Novartis is a world leader in producing genetically engineered (GE) crops. The biological, economical and ethical implications of genetic engineering are highly controversial and poorly understood. We should not rush into another inadequately tested technology which promises to save the world, yet may have disastrous negative consequences: recall nuclear energy and organochlorine pesticides. For example, some GE crops produce pesticides in their cells, which are then consumed with the food. These foods are not labeled by the Food and Drug Administration as containing pesticides, and the health and environmental effects are not monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency. Some genetically engineered crops are self-sterilizing, which increases the dependence of individual farmers on the companies who own the genetic information contained within the crops. Other crops are genetically engineered to be resistant to herbicides that are manufactured and sold by the same companies that sell the genetically engineered crop. There is now evidence that GE crops can cross pollinate with non-GE crops and perhaps wild plants, spreading the potentially destructive genes. There are many arguments against advancing our technical understanding as long as our ethical understanding lags so far behind.

(The rest of the document is from a flier written and distributed by the Ad Hoc Bay Area Committee for Biotechnology in the Public Interest. Big thanks to Marcy, Faith, Jason, and everyone else who put this together)

Biotechnology involves the manipulation and transformation of life at its most fundamental levels. If used improperly, its consequences could be devastating.

Corporate interests led the United States to undermine the international Biosafety Protocol--which would have allowed countries to regulate genetically modified foods-against the wishes of 130 countries. The United States, said the Zimbabwean delegate to the talks, "is holding the world at ransom." (New York Times, February 24, 1999)
In the United States, manufacturers are quietly introducing genetically engineered ingredients into foods ranging from McDonald's french fries to Nestle's (R) chocolate to Isomil (R) and ProSobee (R) infant formulas, and have opposed efforts to require labeling of these products (Against the Grain, page 92). A Time magazine poll found that 81% of Americans favor the labeling of genetically modified food (January 11, 1999).
Members of the European Parliament recently voted for compulsory labeling of genetically modified food, and insisted that such foods be free of antibiotic-resistant genes and traces of toxic substances. This decision is in accord with stiffer European policies and wary public attitudes about genetic engineering. In the U.S., in contrast, over 50% of next year's soy crop will be Monsanto's genetically modified Roundup Ready (TM) soy. To inoculate Americans against what the New York Times calls the "open revolt" in Europe against genetic engineering, Monsanto has launched a multimillion dollar public relations campaign touting its commitment to "sustainable development." (Kirkpatrick Sale, The Nation, March 8, 1999)
The biotechnology industry promises to feed a hungry world. But experts say that world hunger is caused by problems in the distribution of food, not by scarcity of supply. Many of the biotech industry's methods are not only unnecessary, but also dangerous. Roundup, for example, is poisonous to all herbaceous plants. Using it to control weeds is like killing everybody in New York in order to manage crime in the city.
Genetic engineering is being developed by powerful and increasingly integrated "life science companies" that are subject to little oversight and few regulations. These corporations are obtaining hundreds of patents on living organisms-from seeds to microbes to human cell lines--giving them control over the genetic material that has until now been considered the common heritage of humanity.
The new biotechnologies will alter the genetic makeup of the plant and microbial world on which we depend for survival. This vast experiment may trigger increased pest and antibiotic resistances, the transfer of pathogenic genes among species, the creation of new viruses, and the introduction of undetectable allergens into the food supply. Unforeseen effects are also likely, especially in light of the haste with which genetically modified organisms are being released into the environment.
Pollen from genetically altered Bt corn produced by Novartis was found to be harmful to Monarch butterflies. The gene-altered corn, which exudes a poison fatal to corn-boring caterpillars, was introduced in 1996 and now accounts for more than one-quarter of the nation's corn crop- much of it in the path of the Monarch's annual migration. Pollen from the plants can blow onto nearby milkweed plants, the exclusive food upon which young monarch larvae feed, and get eaten by the tiger-striped caterpillars. In studies at Cornell University, the engineered pollen killed nearly half of those young before they transormed into the brilliant orange, black and white butterflies well known throughout North America. Scientists said that if the study's results are correct then Monarchs may soon appear on the endangered species list.  Some recent developments....

The current biotech agenda is not inevitable. We can make a difference. Read about recent progress.

QUOTES

Consumers do not want genetically modified food and it is proving impossible to persuade them that they do. The British electorate is notably resistant to the combination of wild-eyed techno-utopianism and stock market-fueled greed that, together with incessant lobbying by the genetic-industrial complex, has effectively stifled debate on genetic engineering in the United States. -The Guardian (UK), Tuesday March 2, 1999
The ultimate power to manipulate all biological processes--for that is where biotechnology heads--lies increasingly in private hands. Even as we pursue ever more exotic biological techniques, we lag ever further behind in putting existing medical technologies to proper use. The health benefits deriving from stem cell research are likely to be arcane and expensive, and nowhere near as consequential to world heath as, say, the application of existing cheap, low-tech treatments for malnutrition and infant diarrhea. -Richard Powers, New York Times, Nov. 19, 1998, Opinion Page

Web Sites We Recommend

Alliance for BioIntegrity
Campaign for Food Safety
Center for Ethics and Toxics
Council for Responsible Genetics
Food First
Genetic Engineering and its Dangers
Greenpeace
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Pesticide Action Network
Rural Advancement Fund International
Union of Concerned Scientists
Washington Biotechnology Action Council

Books We Recommend

Brave New Worlds: Staying Human in the Genetic Future, Bryan Appleyard (New York: Viking, 1998)
Genetic Engineering, Dream or Nightmare: The Brave New World of Bad Science and Big Business, Mae-Wan Ho (Bath, UK: Gateway Books, 1998)
Exploding the Gene Myth, Ruth Hubbard and Elijah Wald (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997)
The Human Body Shop: The Engineering and Marketing of Life, Andrew Kimbrell (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1993)
Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food, Marc Lappe and Britt Bailey (Monroe, ME: Common Courage Press, 1998)
Altered Genes: Reconstructing Nature: The Debate, Richard Hindmarsh, Geoffrey Lawrence, Janet Norton (eds.) (Allen & Unwin, 1998)
Access to the Genome: The Challenge to Equality, Maxwell Mehlman and Jeffrey Botkin (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998)
The Biotech Century: Harnessing the Gene and Remaking the World, Jeremy Rifkin (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Putnam, 1998)
The Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops, Jane Rissler and Margaret Mellon (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1996)
Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are, Barbara Katz Rothman (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998)
Owning the Future: Staking Claims on the Knowledge Frontier, Seth Shulman (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999)
Biotechnology, Weapons and Humanity, British Medical Association (London: BMJ Bookshop, 1999)