists Clash on the Meaning of ENCODE’s Genetic Data,” Scientific American (April 2013), http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/friction-over-function-encode/; Claire Robinson, Michael Antoniou, and John Fagan, GMO Myths and Truths, 3rd ed. (London: Earth Open Source, 2015): 21–22.

The answer lies in the way genes are expressed: Eric Simon, Jean Dickey, and Jane Reece, Essential Biology (Boston: Pearson, 2013). I have taken much of the description of gene transcription and translation from this excellent text.

Once the transcript of the RNA: Siwaret Arikit et al., “An Atlas of Soybean Small RNAs Identifies Phased siRNAs from Hundreds of Coding Genes,” Plant Cell 26, no. 12 (December 2014): 4584–4601, http://www.plantcell.org/content/early/2014/12/02 /tpc.114.131847.abstract.

Some research suggests that even mental health: Ronald and Adamchak, Tomorrow’s Table, 159.

Exploring these complexities: Adam Thomas, “Maize Genomics,” University of Delaware’s UDaily, March 2, 2015, http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2015/mar/maize-reproduction-030215.html.

Fagan is a molecular biologist: Brandon Copple, “Scientist, Activist, Yogi?” Forbes, October 30, 2000, http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/1030/6612054b.html.

How you feel about GMOs: Joel Achenbach, “Why Do So Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?” National Geographic, March 2015, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/science-doubters/achenbach-text.

The study, by Gilles-Éric Séralini: Gilles-Éric Séralini et al.,“Long Term Toxicity of a Roundup Herbicide and a Roundup-Tolerant Genetically Modified Maize,” Food and Chemical Toxicology 50, no. 11 (November 2012): 4221–4231, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637 (where it is now labeled “Retracted”); Druker, Altered Genes, Twisted Truths, 302.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, France’s prime minister: Andrew Pollack, “Paper Tying Rat Cancer to Herbicide Is Retracted,” New York Times, November 28, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/29/health/paper-tying-rat-cancer-to-herbicide-is-retracted.html; “Smelling a Rat,” Economist, December 7, 2013.

Almost instantly, the journal was deluged: Jon Entine, “Séralini Threatens Lawsuit in Wake of Retraction of Infamous GMO Cancer Rat Study,” Forbes, November 29, 2013, http://www.forbes.com/sites/jonentine/2013/11/29/notorious-seralini-gmo-cancer-rat-study-retracted-ugly-legal-battle-looms/; Kate Kelland, “Journal Withdraws Controversial French Monsanto GMO Study,” Reuters, November 29, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/science-gm-retraction-idUSL2N0JE0FM20131129; “GMO Study Retracted: Censorship of Caution?” Living on Earth, December 6, 2013, http://loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=13-P13-00049&segmentID=2. See also letters to the editor posted at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637.

A more in-depth look: “Elsevier Announces Article Retraction from Journal Food and Chemical Toxicology,” Elsevier.com, November 28, 2013, http://www.elsevier.com/about/press-releases/research-and-journals/elsevier-announces-article-retraction-from-journal-food-and-chemical-toxicology#sthash.KgeQj4lq.dpuf.

More than a hundred scientists . . . “The retraction is erasing”: “Scientists Pledge to Boycott Elsevier,” Ecologist, December 5, 2013, http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2187010/scientists_pledge_to_boycott_elsevier.html.

The decision was based “not on the grounds”: Brian John, “Letter to the Editor,” Food and Chemical Toxicology 65 (March 2014): 391, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691514000040.

Goodman’s “fast-tracked appointment”: Claire Robinson and Jonathan Latham, “The Goodman Affair: Monsanto Targets the Heart of Science,” Independent Science News, May 20, 2013, https://www.independentsciencenews.org/science-media/the-goodman-affair-monsanto-targets-the-heart-of-science/.

Brian John offered a sharp answer: John, “Letter to the Editor,” Food and Chemical Toxicology.

“When those with a vested interest”: “Seralini [sic] and Science: An Open Letter,” Independent Science News, October 2, 2012, http://www.independentsciencenews.org/health/seralini-and-science-nk603-rat-study-roundup/.

The issues raised by the Séralini study: Jenkins, “Coming Soon: Major GMO Study (Shhh, It Will Be Done in Secret by Russians).”

Blumberg’s own work: “Chemicals That Promote Obesity down the Generations,” Living on Earth, January 18, 2013, http://loe.org/shows/segments.html?programID=13-P13-00003&segmentID=1.

Looking over one of Blumberg’s: Author interview with Bruce Blumberg.

Chapter 4

By the early 1990s, ringspot: Dennis Gonsalves, “Transgenic Papaya in Hawaii and Beyond,” AgBioForum 7, nos. 1 & 2 (2004): 36–40, http://www.agbioforum.org/v7n12/v7n12a07-gonsalves.pdf.

