Elaine Richardson

Would you eat genetically manufactured food? You know—where scientists do a little gene fiddling to create corn that produces its own pesticide or a papaya that's resistant to disease? If you had a choice, would you eat such a thing? Maybe not...

It actually doesn't matter—if you've been buying from the grocery over the past five years, chances are very good you're already eating genetically manufactured food. The hell I have, you say. All kinds of companies have been putting it in all kinds of things, with none of us the wiser—until it shows up on the nightly news that some kind of engineered corn not approved for human consumption (remember the Starlink corn scare?) is turning up in Taco Bell taco shells.

Partnering with the PBS pop science program "Nova," "Frontline" gives us two hours of news, and some science, taking a look at the brewing international controversy on just what's being done to our food. It's a fascinating two hours, chock full of more information than you EVER wanted to know about who's splicing what. Don't expect to be able to make up your mind at the end of it, though. In the greatest tradition of good TV news magazines, "Frontline" offers the facts and leaves you to make up your own mind—a hard thing to do considering that most of us are used to finding quality food, cheaply in the nearest Jewel, a perk that might not survive if everyone decides they just aren't eating anything with a genetic modification.

Which means you've got environmental groups that call this stuff "Frankenfood" and say companies on the bandwagon (specifically Monsanto, which is looking for a money-making scheme that isn't the pesticide biz) are trying to inflict this freakish stuff on the Third World. Then you've got people from places like Kenya who say that this is a way to feed the world and that all the opponents, Americans who are used to cheap food, have probably been shopping in grocery stores and have never had to worry about hunger, should shut the hell up. And though it's hard to argue with people who are trying to do things that can only be considered helpful like creating bananas that contain medicine, rice that's more nutritious for the world's children, fruits that retard tooth decay and, my personal fave, tobacco plants that actually fight cancer, it's still a little creepy.

The Frontline/Nova special, "Harvest of Fear" airs April 24, 9pm on WTTW-TV Channel 11 (PBS). (2001-04-19)

Also by Elaine Richardson

HOT AIR
School officials go on about standards and the importance of school reform in setting standards, but if standards mean that kids departing the CPS high school can read at a third-grade level, as opposed to a first-grade level, do we really want to count that as progress?
(2001-04-12)

CASE OF THE X
When you get jerked around on a regular basis, it's difficult not to harbor bad feelings. And though you determine not to let yourself be ill used, these days dysfunctional relationships are so much the norm you just end up going back to face the same old crap. That's how it is with "The X-Files" and me.
(2001-04-12)

POOR HOUSE
As our economic juggernaut tries to realign itself along more realistic lines, younger people are liable to find themselves, temporarily at least, without a job. So what do you do? If you're like most of us, living from paycheck to paycheck, you can't really afford to be unemployed, so it's always best to know your options.
(2001-04-12)

ON DELIVERY
It all sounds too good to be true -- that one of the most dreaded of life's tasks could be shuffled onto someone else, all without paying significantly more than you would by going out to get it yourself.
(2001-04-05)

HOT AIR
(2001-03-29)

THE ART OF WAR
(2001-03-29)

GET IN THE GAME
(2001-03-29)

SUFFERING GRACEFULLY
(2001-03-22)

REEL DEAL
(2001-03-22)

BAD BAD THINGS
(2001-03-15)

GHOST TOWN
(2001-03-15)

MIDSEASON SHUFFLE
(2001-03-08)

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