“That’s where we have to start. When I see this amazing enthusiasm to get back to the land—there’s this yearning that drives it. If you look at agriculture as a purely economic industry, then one of the primary parameters is efficiency. But this is clearly not complete thinking, because you are dealing with nature, with a living planet, and if you’re trying to grow living food, with healthy qualities, it’s different than making a shoe or a car. It’s a qualitatively different environment. It would be therapeutic for both people and the land if more people did this sort of work.”
Certainly this has proved true for my students.
“I, as I imagine many of my peers did, found solace in the farm,” a student named Kelsey wrote. “This was where I found peace, where the only material goods I ever required were the occasional shovel or hoe. It was great to go home feeling sore because you had just spent the last two hours pulling weeds, leaving behind a clean bed ready for planting. It was here that I learned so practically the significance of food that you grow yourself. I learned the true meaning of patience and its reward. The joy of eating something picked just moments beforehand, planted perhaps weeks or months beforehand, is indescribable: only understood through experiencing it yourself.”
In my class, the idea is not to turn students into farmers, though in recent years a surprising number of them have gone on to work on farms after they graduate. This was not happening five years ago. Now it is. The reason, as far as I can tell, is that students are hungry—literally, hungry—to know more about where their food comes from. They see their generation’s relationship with food as emblematic of their engagement with the world generally. Eating microwaved chicken nuggets from the nearest fast-food joint seems considerably less appealing once you have spent dozens of hours tending an organic garden plot—not to mention the friendships you may have developed with a flock of charismatic hens, who trail alongside you as you weed a bed of potatoes.
“Before this semester, I had never worked on a farm, just the occasional community garden or nature preserve,” a student named Meghan wrote. “Now, after these past fourteen weeks, it will feel bizarre to go even a week or two without spending a few hours in that environment. For the first time, my understanding of environmental issues is not based only on articles I’ve read from newspapers and vague notions I have about sustainability, but also personal experience and several incredible works of literature.
“On a more interior level, my growth this semester can be harder to see. For me, it happened more slowly. But as I think about it, maybe it shows in the simple fact that feeding cows cabbage at eight-thirty a.m. was the highlight of my entire week, as was kneeling in a greenhouse pulling weeds, talking with Tanya, Rodger, and others about the philosophical things that always seem to come up when your hands are in the dirt.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Constructing a book about a topic as complex and diffuse as our industrial food system has required a great deal of assistance, and I am obliged to a long list of people for their help. During the course of my research, I spoke to dozens of scientists, farmers, activists, and philosophers, from Maryland to Kansas to Hawaii. I also dug deeply into the published work of scores of scientists and journalists who have wrestled with these questions for years, and whose work has shaped my own thinking a great deal.
At the University of Delaware, I have been blessed for twenty years with smart and imaginative students, who have helped me work through a long list of entangled environmental questions. This project owes a special debt to my students in the program in Environmental Humanities, and especially to my research assistants, Kerry Snyder, Tanya Krapf, and Molly Gartland.
Also at Delaware, Blake Meyers opened his plant science laboratory to me and offered far more patience and guidance than any writer deserves. He has since moved on to the Danforth Center in St. Louis, where he joins Jim Carrington, Nigel Taylor, and Paul Anderson, who generously shared their work and expertise with me. Karla Roeber graciously helped organize my visit to the Danforth Center.
In Maryland, thanks to farmers Drew Norman, Joan Norman, Nancy Bentley, Greg Strella, Jennie Schmidt, and Hans Schmidt; and to Sheila Kincaide, Larry Bohlen, and Alfred Sommer, professor emeritus and former dean of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins. In Baltimore, my dear friend Arnob Banerjee, MD, PhD, offered his deep expertise on genetics.
In Pennsylvania, thanks to Brian Snyder, head of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, and to farmer and entrepreneur Steve Groff.
In Kansas, thanks to Wes Jackson, Tim Crews, Lee DeHaan, and Pheonah Nabukalu. Their work at The Land Institute remains a beacon of environmental integrity.
In Hawaii, thanks to Dennis Gonsalves, Alberto Belmes, Richard Manshardt, Paul Achitoff, Craig Malina, Gary Hooser, Elif Beall, Jeri DiPietro, Fern Rosenstiel, Klayton Kubo, Dustin Barca, Gerry Herbert, Nancy Redfeather, Margaret Wille, Alika Atay, Gerry Ross, Janet Simpson, and Autumn Ness.
In New York, thanks to Steffen Schneider, Conrad Vispo and Claudia Knab-Vispo, and Craig Holdrege, whose work at Hawthorne Valley Farm, the Farmscape Ecology Program, and the Nature Institute, respectively, serves as the very model of enlightened land stewardship.
In Chicago, thanks to Naseem Jamnia, who proved an astute and scrupulous copy editor.
For their help with my understanding of plant genetics and the history of industrial agriculture, I am indebted to a long list of scientists and science writers, whose personal counsel or published work has helped clarify my own. These include especially Evaggelos Vallianatos, John Fagan, John Vandermeer, Marion Nestle, Alfredo Huerta, Bruce Blumberg, David Pimentel, Philip Landrigan, David Mortensen, Steven Druker, Michael Pollan, Nathanael Johnson, Aldo Leopold, Wendell Berry, Carey Gillam, Tom Philpott, Peter Pringle, Pamela Ronald, Richard Manning, Marie-Monique Robin, and Michael Hansen.
At Avery, thanks to Caroline Sutton, Brittney Ross, Brianna Flaherty, and especially Brooke Carey for helping me envision and shape such an unwieldy project. Copy editor Jennifer Eck polished the manuscript’s rough edges. And thanks, again and always, to my agent and old friend, Neil Olson.
At home, my deepest gratitude remains reserved for Katherine, Steedman, and Annalisa, who not only accompanied me on research trips to Hawaii and Kansas but also joined me for a 4,000-mile road trip across America’s amber waves of grain. Their love, support, and goodwill sustain me every day. They are my life’s greatest blessing.
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 (D
ecember 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.
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