by Jamie Metzl
43Santi Tafarella, “What Did Friedrich Nietzsche Take from Charles Darwin?” Prometheus Unbound, 2010, https://santitafarella.wordpress.com/2009/12/26/what-did-friedrich-nietzsche-take-from-charles-darwin/amp/.
CHAPTER 9
1Shepard Krech III, The Ecological Indian: Myth and History (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000). Whether humans are responsible for this extinction, to be fair, is hotly debated among archeologists. For the affirmative case, see Gary Haynes, “The Catastrophic Extinction of North American Mammoths and Mastodonts,” World Archaeology 33, no. 3 (2002): 391–416, doi:10.1080/0043824012010744 0. For the opposing view, see Donald Grayson, “Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence,” Clovis Hunting and Large Mammal Extinction: A Critical Review of the Evidence 16, no. 4 (December 2012), doi:10.1023/A:1022912030020.
21:26 (King James Version), https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A26&version=KJV.
3Chapter 3, The Works of Mencius, http://nothingistic.org/library/mencius/mencius01.html.
4Frank Dikötter, Mao’s Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe, 1958–1962 (New York: Walker & Company, 2010).
5Elizabeth C. Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future (Cornell University Press, 2010).
6Diamond v. Chakrabarty, 447 U.S. 303 (1980), https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/447/303/case.html.
7Paul Berg et al., “Potential Biohazards of Recombinant DNA Molecules,” Science 26 (1974): 303, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC388511/?page=1.
8Paul Berg et al., “Summary Statement of the Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA Molecules,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 72 (1975): 1981–1984, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC432675/pdf/pnas00049–0007.pdf.
9Rick Blizzard, “Genetically Altered Foods: Hazard or Harmless?” Gallup News, August 12, 2003, http://news.gallup.com/poll/9034/genetically-altered-foods-hazard-harmless.aspx.
10Cary Funk and Brian Kennedy, “Public Opinion about Genetically Modified Foods and Trust in Scientists Connected with These Foods,” Pew Research Center, December 1, 2016, http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/12/01/public-opinion-about-genetically-modified-foods-and-trust-in-scientists-connected-with-these-foods/.
11“Genetically Modified Seeds Market—9.83% CAGR to 2020,” PR Newswire, September 7, 2016, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/genetically-modified-seeds-market—-983-cagr-to-2020–592549281.html.
12For a fantastic overview of the regulations of GM crops in China, see: Alice Yuen-TingWong and Albert Wai-Kit Chan, “Genetically Modified Foods in China and the United States: A Primer of Regulation and Intellectual Property Protection,” Food Science and Human Wellness 5 no. 3 (2016): 124–140, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213453016300076.
13Chuin Wei-Yap, “Xi’s Remarks on GMO Signal Caution,” Wall Street Journal, October 9, 2014, https://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/10/09/xis-remarks-on-gmo-signal-caution/.
14“ChemChina Clinches Its $43 Billion Takeover of Syngenta,” Fortune, May 5, 2017, http://fortune.com/2017/05/05/chemchina-syngenta-deal-acquisition/.
15Christina Larson, “Can the Chinese Government Get Its People to Like GMOs?” New Yorker, August 31, 2015, https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/can-the-chinese-government-get-its-people-to-like-g-m-o-s.
16Fei Han et al., “Attitudes in China about Crops and Foods Developed by Biotechnology,” Plos One 10 (2015), http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0139114.
17“Statement by the AAS Board of Directors on Labeling of Genetically Modified Foods,” American Association for the Advancement of Science, June 12, 2013, https://www.aaas.org/news/statement-aaas-board-directors-labeling-genetically-modified-foods.
18Rod A. Herman and William D. Price, “Unintended Compositional Changes in Genetically Modified (GM) Crops: 20 Years of Research,” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 61 (2013): 11695–11701, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/jf400135r.
19A Decade of EU-Funded GMO Research (2001–2010), European Commission on Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology, 2010, https://ec.europa.eu/research/biosociety/pdf/a_decade_of_eu-funded_gmo_research.pdf.
20Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Genetically Modified Microorganisms: Report of a Joint FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Foods Derived from Biotechnology, WHO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland, September 24–28, 2001, http://www.fao.org/3/a-ae585e.pdf.
21Report 2 of the Council on Science and Public Health (A-12) Labeling of Bioengineered Foods (Resolutions 508 and 509-A-11), 2012, http://ag.utah.gov/documents/AMA-BioengineeredFoods.pdf.
