Product Description
Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, welcome us into their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders and see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. We learn how the couple, who share the goal of a sustainable agriculture, work together to tackle such issues as that of farmers trying to produce higher yields without resorting to environmentally hazardous chemicals--a problem that will loom larger as the world's population increases. A colorfully written, insightful look at genetic engineering and organic farming, this book will interest consumers, farmers, and policy makers.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 11 reviews)

What about us and the animals? by Grouch (U.S.A.)

3 Stars
February 02, 2009
I do not want to doubt the intentions behind the book's advocacy for marrying organic farming and genetic manipulation. The effort to raise yields while maintaining ecological balance is supposed to be a noble cause. The biggest concern I have on genetically manipulated crops is their effects on the immune systems of humans and the animals who ingest them. Since genetical engineering is a relatively new and cutting-edge technology, research on the long-term health ramifications on the individuals and their offspring remain scant. In other words, we really do not know how the GE crops are affecting our bodies, our reproductive cells, and our next generations' physiology. I'd stick with "purely" organic stuff as much as possible. My children may still come out weird and retarded, but I cannot blame it on the GE food I ate.

Help Solve the Growing Problems of Population and Hunger by Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)

5 Stars
January 16, 2009
Authors Ronald and Adamchak are an odd couple: Ronald a Professor of Plant Pathology and a supporter of bioengineering; Adamchak is an organic farmer, and has served on the board, as President and an in-the-field inspector of the California Certified Organic Farmers organization. Together, this husband and wife team may provide one of the most balanced views of how genetic engineering can not only co-exist with organic farming, but make organic farming healthier, safer, and more efficient. By combining the best techniques of both, Ronald and Adamchak argue that transgenic crops will be able to help solve the growing problems of population and hunger. The first part of Tomorrow's Table is an excellent introduction to organic farming and biotech, not too technical for non-scientists, but deep enough for those who want to know more about the science involved. The second half digs into the arguments used by the organic community against genetically engineered crops, how they can be, or have been, answered, and make a compelling argument that biotech can benefit the world in a responsible and healthy way.

If one proclaims 1 + 1= 3 enough times does it become true? by S. Fox (N. California)

1 Stars
January 11, 2009
That this book was such an easy and interesting read by clearly intelligent and caring people does not negate it's chief problem. The authors of this book repeat yet again the misrepresentation that genetically engineered plants have been tested and proven safe. If something has been proven safe then tests would have been conducted and they would have been published, somewhere. To make the claim that something is safe because tests have not been conducted is absolute rubish. I scratch my head and remain aghast. I even know these people and like them. Has the entire world gone mad? Do we live in alternate universes? The plant genetic engineers have been repeating this mantra since the mid 1980's when the purging of all of the scientists who dared to question the safety of the products of this very complex and sophisticated technology began. With so few at the major universities left to question or test the products of the technology how could safety testing be conducted? One would think that they would be proud of the wizardry that they had mastered and thus share the products of their finesse with pride. The reported costs of developing a new open pollinated classically bred variety runs in the low hundreds of thousands of dollars. The cost of developing a new genetically engineered variety starts in the millions. Now, if we need many new varieties worldwide suited to the very different environments that people farm, why would we use the most costly one? And why would anyone advocate using an untested technology to solve the massive problems of our times? I agree that we do need more varieties suitable for the super changing climate predicted. How to achieve this is where the authors and I disagree. What we need are local plant breeders who are funded and enabled to actually breed suitable varieties in an efficient way. And plant breeders can certainly muster adding a single gene from one rice line to another with something called back-crossing. But plant breeders are the very group of people who have been unfunded for over a decade thanks to what Reaganomics brought to us. The requirement that public university scientists secure private grants to pay for their research began the shift to more expensive, more propriety technologies. Along with that funding the knowledge gained became not the property of the public but the property of the corporation providing that money. Who have obligations to their shareholders to post profits. I am all for studying genetics and experimenting with and learning in a lab and greenhouse how genes express themselves and how we can use that knowledge. These folks should have been publicly funded and the new life forms developed should have had the chance to be properly tested before release. But these scientists were not fully funded by us. They had to go out and scrounge for money and lots of it as this was pricey cutting edge stuff at the time and still is. My belief is that it was the need for money that encouraged these gifted scientists to overstate the potential good and understate the potential harms inherent in releasing life forms so new and untested en masse out into the agricultural landscape of our farmlands. I do believe that if they had not been rushed to have some product to release for sale by corporations that they would have provided their new life forms to the public for proper testing. So, despite all the good intentions and potential sustainable uses of these new technologies, open and honest testing should still be a prerequisite to release. Until transparent safety testing has been published I do not think that you will find organic farmers clamoring to use the products of this technology.

Who would have guessed? by Anastasia Bodnar (Ames, IA)

5 Stars
December 07, 2008
A partnership between organic farming and genetic engineering might sound impossible, but might be the best chance we have to feed our growing population while taking care of the planet. Tomorrow's Table is not a technical text. It is a friendly discussion with a friend who invites you over for lunch. In their conversational tone, the authors make a strong case for integrating genetic engineering into organic farming, leaving behind many aspects of so-called conventional farming. Their points are backed up by much research, and references are provided the reader so he or she can learn more if they like. I hope this book will help some people to take a second look at genetic engineering, but it made me take a second look at organic farming. I had become convinced that organic farming was pointless and only for rich hippies. The discussion of the benefits of organic methods was more than enough to jolt me back to reality. In the interests of full disclosure, I'm a PhD student in genetics, and was generally in favor of genetic engineering before reading this book.

Tomorrow's Table: Organic low key propaganda for corporations by Joseph Cummins (from London, Ontario, Canada)

2 Stars
November 16, 2008
Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food is a commercial effort to impose genetically engineered food and the licenses to sell those seeds onto organic farming. The author claims that genetic engineering is just another farming practice from the long history of farming improvements. That claim is not right, genetic engineering is a fundamental and radical departure from the 14,000 year history of selecting improved varieties after crossing those plants. The genetically engineered crops are modified with synthetic genes in the laboratory that are claimed to be equivalent to natural genes . These synthetic genes Genetic Engineeringare not adequately tested nor are they allowed to be labelled in the market. Organic foods are the only foods presently marketed that are free of such untested synthetic genes. Beware of the propaganda from industry that flow from universities that are funded and controlled by large corporations.

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