The mid-1980s was an exciting time: Harold Schmeck, “Plants ‘Vaccinated’ Against Virus,” New York Times, May 6, 1986, http://www.nytimes.com/1986/05/06/science/plants-vaccinated-against-virus.html. Eventually, such work on virus resistance would lead to the discovery of “RNA silencing,” one of biology’s major advances in the past two decades. Silencing RNA has been used to develop a treatment for macular degeneration and is considered a promising field for science leading to therapies for both plants and animals. The technique won a Nobel Prize for Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello in 2006.

Following Beachy’s lead: Ronald and Adamchak, Tomorrow’s Table, 159. For more on how silencing RNAs work.

“It is rather rare that a potential solution”: Gonsalves, “Transgenic Papaya in Hawaii and Beyond,” 37.

One year later: Jennifer Mo, “The Man Behind the Rainbow,” Biofortified, June 21, 2012, http://www.biofortified.org/2012/06/rainbow/.

“a tireless innovator” . . . “is a model”: Quoted in Paul Voosen, “Crop Savior Blazes Biotech Trail, but Few Scientists or Companies Are Willing to Follow,” New York Times, September 21, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/09/21/21greenwire-crop-savior-blazes-biotech-trail-but-few-scien-88379.html?pagewanted=all.

As evidence of GMO contamination: Steven Layne, “Thailand’s GMO Experiment, Part 2,” Phuket News, June 10, 2014, http://www.thephuketnews.com/thailand-gmo-experiment-part-2-46788.php.

There have also been problems: Melanie Bondera, “Papaya and Coffee: GMO ‘Solutions’ Spell Market Disaster,” in Hawaii SEED, Facing Hawai’i’s Future: Essential Information About GMOs, 2nd ed. (Koloa, Hawaii: Hawaii SEED, 2012), 48–50.

There are signs that Gonsalves’s message: Voosen, “Crop Savior Blazes Biotech Trail.”

Chapter 5

Because the fields themselves: Pesticide Action Network, “Television Show and Body Testing Confirm Children’s Exposure to Neurotoxic Pesticide,” February 4, 2016, http://www.panna.org/press-release/television-show-and-body-testing-confirm-children%E2%80%99s-exposure-neurotoxic-pesticide; Anita Hofschneider, “Syngenta Workers Seek Medical Aid After Pesticide Use on Kauai,” Honolulu Civil Beat, January 22, 2016, http://www.civilbeat.com/2016/01/syngenta-workers-seek-medical-aid-after-pesticide-use-on-kauai/.

Land use on Kauai: Hank Soboleski, “Pablo Manlapit and the Hanapepe Massacre,” Garden Island, September 10, 2006, http://thegardenisland.com/news/pablo-manlapit-and-the-hanapepe-massacre/article_57bc7ca1-a576-5c2f-8ad9-1a7641eb4c21.html.

The “experiments” taking place: “Pesticides in Paradise,” Hawaii Center for Food Safety.

Kauai’s sole pesticide inspector: Paul Koberstein, “GMO Companies Are Dousing Hawaiian Island with Toxic Pesticides,” Grist, June 16, 2014, http://grist.org/business-technology/gmo-companies-are-dousing-hawaiian-island-with-toxic-pesticides/; Sophie Cocke, “Frustrated by State’s Inactivity, Kauai County Takes Pesticide Fight Into Its Own Hands,” Huffington Post, October 8, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/kauai-county-gmo-fight_n_4064787.html.

The disclosure records “are believed to contain”: Letter from Thomas Matsuda to Gary Hooser, July 22, 2014.

A Hawaii Department of Agriculture (HDOA) log: State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture Inspection Log, Kauai, 2011–2012.

State records show: Restricted Use Pesticides Sold on Kauai, 2010–2012, Hawaii Department of Agriculture.

Other records show: “Pesticide Use by Large Agribusiness on Kauai: Findings and Recommendations of the Joint Fact Finding Study Group,” March 2016, http://www.accord3.com/docs/GM-Pesticides/draft-report/JFF%20Full%20Report%20-%20DRAFT.pdf.

A study published in March 2014: Philippe Grandjean and Philip Landrigan, “Neurobehavioural Effects of Developmental Toxicity,” Lancet 13, no. 3 (March 2014): 330–338, http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(13)70278-3/abstract.

Recent hair sample testing: Pesticide Action Network, “Television Show and Body Testing Confirm Children’s Exposure to Neurotoxic Pesticide.”

But it wasn’t just chlorpyrifos: Ibid.

Also in the cocktail: permethrin . . . chlorpyrifos: See “The Food We Eat: An International Comparison of Pesticide Regulations,” David Suzuki Foundation, October 2006, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/publications/downloads/2006/DSF-HEHC-Food1.pdf.

