The advent of biotechnology has hastened the day of reckoning by accentuating the linkages among farming practices, the natural resource base, food processing, and consumption requirements and desires. Given the complexity of the food and agricultural system, how can the contributions, and limitations, of numerous perspectives be appreciated? Any reconsideration or redesign of the process has to accommodate the continued prospect of argument over the beneficial nature of new technologies because benefits will always be accompanied by risks and costs.