A Gene-Splicing Contrivance

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand,” Milton Friedman once quipped. That is certainly true of the international bureaucrats I rubbed elbows with in September during the meeting of a hapless United Nations task force charged with setting regulatory standards for foods obtained through biotechnology. They are making it harder for anyone, anywhere, to produce more varied, safe, and nutritious foods economically.