Lambrecht, Bill 1950(?)-

PERSONAL:

Born c. 1950; married Sandra Martin (a newspaper publisher). Education: Illinois Wesleyan University, B.A., 1972; University of Illinois—Springfield, M.A., 1973. Hobbies and other interests: Fishing.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Fairhaven, MD. E-mail—blambrecht@post-dispatch.com.

CAREER:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, MO, began as Washington correspondent, became bureau chief, 1984—. Cofounder, Bay Weekly (newspaper).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Society of Professional Journalists Award, 1989, for "Trashing the Earth"; Raymond Clapper Award, 1989, for "Trashing the Earth," 1993, for "Broken Trust," and 1999, for a series on genetic engineering; Outstanding Alumni Award, University of Illinois—Springfield, 1996; charter inductee, Bill Miller Public Affairs Reporting Hall of Fame, University of Illinois—Springfield, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Dinner at the New Gene Café: How Genetic Engineering Is Changing What We Eat, How We Live, and the Global Politics of Food, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Big Muddy Blues: True Tales and Twisted Politics along Lewis and Clark's Missouri River, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS:

Bill Lambrecht is a journalist who has long specialized in both political and environmental reportage. In his first book, he demonstrates how these issues are related. Dinner at the New Gene Café: How Genetic Engineering Is Changing What We Eat, How We Live, and the Global Politics of Food brings Lambrecht's years of researching and reporting on science, technology, business, agriculture, politics, and the environment to bear on the controversy over genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Lambrecht's primary career has been as the Washington, DC, correspondent for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis is the home of the Monsanto Company, a leading biotechnology corporation that has found itself at the center of the debate over GMOs. Lambrecht's research, however, took him to thirteen different countries over a period of several years. Lambrecht strives to present all sides of the story. Included in the book are interviews with Monsanto chairman Robert B. Shapiro, farmers who hope GMOs will rescue a faltering agricultural sector, and anti-GMO activists. Speaking to the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology Web site, Lambrecht recalled: "You find people on both sides of the debate that wanted me to write more about their issues, but I had to be balanced and objective…. I write from the intersection of science and politics. I'm a journalist, not an advocate. I wrote this book to give people what they need to make choices about a transforming technology."

One of the major themes of Lambrecht's book is how little information the public currently has about GMOs, which do not have to be labeled as such under current U.S. government regulations. Lambrecht suggests that U.S. consumers lack the awareness of the sources of their food that other countries have developed, in part because they have not experienced the famines and scares familiar to Europe and other nations. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly called Dinner at the New Gene Café an "indispensable history" of the GMO debate, remarking on the extensive testimony from major players in the GMO controversy and Lambrecht's balanced approach to the topic.

In an interview with Katherine Mieszkowski for Salon.com, Lambrecht said that his research has not led him to worry unduly about GMOs. "I have more concerns about pesticides and chemicals than I do about GMOs," he explained, "and if I'm hungry late some night and somebody sticks a bag of chips in front of me, I'm not about to pull my hand away at the prospect of there being a trace of modified ingredients in the bag." Instead, Lambrecht hopes that increased public awareness will lead to better uses of GMOs. He told Mieszkowski: "It sometimes seems that American consumers think their food grows in the back room of a grocery store. There's a disconnect between eating and where food comes from in this country that is not found in Europe and many parts of the world. In the U.S., we've become almost an island, and the sooner that companies realize that they're going to have to accede to labeling, the quicker they will be able to get on to the types of genetic applications that they're promising, such as healthier food, even food that wards off disease."

In his second book, Big Muddy Blues: True Tales and Twisted Politics along Lewis and Clark's Missouri River, Lambrecht recounts the history of man's manipulation of the Missouri River. Stretching across eight states and 5,761 miles, the Missouri is a key waterway. Unfortunately, it has been not only neglected, but abused. Lambrecht relates how the source of the river is tainted by dangerous E. coli bacteria, while the mouth of it is situated next to a Superfund toxic waste cleanup site. The author traces the historic journey of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark as they charted the course of the river, and uses their voyage as a means of illustrating later changes in the river. According to a Kirkus Reviews writer, Big Muddy Blues is "a strong if somewhat depressing account of the losses sustained" by the river, the environmentalists who have tried to protect it, and future generations who will face battles over water control. It is "a lucid, welcome work of environmental investigation," concluded the Kirkus Reviews commentator.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, March 15, 2005, Donna Seaman, review of Big Muddy Blues: True Tales and Twisted Politics along Lewis and Clark's Missouri River, p. 1250.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2005, review of Big Muddy Blues, p. 214.

Library Journal, August, 2001, Irwin Weintraub, review of Dinner at the New Gene Café: How Genetic Engineering Is Changing What We Eat, How We Live, and the Global Politics of Food, p. 146; April 1, 2005, Margaret Atwater Singer, review of Big Muddy Blues, p. 109.

Publishers Weekly, July 30, 2001, review of Dinner at the New Gene Café, p. 70; February 21, 2005, review of Big Muddy Blues, p. 170.

ONLINE

Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology Web Site,http://pewagbiotech.org/ (March 19, 2002), "Bill Lambrecht: Documenting the Development of Technology," profile of Bill Lambrecht.

Salon.com,http://www.salon.com/ (October 19, 2001), Katherine Mieszkowski, "The Genetically Engineered Pause That Refreshes."