“even more acutely toxic”: E. G. Vallianatos with McKay Jenkins, Poison Spring: The Secret History of Pollution and the EPA (New York: Bloomsbury, 2014), 39.

Another ingredient in the cocktail: Rachel Aviv, “A Valuable Reputation,” New Yorker, February 10, 2014, http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/10/a-valuable-reputation.

“had their heads in their hands”: Amanda Gregg, “‘Stink Weed’ Sends Some Home from Waimean School,” Garden Island, November 15, 2006, http://thegardenisland.com/news/stink-weed-sends-some-home-from-waimea-school/article_5a66ba3d-2194-53dc-8bda-807e794625ae.html.

Though it is eaten: Ibid.; Adam Harju, “Odor Investigation Ongoing,” Garden Island, November 18, 2006, http://thegardenisland.com/news/odor-investigation-ongoing/article_650db9f3-06a5-5960-8f47-97a433eac349.html; Amanda Gregg, “Report Reveals Discrepancies in Spraying Incident,” Garden Island, March 12, 2007, http://thegardenisland.com/news/report-reveals-discrepancies-in-spraying-incident/article_046c3b40-4ecb-54f6-a1b9-e90d3c032153.html.

Company claims about stinkweed: “Pesticides in Paradise,” Hawaii Center for Food Safety.

There was no questioning . . . There was no evidence: Memo from J. Milton Clark to Peter Adler, chairman of Task Force on Kauai Pesticides and GMO, May 19, 2015, included in “Pesticides Use by Large Agribusinesses on Kauai.” See http://www.accord3.com/docs/GM-Pesticides/report/JFF%20Report%20Errata.pdf.

What the island needed: Paul Achitoff, “GMOs in Kauai: Not Just Another Day in Paradise,” Huffington Post, March 5, 2014, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-achitoff/gmos-in-kauai-not-just-an_b_4899491.html; “AAP Makes Recommendations to Reduce Children’s Exposure to Pesticides,” American Academy of Pediatrics, November 26, 2012, https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/pages/AAP-Makes-Recommendations-to-Reduce-Children’s-Exposure-to-Pesticides.aspx.

“many qualitative examples” . . . “We all share a deep concern”: “Doctors and Nurses Implore Mayor: Sign Bill 2491 into Law Now!” Stop Poisoning Paradise, http://www.stoppoisoningparadise.org/#!doctors-and-nurses-letters-to-mayor/cs1m. Sample letters from doctors and nurses to Kauai County Council, delivered October 20, 2013.

The doctors’ worries reflected: “August 5, 2013 Kauai County Council Dr Evslin Kauai Pediatrician,” YouTube video, 7:11, posted by “Mom’s Hui Kaua’i,” August 10, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8g6D8xAz6fA.

Margie Maupin, a nurse practitioner: “Margie Maupin Nurse Practitioner in Support Bill 2491,” YouTube video, 6:09, posted by “Occupy Hawaii,” November 16, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrqHU8Y-QCo.

In 2011, more than a hundred of Klayton Kubo’s neighbors filed a lawsuit: For information on the trial and its issues, see Vanessa Van Voorhis, “Waimea Residents Sue Pioneer,” Garden Island, December 13, 2011, http://thegardenisland.com/mobile/article_82ff2c3e-2632-11e1-9ca7-001871e3ce6c.html; Tom LaVenture, “Waimea Residents Suing Pioneer Hi-Bred,” Garden Island, June 14, 2012, http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/waimea-residents-suing-pioneer-hi-bred/article_607adf66-b5ff-11e1-a19b-001a4bcf887a.html; Sophie Cocke, “Does Hawaii’s Failure to Enforce Pesticide Use Justify Action by Kauai?” Honolulu Civil Beat, October 8, 2013, http://www.civilbeat.com/2013/10/20066-does-hawaiis-failure-to-enforce-pesticide-use-justify-kauais-action/; Associated Press, “Jury Awards Kauai Residents over $500K in Dust Lawsuit,” Maui News, May 10, 2015, http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/597884/Jury-awards-Kauai-residents-over—500K-in-dust-lawsuit.html?nav=5031. A year later, residents filed a second suit, claiming Pioneer consistently failed to control the erosion and pesticide-laden dust from its GMO test fields.

Jervis reminded the court: Koberstein, “GMO Companies Are Dousing Hawaiian Island with Toxic Pesticides.” A 1,500-page report from the state Department of Agriculture concluded that although Syngenta did apply pesticides near the school, it did so correctly, and ruled out the chemical Hi-Tech as the culprit.