22Read Safety of Genetically Engineered Foods: Approaches to Assessing Unintended Health Effects at NAP.edu. National Academies Press: OpenBook, accessed April 30, 2018, https://www.nap.edu/read/10977/chapter/1.
23Genetically Modified Plants for Food Use and Human Health—An Update, Policy Document 4/02, February 2002, https://royalsociety.org/~/media/royal_society_content/policy/publications/2002/9960.pdf.
24Genetically Engineered Crops: Experiences and Prospects, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2016): 15, https://doi.org/10.17226/23395.
25Elisa Pellegrino et al., “Impact of Genetically Engineered Maize on Agronomic, Environmental and Toxicological Traits: A Meta-analysis of 21 Years of Field Data,” Scientific Reports 8 (2018), https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-21284-2.
26Rebecca Goldburg et al., Biotechnology’s Bitter Harvest, Biotechnology Working Group, March 1990, http://blog.ucsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Biotechnologys-Bitter-Harvest.pdf.
27For a fair assessment of Monsanto’s work, see Drake Bennett, “GMO Factory Monsanto’s High-Tech Plans to Feed the World,” Bloomberg.com, July 4, 2014, accessed May 10, 2018, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-07-03/gmo-factory-monsantos-high-tech-plans-to-feed-the-world.
28Eurobarometer Biotechnology Report, October 2010, http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/ebs/ebs_341_en.pdf.
29Karl Haro von Mogel, “GMO Crops Vandalized in Oregon,” Biology Fortified, June 24, 2013, https://www.biofortified.org/2013/06/gmo-crops-vandalized-in-oregon/.
30Tom Nightingale, “Scientists Speak Out against Vandalism of Genetically Modified Rice,” ABC News, September 19, 2013, http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-20/scientists-speak-out-against-vandalism-of-gm-rice/4970626. The fraudulent Indian activist Vandana Shiva also piled onto the anti-GMO bandwagon, claiming that the Green Revolution, which saved up to a billion lives, actually caused hunger and that Golden Rice is a hoax.
31Mark Lynas, “With G.M.O. Policies, Europe Turns against Science,” New York Times, October 24, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/opinion/sunday/with-gmo-policies-europe-turns-against-science.html?mtrref=www.google.com&assetType=opinion.
32“EASAC Warns EU Policy on GM Crops Threatens the Future of Our Agriculture,” The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, July 10, 2013, https://www.knaw.nl/en/news/news/easac-warns-eu-policy-on-gm-crops-threatens-the-future-of-our-agriculture.
33For a damning assessment of the effectiveness of Germany’s Green party in undermining biotechnology innovation in Germany, see Günther, Susanne, “How Anti-GMO Advocates Hijacked German Science, Blocking Agricultural Innovation and Threatening the CRISPR Revolution: A Farmer’s Perspective,” Genetic Literacy Project, July 17, 2018, accessed August 5, 2018, https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/07/12/how-anti-gmo-advocates-hijacked-german-science-blocking-agricultural-innovation-threatening-crispr-revolution-farmers-perspective/.
34Paul Gander, “EU Enzyme Scrutiny Could Open Up GM ‘Can of Worms,’” Food Manufacture, August 8, 2012, https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2012/08/09/Are-enzymes-processing-aids-or-should-they-be-labelled-as-ingredients.
35Steven Cerier, “Anti-GMO Forces New Breeding Techniques (NBTs) Despite Simil
arities to Conventional Crops,” Genetic Literacy Project, February 26, 2018, https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/02/26/anti-gmo-forces-target-new-breeding-techniques-nbts-despite-similarities-conventional-crops/.
36“Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs),” Support Precision Agriculture, June 29, 2016, http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/nobel-laureate-gmo-letter_rjr.html.
37“Organisms Obtained by Mutagenesis Are GMOs and Are, in Principle, Subject to the Obligations Laid down by the GMO Directive.” Court of Justice of the European Union, PRESS RELEASE No 111/18, Luxembourg, 25 July 2018, Judgment in Case C-528/16, Confédération paysanne and Others v Premier ministre and Ministre de l’Agriculture, de l’Agroalimentaire et de la Forêt, https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2018–07/cp180111en.pdf.
38Callaway, Ewen. “CRISPR Plants Now Subject to Tough GM Laws in European Union,” Nature News. July 25, 2018, accessed August 4, 2018, https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05814-6.
39Marian Tupy, “Europe’s Anti-GMO Stance Is Killing Africans,” Reason, September 5, 2017, http://reason.com/archives/2017/09/05/europes-anti-gmo-stance-is-killing-afric.
