MEDIA COVERAGE
Click here to read the Q&A with the author from The Times Record.
PRESS RELEASES
What if you had the ability to feed the world’s hungry?
But then something went terribly wrong…
Brian Kenneth Swain, author of World Hunger (iUniverse, Inc., August 2007), takes you from the front page of today’s news into the corporate hallways of Vanguard Corporation, a fictitious agricultural company led by a greedy CEO with money to burn and backers to answer to.
“Although it is possible to make money and do good things, almost everyone, at some point, finds themselves in a position of having to weigh the ethics of their actions against the need for a livelihood…. but at what cost? This is the focal point in World Hunger, explains Swain.
In World Hunger, readers are drawn into real life ethical dilemmas as they follow Vanguard’s development of a new line of genetically modified seed products that are guaranteed to greatly increase crop yields and resist draught, pests, and disease all in the name of reducing hunger in Third World countries. And, of course, it doesn’t hurt that these crops will also earn huge profits for the firm. If it sounds too good to be true…
Vangaurd’s initial testing in Columbia and India look successful at first glance, but halfway through the crops development, reports begin to emerge of bizarre insect sightings that are linked to incidents of domestic animal slaughter, and eventually, the death of several people. The high-growth genetic enhancements engineered into the seeds have been transferred to the insects through their ingestion of the test crops, creating the first generation of “super insects”.
The strains of these mutations are much larger, more aggressive, and increasingly resistant to pesticides and disease than their natural counterparts. As the insect populations begin to grow, Vanguard desperately combats them while juggling the media, environmentalists, and the government.
Meanwhile, scientists, entomologists, and field operatives frantically work together to kill off these new species they’ve created and deal with the fallout of mankind’s apathy toward environmental meddling.
World Hunger examines real-life issues of speed versus safety in bringing new products to market and the ethical trade-off between big business persuing profits while feeding hungry people.
World Hunger is a page-turner that will leave you starving for more.