The subject of genetically engineered foods has sparked hot debate and passionate rhetoric. On one end of the spectrum, I encountered environmental groups who feel biotechnology is the ultimate evil and has no place in agriculture. And on the other end I met industry people who feel biotechnology is the ultimate answer to virtually all agricultural problems and who can't understand public concerns about its safety. So, speaking with Gordon Conway, a real voice of reason that neither side can ignore, was a highlight for me. He’s an agricultural ecologist and president of the Rockefeller Foundation. Conway gives real legitimacy to the concerns of consumer and environmental groups, but he also believes biotechnology can offer people in the developing world a better life. He and others like him are critical if we’re going to work through the heated feelings on this issue.

The biotechnology field is changing rapidly, and new studies are pouring in all the time. Even with all the biotechnology journals and online services I subscribed to, staying current was a real challenge. I couldn’t open a journal without reading something that affected my story. Consequently, we had to keep making changes in my article right up to the end.

The idea of rat genes working in lettuce plants, fish genes functioning in strawberries, and spinach genes acting in pigs is cause for great wonder. There's astonishment and delight in the notion that genes from one branch on the tree of life could work for another organism on a radically different branch. It speaks to the unity of living things at the genetic level.