Reviews for Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stresses in Agriculture: Role of Genetic Engineering

The average rating for Plant Tolerance to Abiotic Stresses in Agriculture: Role of Genetic Engineering based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-08-13 00:00:00 Donald Hale I learned a lot from this book, and I mostly found the author's advocacy for GM crops to be persuasive, although there are points in the book where it feels like he is an apologist for agribusiness. He makes a strong case that most of the fears around GM plants are overblown and sometimes just wrong. I remember reading in the press about the concern that transgenes had gotten into Mexican corn and that that GM corn was killing off Monarch butterflies, but until I read this book I did not realize that the Mexican corn study and the Monarch butterfly claim both turned out to be wrong. There are good scientific reasons why genetically modified crops are not likely to spread transgenes into the environment or decrease biodiversity, and in fact genetically modified crops offer very significant environmental benefits in reduction of pesticide use and allowing the use of no-till farming which can simultaneously increase yields, reduce water use, save topsoils and turn farms into carbon sinks that will help to address climate change. GM crops aren't the be all and end all of modern agriculture, and there are certainly risks that have to be studied and controlled, but the auhor makes a persuasive case that the benefits hugely outweigh the downside. It is ironic that so much of the opposition to GM crops comes from environmental organizations when properly managed GM agriculture offers so many potential environmental benefits. In fact, as the author points out, Rachel Carson's famous book "Silent Spring" strongly advocated more research into biological methods of pest control of the kind made possible by GM as the best way to reduce dependency on environmentally damaging chemical pesticides.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-02-03 00:00:00 Thomas Sallah This book basically talks about genetically modified foods from how it began and the positive and possible negative effects. Although genetically modified foods are said to be 100% safe to eat, there are still many risks involed such as ; increase production of allergens which will cause more allergic reationcs ; Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, which means eating the GM foods may develop immunity for the bacteria living in the body. The ones benefiting from GM foods are the European union, which controls 70% of the production.