“Kaua‘i produces more GMO seeds than anyplace”: Vanessa Van Voorhis, “Large-Scale Die-off of Sea Urchins Discovered off Kaumakani,” Garden Island, February 23, 2012, http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/large-scale-die-off-of-sea-urchins-discovered-off-kaumakani/article_16081484-5a1b-11e1-bca7-0019bb2963f4.html.

That same winter . . . Vandana Shiva: Jon Letman, “Opposition Crops Up to GMO Foods in Hawaii,” Al Jazeera, February 16, 2013, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/02/20132514512529904.html.

Industry executives claimed: Cocke, “Frustrated by State’s Inactivity, Kauai County Takes Pesticide Fight into Its Own Hands.”

Companies dismissed complaints: Letman, “Opposition Crops Up to GMO Foods in Hawaii.”

During the hearings on the bill: Kristine Uyeno, “GMO Public Hearing on Kauai Draws Hundreds,” KHON-TV, July 31, 2013, http://khon2.com/2013/07/31/gmo-public-hearing-on-kauai-draws-hundreds/.

Yet within weeks: Carey Gillam, “Anti-GMO Crop, Pesticide Ballot Initiative Launched in Hawaii,” Reuters, February 24, 2014, http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/25/usa-gmos-hawaii-idUSL1N0LU0A220140225.

An attorney representing: Nestor Garcia, “Federal Judge Declares New Kauai GMO, Pesticide Law Invalid,” KHON-TV, August 25, 2014, http://khon2.com/2014/08/25/federal-judge-declares-new-kauai-gmo-pesticide-law-invalid/.

“The big question”: Keoki Kerr, “State, Kauai Set Up Panel to Study GMO Pesticide Impacts,” Hawaii News Now, December 3, 2014, http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/27532992/state-kauai-set-up-panel-to-study-gmo-pesticide-impacts.

For local residents: Associated Press, “Jury Awards Kauai Residents over $500K in Dust Lawsuit.”

Ten days after the verdict: Anita Hofschneider, “DuPont Pioneer Shuts Down One Kauai Facility,” Honolulu Civil Beat, May 20, 2015, http://www.civilbeat.com/2015/05/dupont-pioneer-shuts-down-one-kauai-facility/.

“Syngenta did not want me there”: Gary Hooser, “From Kauai to Switzerland—Why We Went, What We Accomplished and What’s Next,” GaryHooser’s Blog, https://garyhooser.wordpress.com/2015/05/03/from-kauai-to-switzerland-why-we-went-what-we-accomplished-and-whats-next/.

Chapter 6

The Big Island, basically, had one: Nathanael Johnson, “Here’s Why Hawaii’s Anti-GMO Laws Matter,” Grist, November 20, 2014, http://grist.org/food/heres-why-hawaiis-anti-gmo-laws-matter/.

Big agricultural companies: Anita Hofschneider, “Hawaii Farmers, Biotech Industry Challenge Big Island’s GMO Ban,” Honolulu Civil Beat, June 9, 2014, http://www.civilbeat.com/2014/06/hawaii-farmers-biotech-industry-challenge-big-islands-gmo-ban/.

Industry representatives were elated: Associated Press, “Federal Judge Rules Against Big Island GMO Law,” NewsOK, November 26, 2104, http://newsok.com/federal-judge-rules-against-big-island-gmo-law/article/feed/765175.

Despite unparalleled weather . . . Hawaii’s agricultural experts: “Pesticides in Paradise,” Hawaii Center for Food Safety.

For the benefit of present and future generations: The Constitution of the State of Hawaii, Article XI, http://lrbhawaii.org/con/conart11.html.

It was a safe bet: “Hawaiians Take on Monsanto and GMOs,” Pachamama Alliance, June 25, 2014, http://www.pachamama.org/webcasts/hawaiians-take-on-monsanto-gmos.

The petition also urged voters: “A Bill Placing a Moratorium on the Cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms,” Chapter 20.39 of the Maui County Code, http://www.mauicounty.gov/Archive/ViewFile/Item/19197.

The ball was now: Wendy Osher, “Maui Petition Filed Against GMO Industry, Monsanto Responds,” Maui Now, April 8, 2014, http://mauinow.com/2014/04/08/maui-petition-filed-against-gmo-industry-monsanto-responds/.

A Monsanto employee . . . Another Monsanto employee: “Employees Rally in Support of Monsanto on Maui and Molokai—4/3/14,” YouTube video, 3:13, posted by “Maui Now,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOU7K7Fr5Zw.

Rather than try to convince: “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): Arguments Against,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014) #Arguments_against; “Over 11,000 Maui County Citizens Stand Up and Say ‘Nuff Already’ to Biotech Experimentation with a History Making Social Action,” PRWeb, April 14, 2014, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/04/prweb11758961.htm.

