Gary Comstock, professor of philosophy and director of the ethics program at North Carolina State University, will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum on Wednesday, March 12 at 6:45 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public; seating is available on a first-come basis. The Athenaeum is located at 385 East Eighth Street, at the intersection of Eighth and Amherst Streets in Claremont.
The author of the influential agricultural biotechnology book, Vexing Nature? On the Ethical Case Against Agricultural Biotechnology, Comstock is also the current editor of Life Science Ethics and is a world renowned ethicist.
Comstock will speak on Vexing Nature: On Ethics and Genetically Modified Foods. Genetically modified (GM) foods are those produced using new techniques of biotechnology. Comstock will lead an interactive discussion about moral objections to genetically modified foods, and will argue that the U.S. needs a broader discussion of the ethical dimensions of genetically modified foods if the environmental risks are to be minimized and benefits realized.
Comstock's lecture is the fourth in "The Environment in Crisis" series, which is sponsored by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Roberts Environmental Center, and the David French Lectureship.