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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
The protesters at a San Francisco biotech summit were scientifically illiterate and politically irrelevant. But they were also right.
Aug 3, 2004 | I am a doctor of genetics, a Ph.D. in molecular biology. I am standing in a cable car descending Powell Street into Union Square on a quest to achieve total understanding of the issues raised by the appearance of BIO in San Francisco. I will disembark at the St. Francis Hotel and proceed on foot to witness, record and analyze both the BIO meeting and the reactions of an opposing force called Reclaim the Commons.
As a certified member of the techno-elite, I understand BIO. These, after all, are my people: the gene splicers, the sequencers, the oncologists, the toxicologists. But, of course, this is the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Which means that along with science comes the rest -- the MBA managers, the marketers, the V.C. guerrillas and the lawyers. These are not my people. But I assume they are fellow travelers, committed to the goal of science in service to humanity.
I am not here solely as a scientist, however. During the BIO meeting I intend to periodically exchange my pinstripes for blue jeans and consort with the environmental activists who are also in town. I know these people too. Unlike most biotechnologists, I came to molecular biology trained in classical plant breeding and agronomy, an unusual launching pad from which to land on Biotech Planet. Working with plants brings you into contact with a much greener crowd than, say, working with lab rats or hybridoma cell cultures.
In the 1970s, when I was in graduate school in Arizona, many of my peers were already deeply concerned with issues such as organic farming and the potential dangers of GMO (genetically modified organism) crops. One classmate, Gary Nabhan, would later win a MacArthur "genius" grant for his pioneering work to preserve the genetic diversity of Native American crops. Andrew Weil was across the street at the medical center extolling the healing power of plants.
During the BIO meeting in San Francisco, I will come to realize that looks are truly deceiving. The motley crew of protesters, chanting "biotech industry, go to hell" and waving signs that are equally eloquent, are, despite their low numbers and logistical confusion, engaging in a crucial ideological battle, a battle whose birth I witnessed right here in the Bay Area almost a quarter-century ago.
In America this battle appears hopelessly one-sided in favor of industry. The BIO forces are well armed and provisioned to excess, and they fly business class. Their propaganda offers up visions of a techno-green future for all but, in fact, their ascension could have devastating and irrevocable consequences for the ecology of our planet.
During the San Francisco BIO festival, the media will generally miss the real implications of this battle. In this case it is not the media's fault, since the battle is being waged with rhetoric that is virtually incoherent on one side and impossibly arrogant on the other. But to a farmer who grew up to become a cloner, it couldn't be more obvious. Left unchecked, agricultural biotechnology will lead us directly into an environmental catastrophe. And yet, those who have rallied to protest this march to disaster are themselves a toxic waste zone of incomprehensible and woefully misinformed ignorance.