The companies also flexed: For the original language of the initiative and for the text of the final moratorium question, respectively, see “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): Full Text,” Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014),_full_text; “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): Ballot Question,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014)#Ballot_question.

Industry advertisements—typically attributed: “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): TV Ads,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014)#TV_ads.

The campaign finance reports: For campaign spending reports, see “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): Campaign Finance,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014), #Campaign_finance.

Lorrin Pang, a Maui physician: “Over 11,000 Maui County Citizens Stand Up and Say ‘Nuff Already’ to Biotech Experimentation with a History Making Social Action,” PRWeb.

Alika and the SHAKA Movement held: Anita Hofschneider, “1,000 Votes: Maui GMO Farming Ban Squeaks By,” Honolulu Civil Beat, November 4, 2014, http://www.civilbeat.com/2014/11/1000-votes-maui-gmo-farming-ban-squeaks-by/.

Sure enough, when the final vote . . . just over 51 percent: “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): Election Results,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014)#Election_results.

The next day, Monsanto: Audrey McAvoy, “Monsanto, Dow Unit Sue Maui County over GMO Law,” Associated Press, November 13, 2014, http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1200&sid=32342920.

Kurren reassigned the case: Audrey McAvoy, “Maui Group Wins Ability to Intervene in GMO Case,” Associated Press, December 15, 2014, http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/maui-group-wins-ability-to-intervene-in-gmo-case/article_99140705-b5df-55e9-9cf4-25a4ebc32f86.html.

No portion of this ruling: “Maui County Genetically Modified Organism Moratorium Initiative (November 2014): Aftermath,” Ballotpedia, http://ballotpedia.org/Maui_County_Genetically_Modified_Organism_Moratorium_Initiative_(November_2014)##Aftermath.

Chapter 7

In other words, the Danforth Center: “Board of Directors,” Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, https://www.danforthcenter.org/about/leadership/board-of-directors.

A cynic might claim: Doreen Stabinsky, “Hearts of Darkness: The Biotech Industry’s Exploration of Southern Africa,” GeneWatch 15, no. 6 (November–December, 2002).

“a stalking horse for corporate proponents”: Phil Bereano, “Bill’s Excellent African Adventure: A Tale of Technocratic Agroindustrial Philanthrocapitalism,” GeneWatch 26, no. 1 (January–February 2013): 16.

“If companies are going to claim”: Marion Nestle, Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism (Berkley: University of California Press, 2003), p. 247.

“In the United States, we’ve seen”: Peter Rosset, Frances Moore Lappé, and Joseph Collins, “Lessons from the Green Revolution: Do We Need New Technology to End Hunger?” Tikkun 15, no. 2 (March/April 2000): 52–56.

Potrykus visualized peasant farmers: J. Madeleine Nash, “This Rice Could Save a Million Kids a Year,” Time, July 31, 2000, http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,997586,00.html.

In the end, Potrykus and his team: Pringle, Food Inc, 31–35; Amy Harmon, “Golden Rice: Lifesaver?” New York Times, August 24, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/sunday-review/golden-rice-lifesaver.html?_r=0.

The journal Science announced: Mary Lou Guerinot, “The Green Revolution Strikes Gold,” Science 287, no. 5451 (January 14, 2000): 241–243.

Greenpeace, which had taken: “Field of Dreams: Potrykus’ Golden Rice,” Financial Times, February 25, 2000; see http://www.genepeace.ch/new/2000/fields_of_dreams_2002.htm.

In an article in The New York Times Magazine: Michael Pollan, “The Great Yellow Hype,” New York Times Magazine, March 4, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/04/magazine/04WWLN.html.

“the ‘selling’ of vitamin A”: Vandana Shiva, “Golden Rice: Myth, Not Miracle,” GMWatch, January 12, 2014, http://www.gmwatch.org/news/archive/2014/15250-golden-rice-myth-not-miracle.

And so it has gone: Christopher J. M. Whitty, Monty Jones, Alan Tollervey, and Tim Wheeler, “Biotechnology: Africa and Asia Need a Rational Debate on GM Crops,” Nature 497 (May 2, 2013): 31–33.

In August 2013, hundreds of protesters: Harmon, “Golden Rice: Lifesaver?”

Such research mirrored work: Frances Moore Lappé, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset, with Luis Esparza, World Hunger: Twelve Myths, Food First (New York: Grove Press, 1998), 61.

Borlaug has never been shy: Harvest of Fear, PBS Frontline/NOVA, April 23, 2001, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/harvest/.

M. S. Swaminathan, a renowned: M. S. Swaminathan, “Perspective: The Challenges Ahead,” New Agriculturist 11 (April 1999), http://www.new-agri.co.uk/99-4/perspect.html.

