FW: B-GE: NEW PRO-BIOTECH CAMPAIGN

["Campbell, Jon" <Campbell@Rational.Com>]

Hi folks,

    Only slightly off-topic. Note the reference about Steven Milloy, who
once joined our list (and was once a MONSANTO lobbyist).

    Our old adversary, Monsanto, is now heavily invested in genetically
engineered food crops. 50% of the soy, about 40% (?) of corn, and about 50%
of cotton is now Monsanto-engineered. The altered genes are in the pollen,
so horizontal gene transfer to other and similar species is likely. There
are extra, "novel" amino acids and/or proteins in the final crop, likely to
be allergenic, cause anti-body reactions, or be hormone mimics or
disruptors. Monsanto wants nothing less than ownership of the world's food
chain, patenting their new life forms and fooling farmers into using them
with false claims of high yields, or promoting herbicide resistance as a
feature (so the farmer can douse the entire field with Roundup herbicide and
not kill the plants).

    In the UK, this has caused a furor, with the entire population rejecting
the products and MPs calling Monsanto "public enemy #1" in the halls of
Parliament. Here in the US there are the rumblings of an anti-GE movement,
and so Monsanto et al have organized this PR campaign.

    I have left directions at the bottom of the message how to join the
ban-ge list; once you send in the sub the moderator will be in touch to put
you on the list, as it has been disrupted more than once by industry people.

    I strongly urge people in dioxin-l to get active in this effort. In many
ways, the genetic engineering of food and drugs in open fields could end up
being as disastrous as the dioxin disaster.

Thanks and regards
Jon

    

-----Original Message-----
From: T4shea@aol.com [mailto:T4shea@aol.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 14, 1999 12:00 PM
To: Ban-GEF@lists.greenbuilder.com; katmando@inlink.com; greenpar@iol.ie
Subject: B-GE: NEW PRO-BIOTECH CAMPAIGN


>From the author of Toxic Sludge is Good for you, and the coordinator of PR
Watch, John Stauber:
Date Posted: 05/27/1999
stauber@compuserve.com  (John Stauber)

The far-right Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) is launching a new
campaign to defend the biotechnology industry against bad press,
scientific
and activist critics and government regulation.

(Information about CEI can be found on their website at
<<http://www.cei.org/>www.cei.org>)

The campaign will be headed by Michael Gough, former manager of the
Biological and Behavioral Sciences Program at the (now defunct)
congressional Office of Technology Assessment.  Gough is also co-author
with
former Monsanto lobbyist Steve Milloy of the book "Silencing Science.."

(Check out Milloy's website at
<<http://www.junkscience.com/>www.junkscience.com>  It is searchable.)

CEI will, in their words:
         "Cement alliances with scientists...; entering legal actions,
and
regulatory proceedings... and appearing at public meetings on biotech to
counter outrageous claims about risks; monitor the activities of
environmental and other organizations that call for more regulations;
publicize that some of the greatest opportunties for achieving the goals
of
the envirofnmental movement ... is the use of biotech.

CEI is well funded by the usual array of industries and right-wing
foundations.  They are well interwoven with their brethern in the Cato
Institute, the Hudston Institute, Heartland Institute, Consumer Alert,
and
the other industry subsidized libertarian free market anti-regulatory
lobbies.  They are very skilled at media work and should definitely not
be
dismissed or taken lightly.
_________________________________________

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