Unnatural Harvest: How Genetic Engineering is Altering Our Food

Unnatural Harvest: How Genetic Engineering is Altering Our Food maps the food production landscape that has cropped up since the demise of the small family farm in Canada.

Unlike the “Old MacDonald” farm of previous generations, farming has  become large-scale agribusiness where plants and animals are born in  laboratory petri dishes.

In Unnatural Harvest, Boyens examines the public risks that  may result from genetic engineering of our food and illustrates the  serious consequences this science may have for human and animal welfare  and the biodiversity of the planet.

Far from the “good news” media accounts of biotechnology  achievements, Boyens presents the other side of the story and brings the  biotechnology debate into the realm of ethics and consumer health.

Ingeborg Boyens admits she knew little about agriculture before beginning her research for Unnatural Harvest.

“Naïve in the ways of today’s farming, I had to learn that pigs are  kept in huge factory-like buildings, that no one uses a milking stool,  and that those endless, weedless breadths of crops are produced only by a rain of pesticides,” Boyens said.

Boyens may have little experience with agriculture but she does have a  wealth of experience in journalism and as a writer. Based in Winnipeg,  Boyens has worked for newspapers, magazines and the CBC for more than a  decade. She now produces documentaries on food and agriculture issues  for Country Canada.