Mendel in the Kitchen has been described by reviewers as a pleasure to read; a clear account of the science, issues, and people involved in the development of genetically engineered foods; and a well-documented history of how the DNA in our food has been altered in various ways over the centuries.

The authors are Nina V. Fedoroff, an Evan Pugh Professor of Life Sciences and the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences at Penn State, and Nancy Marie Brown, a science writer and former editor of Research/Penn State magazine. Brown and Fedoroff tackle their tangled, tricky, and timely topic by placing today's genetically modified foods into a historical perspective, explaining the science behind genetic modification, and refuting current myths about genetically modified plants. They argue that, contrary to public fears, genetically modified crops are our best hope for feeding humanity while, at the same time, preserving biodiversity and protecting the environment.

Fedoroff, who is a pioneer in the application of molecular techniques to plants and one of the world's leading experts in plant molecular biology and genetics, says "There are only two solutions: increase crop yields or plow more wilderness into farmland." She argues that the new molecular approaches hold the promise of being the most environmentally conservative way to increase our food supply for generations to come while also helping us to become better stewards of the Earth.

"What genetic engineering actually is and how it differs from earlier techniques of plant breeding is not understood by many outside the laboratory and breeding plot," Brown comments. "By writing this book we seek to answer the questions that most people--whether for or against the idea of genetically modified foods -- often forget to ask."

People have long modified plants by selectively breeding the ones whose genetic mutations made them more useful as foods. For example, long before scientists understood how genes worked, early humans had developed wheat, which carries the genes of different plant species. "To change a wild plant into a food plant requires changes in the plant's genes," Fedoroff explains. "Our civilization is the beneficiary of the genetic modification of plants by early peoples over thousands of years." During the 20th century, plant breeders discovered how to speed up genetic changes in plants by using chemical and radiation treatments. These techniques gave us red grapefruits and other new varieties of fruits and vegetables that are common in supermarkets today.

Advances in plant breeding and the expanded use of fertilizer produced the "Green Revolution," which allowed farmers around the world to keep pace with the recent doubling and redoubling of the world's population -- on essentially the same amount of farmland. Yet by the end of the 20th century, increases in the yields of corn, wheat and rice had begun to decline year by year, even as Earth's population continued to grow by some 80 million people each year.

"We will need to feed three billion more people in 2050 than are living on Earth today, and crop yields must be increased in order to feed them," Fedoroff says. "The challenge of the coming decades is to limit the destructive effects of agriculture even as we continue to coax ever more food from the Earth. Using our growing knowledge of plants and plant genes, and our increasing skill at modifying them with molecular techniques, we can make agriculture more focused and more productive -- if we are both wise and careful. Whether the technology will be helpful or harmful depends on how well people understand it and the choices they make about how it is used."

In Mendel in the Kitchen , Fedoroff and Brown tell entertaining stories about the history of plant modification and provide accessible explanations of the molecular techniques used in the genetic modification of crop plants today.

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