As we've said before (most recently, with Brandon's essay today), biotechnology needn't be crap. After all, we're not after creating genetic pollution. Rolland has a nice survey of recent developments in food-based biotechnology, and the problems careless biotechnology might present:

"one of the world's most important crops, sorghum, spontaneously hybridized with one of the world's worst weeds, johnsongrass, even when they were grown up to 330 feet apart; furthermore, the two plants are distinct species with different numbers of chromosomes."

On the other hand, some folks are already ready to head for the escape pods.