Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds

by Claire Hope Cummings Narrated by David Henry

Overview

Life on earth is facing unprecedented challenges from global warming, war, and mass extinctions. The plight of seeds is a less visible but no less fundamental threat to our survival. Seeds are at the heart of the planet's life-support systems. Their power to regenerate and adapt are essential to maintaining our food supply and our ability to cope with a changing climate.

In Uncertain Peril, environmental journalist Claire Hope Cummings exposes the stories behind the rise of industrial agriculture and plant biotechnology, the fall of public interest science, and the folly of patenting seeds. She examines how farming communities are coping with declining water, soil, and fossil fuels, as well as with new commercial technologies. Will genetically engineered and "terminator" seeds lead to certain promise, as some have hoped, or are we embarking on a path of uncertain peril? Will the "doomsday vault" under construction in the Arctic, designed to store millions of seeds, save the genetic diversity of the world's agriculture?

To answer these questions and others, Cummings takes readers from the Fertile Crescent in Iraq to the island of Kaua'i in Hawai'i; from Oaxaca, Mexico, to the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. She examines the plight of farmers who have planted transgenic seeds and scientists who have been persecuted for revealing the dangers of modified genes.

At each turn, Cummings looks deeply into the relationship between people and plants. She examines the possibilities for both scarcity and abundance and tells the stories of local communities that are producing food and fuel sustainably and providing for the future. The choices we make about how we feed ourselves now will determine whether or not seeds will continue as a generous source of sustenance and remain the common heritage of all humanity. It comes down to this: whoever controls the future of seeds controls the future of life on earth.

Uncertain Peril is a powerful reminder that what's at stake right now is nothing less than the nature of the future.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Former environmental lawyer and one-time farmer Cummings offers a persuasive account of a lesser-known but potentially apocalyptic threat to the world's ecology and food supply-the privatization of the Earth's seed stock. For almost a century, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has provided seeds at no cost to farmers who then saved seeds from one harvest to another, eventually developing strains best suited to local or regional climates. But Cummings also tells how seeds became lucrative, patentable private properties for some of the nation's most powerful agribusinesses. Cummings bemoans the "plague of sameness" intensified by the advent of such fitfully regulated companies as Monsanto, which now not only own genetically modified seed varieties, but also sue farmers when wind inevitably blows seeds onto their neighboring fields. According to Cummings, this "tyranny of the technological[ly]elite" threatens agricultural diversity and taints food sources. Among the author's many startling statistics is that 97% of 75 vegetables whose seeds were once available from the USDA are now extinct. Cummings heralds plans for a "Doomsday Vault" to shelter existing natural seed stock, and finds comfort in organic farming's growth, but her authoritative portrait of another way in which our planet is at peril provides stark food for thought. (Mar.)

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Library Journal

Seeds grow up to be many fundamental things: food, fiber for clothing, and lumber for houses. These plants also filter our air as they release oxygen. That plants are fundamental to our existence on this planet seems obvious, yet as journalist and former environmental lawyer Cummings argues here, genetically engineered plants seriously threaten the world's seed supply and the future existence of plants. Cummings carefully builds her arguments against genetically modified organisms (GMOs) much like a court case, relentlessly providing piece after piece of damning evidence. She contends that GMOs are a creation of big agribusiness to make money, and, with just a handful of companies controlling the market, they have created an enforced dependence on GMOs. Furthermore, she argues, government agencies and research institutions are both implicitly and explicitly supporting these endeavors. Her persuasive book reminds us all that we can no longer be passive observers to the world around us-our future depends on it. Highly recommended for all academic and public libraries.
—Marianne Stowell Bracke

From the Publisher

A must-read for anyone concerned about plants and what the privatization and manipulation of seeds may mean for the future of food. —Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma

"This fine volume provides the details of the way we do things now-and the keys to getting towards a farming future that might actually work."—Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

"Although the advent of GM foods has been described and criticized before, Uncertain Peril is the most coherent, complete, compelling, and well-written account yet."—Chip Ward, author of Hope's Horizon

"Highly readable . . . Cummings uses her finely tuned storytelling skills to explain why crop diversity is important, who controls commercial seeds, and why it matters that the biotech industry has tried to systematically destroy . . . the age-old right of farmers to save and reproduce their own seeds."—Hope Shand, Grist

"Uncertain Peril gives us passionate and persuasive reasons why we need more public discussion of the risks and benefits of agricultural biotechnology. Cummings never loses sight of the key question: Who decides what foods we eat?"—Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics and What to Eat

"The clearest and most passionate analysis and overview of the biotech seeds debate I've ever encountered."—Pat Mooney, author of Shattering

"I hope everyone reads it!" —John Seabrook, staff writer, the New Yorker

"[Cummings's] persuasive book reminds us all that we can no longer be passive observers to the world around us-our future depends on it. Highly recommended." —Library Journal, starred review

"A persuasive account of a lesser-known but potentially apocalyptic threat to the world's ecology and food supply-the privatization of the Earth's seed stock . . . stark food for thought." —Publishers Weekly

"A meticulous and lucid exposé . . . this wake-up call should renew public debate about our food and land use." —Booklist, starred review

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172077555
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	12/18/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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