Impressive research into a complex situation presented in a highly readable form.
There are no easy answers to questions about genetically modified foods, but environmental journalist Jenkins lays out the promise and the peril of the contemporary industrialization of food production.
Jenkins (English, Journalism, and Environmental Humanities/Univ. of Delaware; What's Gotten into Us?: Staying Healthy in a Toxic World, 2011, etc.) chronicles his interviews with scientists, farmers, and activists across the country in his exploration of the safety of genetically modified organisms, their sustainability, their potential to feed a booming world population, and the hazards posed by the accompanying system of industrialized agriculture that is wiping out small farms. It can be argued that the problem is not the technology but rather the industrial farming system’s widespread use of pesticides and herbicides. The safety question remains open with plenty of research still required, but the author points out that nearly all of the billions of cows, hogs, chickens, and turkeys consumed for the last couple of decades by Americans have been raised on GMO grains. Throughout, the author puts a human face on the controversy over GMOs with anecdotes about, and quotes from, individuals with a variety of viewpoints. An example is the story of the industry-saving development of a genetically modified papaya in Hawaii and the fierce fight in that state between pro and anti–GMO forces. Jenkins makes the point that while genetic engineering offers the potential to improve nutrition globally, large biotech food corporations have so far focused their attention elsewhere—e.g., in North America on highly profitable commodity crops like corn, soy, and canola. Jenkins clearly favors a kind of middle way of farming in which enlightened local farmers use technology on a scale that minimizes the hazards of industrialized agriculture. Perhaps not surprisingly, the author concludes with scenes of people cultivating their own gardens, including his students, who find joy on a local farm pulling weeds and hoeing beans.
Impressive research into a complex situation presented in a highly readable form.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-59463-460-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Avery
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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