Letters

We don't want bio-engineered food, but we do want our privacy: Readers respond to Alan Goldstein's "Bio-stupid" and David Brin's "Three Cheers for the Surveillance Society."

Aug 6, 2004 | [Read "Bio-stupid."]

Alan Goldstein contrasts the ignorance and arrogance of the biotechnologists with the ignorance and arrogance of the biotech protesters. It is not a pretty picture.

I was in the Reclaim the Commons group; I am not ignorant of genetics or cell biology and I am daily bombarded with one aspect of bio-engineering (pharmaceutical marketing.) I agree with much of the criticism Goldstein levels against the protesters -- there is too much ignorance, too little understanding of both the biological sciences and the "science" of marketing, leading to a largely ineffective protest -- though in reality, many points were scored by the protesters.

On the other hand, he admits to the same fears that drive the Reclaim the Commons people -- and their vision of the future is dark indeed -- it doesn't take a scientist to see that messing around with life forms may have unintended consequences.

The teach-in that preceded the protests and the Really Really Free Market that Goldstein was so contemptuous of was a large, well-organized and scientifically literate program lasting several days. Unfortunately, many of the protesters did not attend these events, or they would have been both better informed and more frightened. Reclaim the Commons does not claim to be a university course, and it freely mixes magic with "science" -- but the science is there. It's a "commons" after all!

If Goldstein and his friends really want to save the world -- as opposed to just making witty comments as the ship goes down -- perhaps he could address himself to a group that has put a lot of themselves on the line in that effort and who are desperately in need of any support they can get in their quest to save humanity from itself. Perhaps he would like to help improve Reclaim the Commons? I don't see anyone else out there doing the job they are doing -- a job Goldstein himself implies needs doing. If there were, I would join it myself.

Dr. Goldstein, get on board! Don't just carp from the sidelines!

-- Thomas S. Duncan

As a master's student in biochemistry, I was very excited to read Alan Goldstein's first few paragraphs in "Bio-stupid," stating that he is a doctor of genetics and molecular biology and that he was going to examine both sides of the GMO/biotech debate. To do this he would "witness, record and analyze both the BIO meeting and the reactions of an opposing force called Reclaim the Commons." Such a contentious issue receives less play than it deserves in the media, often due to the lack of scientific understanding among reporters. Finally, here was someone who would pull back the curtain and ask the Wizard some well-informed and incisive questions.

How disappointed I was by the article that followed! Goldstein didn't make it into the BIO summit held in San Francisco because he failed to register in advance. The article mentions no attempt to speak to anyone from Reclaim the Commons. Instead, he teaches an impromptu seminar on biotechnology and ethics at a weekend market. Shockingly, he finds that people without a bioscience degree don't seem to understand what a stem cell is or what its manipulation might produce in terms of medical technology.

Goldstein writes early in the piece that "The BIO forces ... could have devastating and irrevocable consequences for the ecology of our planet," but he does very little to explain why this might be so. As a biochemist, I understand the process by which a fish gene can be inserted into a strawberry, but I don't understand enough about agriculture and ecology to know why spraying GMO bacteria on crops might lead to catastrophe. As someone trained in agronomy and in biotechnology, Goldstein is uniquely positioned to inform the public about why this is so. It seems that he could do his part to combat the ignorance he laments through his work in Salon. I hope sometime soon I get to see the article I thought "Bio-stupid" would be.

-- James Magee

Mr. Goldstein correctly characterizes what is wrong with most anti-technology groups: They have no idea what they're talking about. This observation could also be extended to just about any vocal "anti-" group. To really get angry about something someone is doing, it is almost necessary that you know nothing about them or what they're doing.

People are people. Even profit-driven biotechnology people are people. It could probably even be argued that marketing people are, at some fundamental level, people. And people do not typically wish to destroy the world. Anytime you hear a Luddite claiming that some new technology will destroy the world, you are hearing the cries of someone who does not accept that people are people. You are hearing the braying of a bigot. You are hearing someone whose anger is born of ignorance.

While I agree that genetic engineering is a technology that we need to be careful with, the benefits far outweigh the risks, in my opinion, and in the opinion of most of the researchers. Furthermore, I would much rather eat a tomato (an edible fruit) with a fish gene (an edible animal) than a tomato dusted with poison. To me, as well as to most of the researchers involved, recombinant genetic technology promises a much "greener" future than the paradigm in which we live now.

Finally, arguing against technology will always be an exercise in futility. Technology is a natural product of human intelligence. It is always scary. It is always a jump into the unknown. But it is inevitable. Anything which can be done will be done. People have free will, but only to the extent that simple statistical probability allows.

-- Aaron Batty

Although I can appreciate the careful agnosticism in Alan Goldstein's article "Bio-stupid," it seems to me that neither he nor the woefully uninformed BIO conference protesters he covered made much of a case against bio-engineered food, other than to propose that it is somehow "a crucial ideological battle." There may well be serious moral or economic issues that need to be debated here, but unfortunately, opponents of stem cell research like the one in the story who didn't know what stem cells are, where they come from, or what they might do seem to add little to that debate. Likewise, for Dr. Goldstein to suggest that these people may be on to something big despite their ignorance seems like a stretch considering that neither he nor they really explained what all the fuss was about. Is it enough simply to say that big oil or chemical companies funded some of the research, or to invoke scary images of headless organ-donor bodies grown from stem cells?

If there needs to be a reasonable and fact-based discussion about the potential benefits and risks of this area of technology, stories like this only create confusion and do little to clarify or explain what are the real issues. If the only protesters Dr. Goldstein could find were the lame, uninformed goofballs he cites, then why not send him to a Star Trek convention next time; at least he might get in.

-- Bob Green

"The green revolution, totally reliant on mechanized agriculture, chemical pesticides and fertilizers, was never a true green technology. Now the same players are going to feed us with the green biotechnology revolution even though there is no real evidence that hunger in today's world is the result of a shortage in food production technology."

Hurray! Thank you, Salon.com, for having the fortitude to publish an article calling attention to the real issues at hand here ... and the unfortunate inaccurate ineffectiveness of those protesting agricultural biotechnology.

-- Gautam Barua

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