Indeed, for every plant scientist: David Pimentel, “Changing Genes to Feed the World: A Review of Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist’s View of Genetically Modified Foods, by Nina Federoff and Nancy Marie Brown,” Science 306, no. 5697 (October 29, 2004): 815.

Catherine Ives, the scientist: Harvest of Fear, PBS Frontline/NOVA.

Monsanto boasts that it has already trained: Jonathan Gilbert, “In Paraguay, the Spread of Soy Strikes Fear in Hearts of Rural Farmers,” Time, August 9, 2013, http://world.time.com/2013/08/09/in-paraguay-rural-farmers-fear-the-spread-of-soy/; Christine MacDonald, “Green Going Gone: The Tragic Deforestation of the Chaco,” Rolling Stone, July 28, 2014, http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/green-going-gone-the-tragic-deforestation-of-the-chaco-20140728.

Two years later, in 2012: Simon Romero, “Vast Tracts in Paraguay Forest Being Replaced by Ranches,” New York Times, March 24, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/world/americas/paraguays-chaco-forest-being-cleared-by-ranchers.html; Tracy Barnett, “Paraguay Takes Hard Line on GMOs,” Huffington Post, September 1, 2010, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tracy-l-barnett/paraguay-takes-hard-line-_b_701182.html.

In Argentina, meanwhile, a woman: “Sofia Gatica,” The Goldman Environmental Prize, 2012, http://www.goldmanprize.org/recipient/sofia-gatica/.

“The problem is that there are very few”: Alfred Sommer, “Vitamin A Deficiency Disorders: Origins of the Problem and Approaches to Its Control,” AgBioWorld, 2011, http://www.agbioworld.org/biotech-info/topics/goldenrice/vit_a.html.

If anything, the prospect of climate change: Felix Chung, “The Search for the Rice of the Future,” from a special issue devoted to rice in “Nature Outlook,” a supplement to Nature 514, no. 7524 (October 30, 2014); Tim Folger, “The Next Green Revolution,” National Geographic, October 2014, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/foodfeatures/green-revolution/.

In 2015 alone, scientists published: Leigh Dayton, “Blue Sky Rice,” from a special issue devoted to rice in “Nature Outlook,” a supplement to Nature 514, no. 7524 (October 30, 2014).

In Kenya, farmers have: Rachel Cernansky, “The Rise of Africa’s Super Vegetables,” Nature, June 9, 2015, http://www.nature.com/news/the-rise-of-africa-s-super-vegetables-1.17712.

Yet in June 2016, more than one hundred Nobel laureates: Joel Achenbach, “107 Nobel Laureates Sign Letter Blasting Greenpeace over GMOs,” Washington Post, June 29, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/06/29/more-than-100-nobel-laureates-take-on-greenpeace-over-gmo-stance/.

Chapter 8

Monsanto began testing Roundup Ready wheat: Justin Gillis, “Monsanto Pulls Plan to Commercialize Gene-Altered Wheat,” Washington Post, May 11, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15998-2004May10.html; Steven Mufson, “Monsanto Shares Fall as South Korea Joins Pause in Wheat Imports,” Washington Post, May 31, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/monsanto-shares-fall-as-south-korea-joins-pause-in-wheat-imports/2013/05/31/5df79a3a-ca2c-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html.

Just ask Larry Bohlen: Marc Kaufman, “Biotech Critics Cite Unapproved Corn in Taco Shells,” Washington Post, September 18, 2000, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/09/18/biotech-critics-cite-unapproved-corn-in-taco-shells/e7973551-d518-47dc-9bdf-d7931e5e8b49/.

The results, in one case: Andrew Pollack, “Kraft Recalls Taco Shells with Bioengineered Corn,” New York Times, September 23, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/23/business/kraft-recalls-taco-shells-with-bioengineered-corn.html.

To Larry Bohlen, it was entirely obvious: Harvest of Fear, PBS Frontline/NOVA.

Things have only gotten rockier: Francie Grace, “Anheuser-Busch Starts Rice War,” CBS News, April 13, 2005, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anheuser-busch-starts-rice-war/.

Suddenly, it was StarLink all over again: Richard Vanderford, “Bayer Settles Rice Contamination Suits for $750M,” Law360, July 1, 2011, http://www.law360.com/articles/255594/bayer-settles-rice-contamination-suits-for-750m; Steven Mufson, “Unapproved Genetically Modified Wheat from Monsanto Found in Oregon,” Washington Post, May 30, 2013, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/unapproved-genetically-modified-wheat-from-monsanto-found-in-oregon-field/2013/05/30/93fe7abe-c95e-11e2-8da7-d274bc611a47_story.html; Jonathan Randles, “Monsanto’s Legal Risk Sprouts as Asia Shuns Modified Wheat,” Law360, May 31, 2013, http://www.law360.com/articles/446381/monsanto-s-legal-risk-sprouts-as-asia-shuns-modified-wheat; “USDA Announces Close and Findings of Investigation in the Detection of Genetically Engineered Wheat in Oregon in 2013,” September 26, 2014, https://www.aphis.usda.gov/newsroom/2014/09/pdf/ge_wheat.pdf.

