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The issue of the genetic manipulation of plants, animals and microbes is addressed within the context of food production. Genetic manipulation is defined within the wider area of biotechnology and some of the main benefits of its use are summarised; safety and risk are examined and some of the socioeconomic problems it can create are discussed. It is concluded that the technique can offer great potential benefits in terms of increased quantity and improved quality of food, but it raises social/ethical concerns which can be summed up by asking: Is it safe? Is it fair? Is it natural?

Our regular contributor on the educational scene discusses four books which deal in various ways with an area of continuing debate:

Examines various problems concerning the practical implementation of the principle of free choice. These are exemplified in a specific everyday context – the consumer′s freedom to choose food and drink products. Identifies a number of actual constraints on that freedom before the main question is tackled: what further restrictions might be considered justifiable and desirable? Suggests three categories of factor which might justify such restrictions – psychological factors associated with the maximizing of freedom of choice; safety factors concerned with the minimizing of risk; and ethical/social factors involving such issues as animal welfare and socio‐economic needs. Concludes that certain restrictions on the consumer′s freedom of choice may at times be justified by an appeal to other principles and considerations.

Our regular contributor discusses four publications, all written by university teachers, dealing with teachers' problems. The teaching profession has been under critical scrutiny lately and is low in public opinion. The new Education Reform Act has highlighted the need for teachers to be fully aware of their responsibilities, and these four books deal in different ways with various aspects of teacher training.

THE article which we publish from the pen of Mr. L. Stanley Jast is the first of many which we hope will come from his pen, now that he has release from regular library duties. Anything that Mr. Jast has to say is said with originality even if the subject is not original; his quality has always been to give an independent and novel twist to almost everything he touches. We think our readers will find this to be so when he touches the important question of “The Library and Leisure.”