Playing_God_In_The_Garden

Playing God In The Garden When a new product hits the market, whether it be a children’s toy, a food item, or a piece of clothing, opinions are formed almost instantly, and quality and value is quickly recognized. Michael Pollan’s article, “Playing God in the Garden,” featured in the New York Times Magazine, October 25, 1998, describes potatoes in a new way. Burdened for years by the Colorado potato beetle, a “handsome and voracious insect that can pick a plant clean of its leaves virtually overnight,” spud plants needed their own way to fight this powerful killer (Pollan 459). Monsanto, a chemical producing giant, has derived a way to force potatoes to produce insecticide through their DNA, without the aid of unnatural elements Pollan 459). Some members of the agricultural community shun this breakthrough in biotechnology , while others want to promote it and spread it worldwide. Monsanto calls its new potato plant the New Leaf Superior, exceptional in that it contains not only nature’s input, but human knowledge as well. This is the fourth year that biotech crops have been in the works, spreading roots to over forty-five million acres of American farmland (Pollan 459). The new leaf potato new, potatoes, pollan, organic, farmers, leaf, way, potato, crops, bt, until, product, labels, human, food, chemical, remain, produce, plant, one, major, however, god, dna, been, 466, 459, years, whether, warnings, violation, thus, testing, says