Everyone from religious scholars to British lords seems to have an opinion on genetically modified foods -- whether it is that they are "Frankensteinian" or that they are creations revealing the promise of biotechnology in the service of humanity.
With the recent publication of a technique to genetically engineer rice and other crops to improve their yields, while also making them more tolerant to drought and temperature stresses, the fortunes of genetic technology would seem to be ever rising.
Moreover, the new technique is apparently safe. The biologists responsible, Ajay Garg and Ray Wu from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., emphasized that their method involves adding genes to plants that allow them to synthesize a naturally occurring sugar called trehalose. Critics of GM foods should be satisfied because the chemical composition of the edible parts of plants, such as rice grains, remains unchanged.