“There are too many of us”: Wes Jackson, “Commencement Address: The Serious Challenge of Our Time,” University of Kansas, May 19, 2013, https://landinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/WJackson-KU-Commencement-Addr_May2013.pdf.

Jared Diamond, the scientist and bestselling author: Jared Diamond, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” Discover, May 1987, http://discovermagazine.com/1987/may/02-the-worst-mistake-in-the-history-of-the-human-race.

African Bushmen eat some seventy-five different wild plants: Ibid.

The Irish were so dependent: Richard Manning, Against the Grain (New York: North Point Press, 2005), 72–79.

Instead of the ecological desert: Lee DeHaan and David Van Tassel, “Useful Insights from Evolutionary Biology for Developing Perennial Grain Crops,” American Journal of Botany 101, no. 10 (2014): 1801–1819.

The idea seemed so obvious: “Biomimicry: Nature’s Alternative to Genetically Engineered Foods,” Environment and Ecology (2015), http://environment-ecology.com/biomimicry-bioneers/372-biomimicry-natures-alternative-to-genetically-engineered-foods-.html.

Deep roots would also mean: Robert Kunzig, “Perennial Solution,” National Geographic, April 2011, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/04/big-idea/perennial-grains-text.

The work has been slow: Richard Harris, “Prairie Pioneer Seeks to Reinvent the Way We Farm,” National Public Radio, October 21, 2009.

In the early 1900s: Lance Gibson and Garren Benson, “Origin, History, and Uses of Oat (Avena sativa) and Wheat (Triticum aestivum),” Iowa State University, Department of Agronomy (rev. January 2002), http://agron-www.agron.iastate.edu/Courses/agron212/Readings/Oat_wheat_history.htm.

Claims from industrial corn companies: James Conca, “It’s Final: Corn Ethanol Is of No Use,” Forbes, April 20, 2014, http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2014/04/20/its-final-corn-ethanol-is-of-no-use/.

Chapter 9

the company has to feed most of the 569 million chickens: “Look What the Chicken Industry Is Doing for Delmarva,” Delmarva Poultry Industry Inc., 2014, https://www.dpichicken.org/faq_facts/docs/FACTS14.pdf.

Given this level of scrupulous attention: Jennie Schmidt, “The Truth About GMOs,” Boston Review, September 6, 2013, http://www.bostonreview.net/forum/truth-about-gmos/farmer-choose-gmos.

The Plenish beans have clearly been: Jennie Schmidt, “GMO Versus Non-GMO: The Cost of Production,” The Foodie Farmer, December 29, 2014, http://thefoodiefarmer.blogspot.com/2014/12/gmo-versus-nongmo-cost-of-production.html.

“We’ve had folks ask us”: Marc Gunther, “GMO 2.0: Genetically Modified Foods with Added Health Benefits,” Guardian, June 10, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/jun/10/genetically-modified-foods-health-benefits-soybean-potatoes.

Clearly, the companies that both: Sandy Bauers, “DuPont Develops New Cooking Oil from Genetically Modified Soybeans,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 4, 2015, http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/sandy_bauers/20150104_GreenSpace__DuPont_develops_new_cooking_oil_from_genetically-modified_soybeans.html.

In the fall of 2014, DuPont Pioneer and Perdue AgriBusiness: “DuPont Pioneer, Perdue Announce Doubling of Acreage for 2014 Plenish High Oleic Soybean Program,” Pioneer press release, November 18, 2013, https://www.pioneer.com/home/site/about/news-media/news-releases/template.CONTENT/guid.17F567F5-5AF2-7ED8-A7D6-27BAA176DEA2.

“We’re always looking for ways”: “DuPont Pioneer, Perdue AgriBusiness to Double Acreage for 2015 Plenish High Oleic Soybean Program,” Perdue press release, October 24, 2014, http://www.perduefarms.com/News_Room/Press_Releases/details.asp?id=1129&title=DuPont%20Pioneer,%20Perdue%20AgriBusiness%20to%20double%20acreage%20for%202015%20Plenish%AE%20high%20oleic%20soybean%20program; Sean Cloughery, “Delaware Officials Get Behind Popular Plenish Beans,” AmericanFarm.com, http://www.americanfarm.com/publications/the-delmarva-farmer/events/1705-delaware-officials-get-behind-popularity-for-plenish-beans.