40“Laureates Letter Supporting Precision Agriculture (GMOs),” Support Precision Agriculture, June 29, 2016, http://supportprecisionagriculture.org/nobel-laureate-gmo-letter_rjr.html. For more on the dangerous disinformation campaign mounted by anti-GMO organizations against Golden Rice, see Andrew Porterfield, “Anti-GMO Groups Draw FDA Rebuke over Misrepresentation of Golden Rice Nutrition,” Genetic Literacy Project, June 15, 2018, accessed June 18, 2018, https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/06/11/anti-gmo-groups-draw-fda-rebuke-over-misrepresentation-of-golden-rice-nutrition/?mc_cid=6c723bddda&mc_eid=6d7f502b6d.
41Researchers at Iowa State University have suggested that news entities backed by the Russian state are pushing anti-GMO news stories in the West. “How Russia Tried to Turn America against GMOs and Agricultural Biotechnology and Sow Ideological Discord,” Genetic Literacy Project, March 9, 2018, accessed August 4, 2018, https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/03/06/russia-tried-turn-america-gmos-agricultural-biotechnology-sow-ideological-discord/.
42National Academies of Sciences. “Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030,” National Academies Press: OpenBook, July 18, 2018, accessed August 5, 2018, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25059/science-breakthroughs-to-advance-food-and-agricultural-research-by-2030. https://doi.org/10.17226/25059; pp. 4–5.
43Mireille Jacobson and Heather Royer, “Aftershocks: The Impact of Clinic Violence on Abortion Services,” National Bureau of Economic Research, 2010, http://users.nber.org/~jacobson/JacobsonRoyer6.2.10.pdf.
44“Violence Statistics & History,” National Abortion Federation, https://prochoice.org/education-and-advocacy/violence/violence-statistics-and-history/.
45“Public Funding for Abortion,” American Civil Liberties Union, accessed May 1, 2018, https://www.aclu.org/other/public-funding-abortion.
46Adam Taylor, “The Human Suffering Caused by China’s One-Child Policy,” Washington Post, October 29, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/10/29/the-human-suffering-caused-by-chinas-one-child-policy/?utm_term=.d7fa61c5c3cb.
47Justin Parkinson, “Five Numbers That Sum Up China’s One-Child Policy,” BBC News, October 29, 2015, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34666440. The number is probably lower than 400 million because the country’s birth rate would almost certainly have decreased in conjunction with economic development and increasing education levels.
48David Masci, “Where Major Religious Groups Stand on Abortion,” Pew Research Center, June 21, 2016, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/06/21/where-major-religious-groups-stand-on-abortion/.
49“Views about Abortion,” Pew Research Center, 2014, http://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/views-about-abortion/.
50Lester Feder, Jeremy Singer-Vine, and Jina Moore, “This Is How 23 Countries around the World Feel about Abortion,” Buzzfeed News, June 4, 2015, https://www.buzzfeed.com/lesterfeder/this-is-how-23-countries-around-the-world-feel-about-abortio?utm_term=.veJX3nrV4#.swW7R0kQ8. A 2014 Pew poll found that people in the largely Catholic Philippines oppose abortion the most, while residents in mostly secular France oppose it the least. “Global Views on Mortality,” Pew Research Center, http://www.pewglobal.org/2014/04/15/global-morality/table/abortion/.
51Angelina E. Theodorou and Aleksandra Sandstrom, “How Abortion Is Regulated around the World,” Pew Research Center, October 6, 2015, http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/06/how-abortion-is-regulated-around-the-world/.
52Gina Pollack, “Undue Burden: Trying to Get an Abortion in Louisiana,” New York Times, May 16, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/opinion/abortion-restrictions-louisiana.html?_r=0.
53Joshua Seitz, “Striking a Balance: Policy Considerations for Human Germline Modification.” Santa Clara Journal of International Law 16, no. 1 (March 2, 2018): 60–100, accessed June 18, 2018, https://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1225&context=scujil. For an interesting take on how the gene-editing debate is making strange bedfellows of abortion rights opponents, see Sarah Karlin et al., “Gene Editing: The Next Frontier in America’s Abortion Wars,” February 16, 2016, accessed May 29, 2018, https://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/gene-editing-abortion-wars-219230.
54See “Alliance VITA ‘Stop GM Babies’ Awareness-Raising Campaign Confirmed by the Results of an Opinion Poll on CRISPR-Cas9,” Alliance Vita, May 27, 2016, accessed June 24, 2018, https://www.alliancevita.org/en/2016/05/alliance-vita-stop-gm-babies-awareness-raising-campaign-confirmed-by-the-results-of-an-opinion-poll-on-crispr-cas9/.
