World Hunger by Brian Kenneth Swain

About the book

Vangard Corporation, an agricultural/life sciences company led by the greedy and mercurial CEO, Robert Chase, has developed a new line of genetically modified seed products (rice, corn, banana, etc.). These seeds are designed to significantly increase crop yields, as well as draught, pest, and disease resistance, in the hope of reducing hunger in Third World countries, while earning huge profits for the firm. As the book opens, Vangard has begun testing the crops across a range of climactic settings, including Belarus, Colombia, and India. All goes well initially, and the products look very promising.

However, midway through the crops' development, reports begin to emerge of bizarre insect observations, involving species of much larger-than-normal size, appetite, and aggression (we're not talking fifties-era B movie airplane-sized bugs here, but species perhaps ten to twenty times normal -- just large enough be a fearsome yet credible threat). Several incidents occur in which domestic animals are killed, and eventually several people. It turns out that the high-growth genetic enhancements engineered into the seeds have been transferred into the insects through their ingestion of the GM test crops.

The company, has therefore, unwittingly created numerous new strains of genetically enhanced insects that are much larger, more aggressive, and resistant to pesticides and disease than their natural counterparts. The remainder of the story focuses on the insects as they become more plentiful and widespread, and the company's desperate efforts to combat them, while dealing with the media, environmentalists, the government, and other distractions. In the end, the scientists, entomologists, and field operatives will realize only partial success in eradicating the new species, leaving open the door to future mayhem.

About the author

Brian Kenneth Swain is author of the new novel, World Hunger, as well as a forthcoming novel entitled Directed Energy. He also writes short stories and poetry, and was the featured poet for May 2003 at Barnes & Noble of Webster, Texas. In addition he has published poetry and fiction in several literary journals, including Bayou Review, Pebble Lake Review, and Free Press Houston.

Brian is an engineer and businessperson whose professional career spans twenty-three years, including six with the USAF, seven each with AT&T/Bell Laboratories and UMS Group, and an additional three with McKinsey & Company.

He has served on the board of Christmas in April in Newark, New Jersey, an organization that renovates inner city homes, and has done extensive volunteer work for The Epilepsy Foundation of Southeast Texas, The Commemorative Air Force, BioHouston, and Houston Mayoral Candidate Bill White's campaign staff.

Brian has an MBA from The Wharton School, as well as BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University. He has two chow chows, and when not writing, he enjoys reading, playing guitar and piano, designing and building furniture, and running.