A brief word about terminology

Biotech sticking with the blander (and less controversial) phrase "biotech foods." In Europe, genetically engineered foods are more commonly referred to as genetically modified foods, genetically altered foods or GMOs (short for genetically modified organisms). A GMO is a plant, animal or microbe that carries extra genetic material, usually an extra gene built into the organism to give it new traits. Selective breeding of animals and plants does the same thing but in a slower and far less targeted way.

HOW IT STARTED?

The revolution that is presently trying to overturn 12,000 years of traditional agriculture was launched in 1980 in the US. This was the result of a little-known US Supreme Court decision Diamond vs. Chakrabarty which ruled that biological life could be legally patentable. Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, a microbiologist and employee of General Electric (GE), developed at the time a type of bacteria that could ingest oil. GE rushed to apply for a patent in 1971. After several years of review, the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) turned down the request under the traditional doctrine that life forms are not patentable. GE sued and won. In 1985, the PTO ruled that the Chakrabarty ruling could be further extended to the entire plant kingdom.

Our morality up to now has been to go ahead without restriction to learn all that we can about nature. Restructuring nature was not part of the bargain…this direction may be not only unwise, but dangerous. Potentially, it could breed new animal and plant diseases, new sources of cancer, novel epidemics." Dr. George Wald Nobel Laureate in Medicine, 1967 Higgins Professor of Biology, Harvard University

"The new genetic science raises more troubling issues than any other technological revolution in history. In reprogramming the genetic code of life, do we risk a fatal interruption of millions of years of evolutionary development? Might not the artificial creation of life spell the end of the natural world?… Will the creation, mass production, and wholesale release of thousands of genetically engineered life forms…cause irreversible damage to the biosphere, making genetic pollution an even greater threat to the planet than nuclear or petrochemical pollution?" - Jeremy Rifkin, The Biotech Century

50 points about the effects of GMO

HEALTH

1. Recorded Deaths from GM - In 1989, dozens of Americans died and several thousands were afflicted and impaired by a genetically altered version of the food supplement – L-tryptophan. A settlement of $2 billion dollars was paid by Showa Denko, Japan’s third largest chemical company.  
2. Near-deaths from Allergic Reactions In 1996, Brazil nut genes were spliced into soybeans by a company called Pioneer Hi-Bred. Some individuals showed high allergic reaction, leading to apoplectic shock (similar to a severe bee sting reaction) which can cause death. Animal tests confirmed the peril and fortunately the product was removed from the market before any fatalities occurred.  
3. Direct Cancer and Degenerative Disease Links In 1994, FDA approved Monsanto's rBGH, a genetically produced growth hormone, for injection into dairy cows – even though scientists warned the resulting increase of IGF-1, a potent chemical hormone, is linked to 400-500% higher risks of human breast, prostrate, and colon cancer. Rat studies confirmed the suspicion and showed internal organ damage with rBGH ingestion. In fact, the FDA's own experiments indicated a spleen mass increase of 46% - a sign of developing leukemia. The contention was that the hormone was killed by pasteurization. But in research conducted by two Monsanto scientists, Ted Elasser and Brian McBride, only 19% of the hormone was destroyed despite boiling milk for 30 minutes when normal pasteurization is 30 seconds. Canada, the European Union, Australia and New Zealand have banned rBGH. The UN's Codex Alimentarius, an international health standards setting body, refused to certify rBGH as safe. Several other GM approved products involve herbicides that are commonly known carcinogens - bromoxynil used on transgenic cotton and Monsanto's Roundup or glufonsinate used on GM soybeans, corn, and canola. According to researcher Sharyn Martin, a number of autoimmune diseases are enhanced by foreign DNA fragments that are not fully digested in the human stomach and intestines. DNA fragments are absorbed into the bloodstream, potentially mixing with normal DNA. The genetic consequences are unpredictable and unexpected gene fragments have shown up in GM soy crops. 
4. Indirect, Non-traceable Effects on Cancer Rates - Cancer is affected by the overall polluted state of our environment, and the 100,000 or so chemical combinations released into it. Some of these are harmless, but chances that their random combination (mostly pesticides) may cause cancer are 1000 times more than the sum of the individual chemicals indicated in separate tests. Entirely new ways of rearranging the natural order - genetic mutations – increase cancer risks. X-rays and chemicals cause genetic mutations, and mutagenic changes are behind many higher cancer rates - where cells duplicate out of control. 
5. Superviruses. Viruses mixing with genes of other viruses and retroviruses such as HIV, give rise to more deadly viruses at higher rates. This is true for the cauliflower mosaic virus CaMV, most used in genetic engineering - in Round Up ready soy of Monsanto, Bt-maise of Novartis, and GM cotton and canola. It is a kind of "pararetrovirus" or what multiplies by making DNA from RNA. It is similar to Hepatitis B and HIV viruses and can pose immense dangers.   
6. Antibiotic Threat – Via Milk Cows injected with rBGH have a much higher level of udder infections and require more antibiotics. This leaves unacceptable levels of antibiotic residues in the milk. Scientists have warned of public health hazards due to growing antibiotic resistance.  
7. Antibiotic Threat – Via Plants Much of genetic implantation uses a marker to track where the gene goes into the cell. GM maize plants use an ampicillin resistant gene. In 1998, the British Royal Society called for the banning of this marker as it threatens the use of ampicillin. The resistant qualities of GM bacteria in food can be transferred to other bacteria in the environment and throughout the human body. 
8. Resurgence of Infectious Diseases Gene technology may lead to the resurgence of infectious diseases. First, there is growing resistance to antibiotics used in bioengineering, the formation of new and unknown viral strains, and the lowering of immunity through diets of processed and altered foods. Second, horizontal transfer of transgenic DNA among bacteria also occurs. Studies have shown bacteria of the mouth, pharynx and intestines can take up the transgenic DNA in the feed of animals, which in turn can be passed on to humans. This threatens the hallmark accomplishment of the twentieth century - the reduction in infectious diseases that critically helped the doubling of life expectancy.
9. Increased Food Allergies The loss of biodiversity in our food supply has grown in parallel with the increase in food allergies. The human body is not a machine-like "something" that can be fed same type foods. We eat for nourishment and vitality. What is alive interacts or changes with its environment. Unnatural sameness - required for patenting of genetic foods - are "dead" qualities. Intuitively our body cells and the overall immune system reject such excess homogeneity.  
10. Birth Defects and Shorter Life Spans As we ingest transgenic human/ animal products there is no real telling of the impact on human evolution. We know that rBGh in cows causes a rapid increase in birth defects and shorter life spans.  
11. Interior Toxins "Pesticidal foods" have genes that produce a toxic pesticide inside the food’s cells. This represents "cell-interior toxicity". Potential long-term health impacts of this are not known.
12. Lowered Nutrition Certain GM foods have lower levels of vital nutrients – especially phytoestrogen compounds thought to protect the body from heart disease and cancer. A bean of the soy family showed increase in estrogen levels, raising health issues - especially in infant soy formulas. Monsanto's analysis of glyphosate-resistant soy showed the GM-line contained 28% more Kunitz-trypsin inhibitor, a known anti-nutrient and allergen.  
13. No Regulated Health Safety Testing The FDA only requests of firms that they conduct their own tests of new GM products, while it does not review those tests. Companies present their internal company records of tests showing a product is safe - essentially have the "fox oversee the chicken coup." Companies tailor tests to get the results they need. Essentially it is "like playing Russian roulette with public health," said Philip J. Regal, a biologist at the University of Minnesota.   
14. Unnatural Foods  It is well known that new modified proteins exist in GE foods, never before eaten by humanity, and the consequences are therefore unknown.
15. Radical Change in Diet Humanity has evolved for thousands of years by adapting gradually to its natural environment - including nature's foods. Within just a few years a fundamental transformation of the human diet has occurred due to massive consolidations among agri-business targeting two of the most commonly eaten ingredients in processed foods - corn and soy with little or no knowledge of the long-term health or environmental impacts. Approximately two-thirds of all processed foods in the US contain GM ingredients, including 60% of all hard cheese, some baking and brewery products. This is projected to rise to 90% within four years according to industry claims.

