Donna Haraway and GM Foods

by George Myerson

Genetically modified food has become in the past few years a portent symbol of the dangers inherent in technology and science and their commitment to "progress". The issues that have been raised foreshadow a greater ethical problem and fundamental philosophical impasse that is likely to arise, as science fact becomes more and more to resemble science fiction. Donna Haraway has taken in her work the implications involved for humanity, and for feminism in particular, this ever nearing synthesis of the human and the artificial. George Myerson examines the media hype in the light of Haraway's unrepentantly post-modern, but critical work, becoming ever more essential as we watch technology engulf our lives.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1840461780
• ISBN13: 9781840461787
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Icon Books
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 4.4" x 6.9"

Customer Reviews

cyborgs, mutants, food, and philosophy

Another interesting "postmodern encounter" between feminist philosopher Donna Haraway and GM (genetically modified) foodstuffs. Myerson presents key ideas from Haraway's book Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. Myerson nicely encapsulates Haraway's perspective(s) while doing some philosophizin' of his own. Are we to trust Myerson's take on Haraway? Myerson recommends that the reader experience Haraway's text firsthand. I like how this book questions the knee-jerk "GM foods are bad; GM foods must be stopped" campaign and ambiguously embraces the hybrid nature of GM foods. Myerson does a good job (via Haraway) placing the debate in a larger, more philosophic, context. As with other Myersonian postmodern encounters, there is plenty of insight here, age-old philosophy colliding with current events and pop culture. A timely and provocative essay; not without its flaws (it reads almost like a sophisticated book review or a decent grad student thesis) but worthwhile. It'd be nice if more people on the frontlines of the GM debate would read this (and Haraway's book). It perhaps skims over the dangers of GM foods a little (allergies, long-term effects, lawsuits, corporate food monopolies, etc), but does so because it is defending GM foods and personifying them in the process with compassion and intelligence.