Food Ethics and GMOs in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl

This chapter examines the dangers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. I investigate how genetic technologies involve important questions about food ethics that could potentially lead to armed conflicts. While the answers seem to reside in genetic technologies, the distribution of benefits is by no means equal. I further argue that the core problems, as represented in both novels, center on matters of food and food ethics. Without the reconstruction of food ethics, the potential threat of military conflicts can turn into reality.