The complicity of many UN agencies in the unscientific, ideological and excessive regulation of biotechnology -- also known as gene-splicing, or genetic modification (GM) -- has prevented critical advances in agricultural and pharmaceutical research and development. ************* As self-appointed regulator-wannabe of much of what goes on in the world, the United Nations has become a profoundly negative influence. While its best known interventions--attempts to attain and maintain international peace and comity--too often are exercises in lowest-common-denominator diplomacy that progresses at a glacial pace, the UN’s essays into public health and environmental protection frequently are wrong-headed, self-serving and disastrous. Underlying the...