“There is no ‘one’ system”: Jennie Schmidt, “Farming Techniques Do Not Belong to One Farming System,” The Foodie Farmer, June 5, 2015, http://thefoodiefarmer.blogspot.com/2015/06/farming-techniques-do-not-belong-to-one.html.

“Because this is spraying and not dousing”: Jennie Schmidt, “Spraying Isn’t Dousing,” The Foodie Farmer, June 15, 2015, http://thefoodiefarmer.blogspot.com/2015/06/spraying-isnt-dousing.html.

In the Chesapeake Bay watershed: Timothy Wheeler, “Sodden Fields Delay Planting of Cover Crops to Aid the Bay,” Baltimore Sun, November 21, 2009, http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-11-21/news/0911200158_1_crop-program-planting-busy-harvesting.

Indeed, they note, the word is featured prominently: “Our Commitment to Sustainable Agriculture,” Monsanto.com, http://www.monsanto.com/whoweare/pages/our-commitment-to-sustainable-agriculture.aspx.

“Industrial agriculture today”: André Leu and Ronnie Cummins, “From ‘Sustainable’ to ‘Regenerative’—The Future of Food,” Common Dreams, November 10, 2015, http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/10/28/sustainable-regenerative-future-food.

Chapter 10

“There are two spiritual dangers”: Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949; Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 6.

But given that by the end of the century: Whitty, Jones, Tollervey, and Wheeler, “Biotechnology: Africa and Asia Need a Rational Debate on GM Crops.”

“Over the last few years”: “Del. Farmers’ Market Sales Double in 5 Years,” WBOC News, December 26, 2014, http://www.wboc.com/story/27709471/del-farmers-market-sales-double-in-5-years.

Thanks to a national surge: Stephanie Strom, “USDA to Start Program to Support Local and Organic Farming,” New York Times, September 28, 2014, http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/29/business/usda-to-start-program-to-support-local-and-organic-farming.html.

As helpful as this has been: Brad Plumer, “The $956 Billion Farm Bill in One Graph,” Washington Post, January 28, 2014, http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2014/01/28/the-950-billion-farm-bill-in-one-chart/.

Gaps can be reduced further: Sarah Yong, “Can Organic Crops Compete with Industrial Agriculture?” Berkeley News, December 9, 2014, http://news.berkeley.edu/2014/12/09/organic-conventional-farming-yield-gap/.

A thirty-year study: Bill Liebhardt, “Get the Facts Straight: Organic Agriculture Yields Are Good,” Organic Farming Research Foundation 10 (Summer): 1, 4–5; Pimentel, “Changing Genes to Feed the World,” 815.

But into this vacuum: “Mission 2014: Feeding the World,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/mission2014/solutions/urban-agriculture; Trish Popovitch, “10 American Cities Lead the Way with Urban Agricultural Ordinances,” Seedstock, May 27, 2014, http://seedstock.com/2014/05/27/10-american-cities-lead-the-way-with-urban-agriculture-ordinances/.

Epilogue

Using a gene-silencing technique: Tom Philpott, “The Seven Biggest Food Stories of 2015,” Mother Jones, December 30, 2015, http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2015/12/here-are-biggest-food-and-farm-stories-2015.

And then there are GM animals: Maggie Fox, “Lab-Grown Meat Is Here—But Will Vegetarians Eat It?” NBC News, August 5, 2013, http://www.nbcnews.com/health/diet-fitness/lab-grown-meat-here-will-vegetarians-eat-it-f6C10830536; Kat McGowan, “This Scientist Might End Animal Cruelty—Unless GMO Hardliners Stop Him,” Mother Jones, September–October 2015, http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/07/fahrenkrug-genetic-modification-gmo-animals.

“We’re going to see a stream”: Amy Harmon, “Open Season Is Seen in Gene Editing of Animals,” New York Times, November 26, 2015, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/27/us/2015-11-27-us-animal-gene-editing.html.

A recent story in National Geographic: Elizabeth Royte, “How Ugly Fruits and Vegetables Can Help Solve World Hunger,” National Geographic, March 2016, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2016/03/global-food-waste-statistics/.

Pesticides and herbicides are not (technically): See Charles Benbrook, “Trends in Glyphosate Herbicide Use in the United States and Globally,” Environmental Sciences Europe 28, no. 3 (February 2016), http://enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s12302-016-0070-0; Mary Ellen Kustin, “Monsanto’s Glyphosate Weed-Killer Is Pervasive, GMO Labels Nonexistent,” Environmental Working Group, April 10, 2015, http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2015/04/gmo-weed-killer-pervasive-gmo-labels-nonexistent; Mary Ellen Kustin, “Americans at Greater Risk of Glyphosate Exposure Than Europeans,” Environmental Working Group, February 3, 2016, http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2016/02/americans-greater-risk-glyphosate-exposure-europeans.