Utne Reader Book Reviews, May - June 2008

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Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds
by Claire Hope Cummings (Beacon)
The biotechnology industry spins its trial-and-error species splicing as a precise science that’s unlocking the mysteries of DNA in order to feed the world. Claire Hope Cummings resoundingly debunks this marketing offensive. By co-opting, manipulating, and patenting seeds—and strategically eviscerating local farmers’ rights to save them—agrochemical giants aren’t securing the world’s food supply; they’re putting it at risk. Genetically modified crops have eroded biodiversity and short-circuited the natural adaptability that is crucial in the era of climate change. Like many others, Cummings finds hope in sustainable and traditional farming. More valuable, though, are her scathing critique of the scientists who have shielded this unscrupulous industry from public scrutiny and her call to return the discourse—and control over our food supply—to the public domain. —Hannah Lobel

Revolutionary Spirits: The Enlightened Faith of America’s Founding Fathers
by Gary Kowalski (Bluebridge)
Who knew that George Washington avoided references to God or Jesus? Or that Thomas Jefferson edited miracles out of his version of the New Testament? In Revolutionary Spirits, author Gary Kowalski, a Unitarian minister, captures the quirky personalities and nontraditional religious views of these freethinking liberals (yes, that’s the word they used). Kowalski also includes chapters on Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, John Adams, and James Madison, all of whom believed in science, the wonders of the natural world, and some kind of divine presence. Yet many criticized organized religion, particularly Christianity, for its “superstition, bigotry, and persecution,” as Madison put it. “Question with boldness even the existence of God,” advised Jefferson. Amen. —Mark Pendergrast

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