While not accurate, Crichton captured both the angst and ambitions that characterize
public discussions of genetic engineering. Today, as farmers throughout North America,
and increasingly the world, embrace the tools of agricultural biotechnology, environmental
and activist groups continue to dub the products “Frankenfoods,” consistent with the power-
ful Frankenstein science-out-of-control narrative that resonates deep within humans. The
claims of “untested” and “Frankenfood bad” is rhetoric designed to alert rather than
inform. Indeed, it can be claimed, and has been repeatedly, with a multitude of substantia-
tion, that specific genetically engineered foods are better for the environment, contain lower
levels of natural toxins, and are rigorously tested.
But that is not what this chapter is about. Health and environmental risks with any new
technology will always be open to continual debate and refinement—that is the process of
science and assessment of risk. Instead, this chapter attempts to highlight some of the
broader questions about the interactions between science and society, using genetically
engineered foods as a case study.
15.1.1 The Frankenstein Backdrop
First published in 1817, Mary Shelley’sFrankensteincontained many warnings about
science out of control. At a time when fundamental advances in organic chemistry were
leading some scientific charlatans to say that they had discovered the secret of life,
Shelley, a member of England’s radical intellectual elite, had Professor Walden,
Frankenstein’s teacher, say that
The ancient teachers of this science, promised impossibilities, and performed nothing. The
modern masters promise very little; they know metals cannot be transmuted, and that the
elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble
in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles.
They penetrate into the recesses of nature, and show she works in her hiding places. They
ascend into the heavens; they have discovered how the blood circulates, and the nature of
the air we breathe. They have acquired new almost unlimited powers; they can command the
thunders of the heaven, mimic the earthquake, and even mock the invisible world with its
own shadows.Through the new-found wonders of chemistry, Professor Frankenstein creates a life, which
pursues him, and finally, with his own life, he pays the price for scientific hubris. The cen-
turies are filled with such tales of scientific hubris and calls for humility.
15.1.2 Agricultural Innovations and Questions
The use of chemical inputs into agricultural food production has a lengthy history.
As early as 1000B.C. the Chinese used sulfur as a fumigant; in the sixteenth century
arsenic-containing compounds were utilized as insecticides, and by the 1930s the
production of modern synthetic chemicals commenced. With the onset of World War II
there was a rapid increase in the production and use of chemical substances such as
DDT, used for control of insect-transmitting malaria. The postwar era marked the start of
the modern agrochemical industry, and as a direct result of technical advancements in
chemical production during this period, various insecticides, fungicides, and fumigants
found their place in agriculture and food production (Powell and Leiss 1997).
344 WHYTRANSGENICPLANTS ARE SO CONTROVERSIAL