On Food and Cooking

varieties of wheat and cattle, citrus fruits
and chillis, many of which had never
before existed in nature. Today, genetic
engineers are exploring the hidden
potential for improving a given food plant
or animal not just within that species, but
among all species, in the entire living
world’s cornucopia of DNA and its
possible modifications.
Genetic engineering holds the promise
of bringing great improvements to the
production and quality of our foods.
However, like any powerful new
technology, it also has the potential to
cause unintended and far-reaching
consequences. And as the instrument of
industrial agriculture, it’s likely to
contribute to the ongoing erosion of
traditional, decentralized, small-scale food
production and its ancient heritage of
biological and cultural diversity. It’s
important that these environmental, social,