55Heather Mason Kiefer, “Gallup Brain: The Birth of In Vitro Fertilization,” Gallup, August 5, 2003, http://news.gallup.com/poll/8983/gallup-brain-birth-vitro-fertilization.aspx; “Abortion Viewed in Moral Terms: Fewer See Stem Cell Research and IVF as Moral Issues,” Pew Research Center, August 5, 2013, http://www.pewforum.org/2013/08/15/abortion-viewed-in-moral-terms/.
56“Awareness and Knowledge about Reproductive Genetic Technology,” Genetics and Public Policy Center, 2002, https://jscholarship.library.jhu.edu/bitstream/handle/1774.2/979/PublicAwarenessAndAttitudes.pdf?sequence=.
57“The Public and Genetic Editing, Testing, and Therapy,” Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, January 2016, https://cdn1.sph.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2016/01/STAT-Harvard-Poll-Jan-2016-Genetic-Technology.pdf.
58Funk, Cary, and Meg Hefferon. “Public Views of Gene Editing for Babies Depend on How It Would Be Used,” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, July 26, 2018, accessed August 27, 2018, http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/07/26/public-views-of-gene-editing-for-babies-depend-on-how-it-would-be-used/.
59“The Public and Genetic Editing, Testing, and Therapy.”
60“Results of Major Surveys on Attitudes to Human Genetics,” Ipsos Mori, March 1, 2001, https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/results-major-survey-attitudes-human-genetics.
61“Industry News: UK Public Cautiously Optimistic about Genetic Technologies,” SelectScience, March 8, 2018, http://www.selectscience.net/industry-news/uk-public-cautiously-optimistic-about-genetic-technologies/?artID=45918. Even though the UK population had come a long way toward accepting human genetic engineering, ironically only 51 percent of those polled supported the use of genetic technologies to increase the efficiency of food production. In other words, a full 25 percent more Britons support genetically modifying their children than do genetically altering a kumquat.
62Fung-Kei Cheng, “Taijiao: A Traditional Chinese Approach to Enhancing Fetal Growth through Maternal Physical and Mental Health,” Chinese Nursing Research 3 (2016): 49–53, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095771816300470; Baoqui Su and Darryl R. J. Macer, “Chinese People’s Attitudes towards Genetic Diseases and People with Handicaps,” Law and Human Genome Review 18 (2003): 191–210, http://www.eubios.info/Papers/yousheg.htm.
63David Cyranoski, “China’s Embrace of Embryo Selection Raises Thorny Questions,” Nature 548 (2017): 272–274, https://www.nature.com/news/china-s-embrace-of-embryo-selection-raises-thorny-questions-1.22468.
64Jiang-Hui Wang et al., “Public Attitudes toward Gene Therapy in China,” Molecular Therapy Methods & Clinical Development 6 (2017).
65Tristan McCaughey et al., “A Global Social Media Survey of Attitudes to Human Genome Editing,” Cell Stem Cell 18 (2016): 569–572.
66“Is Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGT) Acceptable for Catholics?” Institute of Catholic Bioethics, January 6, 2014, https://sites.sju.edu/icb/is-pre-implantation-genetic-diagnosis-PGT-acceptable-for-catholics/.
67Ioannes Paulus PP. II, “Evangelium Vitae,” 1995, http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae.html.
68Edward Pentin, “The Brave New World of Three-Parent Babies,” National Catholic Register, October 2, 2013, http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/the-brave-new-world-of-three-parent-babies.
69“Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: A Policy on Human Biotechnologies,” National Council of Churches, adopted November 8, 2006, http://nationalcouncilofchurches.us/common-witness/2006/biotech.php.
70Christopher Benek, “Religion+ for Humanity+,” H+ Magazine, March 25, 2014, http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/03/25/religion-for-humanity/.
71Rabbi Moshe D. Tendler and John D. Loike, “Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy: Halachic Considerations for Enrolling in an Experimental Clinical Trial,” Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal 6 (2015), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4524404/.
72Jaron Lanier, “The First Church of Robotics,” New York Times, August 9, 2010, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/opinion/09lanier.html?_r=1; Jaron Lanier, “Singularity Is a Religion Just for Digital Geeks,” BigThink, March 11, 2011, http://bigthink.com/devils-advocate/singularity-is-a-religion-just-for-digital-geeks.
73Susannah Baruch, David Kaufman, and Kathy L. Hudson, “Genetic Testing of Embryos: Practices and Perspectives of U.S. In Vitro Fertilization Clinics,” Fertility and Sterility 89 (2008): 1053–1058, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0015028207012162.