&i;`This immensely informative volume is required reading for everyone concerned about where the world is heading at the end of the millenium...If you read this book, you will see, if you don't already, why the future of our planet, the future of humanity, and so much of what it means to be human, are all hanging in the balance. That is why so many of the authors are campaigning against patents on life and genetic engineering agriculture.'&o; Mai-Wan Ho, Biology Department, Open University in Ecology, Volume 28, No 3 May/June 1998.