ENVIRONMENT

16. Toxicity to Soil The industry marketing pitch to the public is that bio-engineered seeds and plants will help the environment by reducing toxic herbicide/pesticide use. But the overall reality is exactly opposite. The majority of GM agricultural products are developed specifically for toxin-resistance - namely for higher doses of herbicides/ pesticides sold by the largest producer companies – Monsanto, Dupont Novaris, Dow, Bayer, Ciba-Geigy, Hoescht, AgroEvo, and Rhone-Poulenc. Also the majority of research for future products involves transgenic strains for increased chemical resistance. The primary intent is to sell more. According to predictions herbicide use will triple as a result of GM products. For example Monsanto's patent for Roundup was scheduled to expire. Not to lose their market share, Monsanto created "Roundup Ready" seeds. It bought out seed companies to monopolize the terrain - then licensing the seeds to farmers with the requirement that they continue buying Roundup past the expiration of the patent. These contracts had stiff financial penalties if farmers used any other herbicide. As early as 1996, the investment report of Dain Boswell on changes in the seed industry reported that Monsanto's billion dollar plus acquisition of Holden Seeds ( about 1/3^rd of US corn seeds) had "very little to do with Holden as a seed company and a lot to do with the battle between the chemical giants for future sales of herbicides and insecticides." The explicit aim was to control 100% of US soy seeds by the year 2000 only to continue to sell Roundup - or to beat their patent's expiration. In fact in 1996, about 5000 acres were planted with Roundup Ready soy seeds when Roundup sales accounted for 17% of Monsanto's $9 billion in annual sales. Not to lose this share but to expand it, Monsanto saw to it that by 1999, 5000 acres grew to approximately 40 million acres out of a total of 60 million - or the majority of all soy plantings in the United States. However, the problem with evolving only genetically cloned and thus carbon-copy seeds and plants is that historically, extreme monoculture (high levels of sameness in crop planting) has led to a loss of adaptive survival means - or where deadly plant infections have spread like wildfire. As a separate issue, according to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Monsanto’s Roundup already threatens 74 endangered species in the United States. It attacks photosynthesis in plants non-specifically - their quintessential, life-giving way to process sunlight. Since the genetically modified plants have alternative ways to create photosynthesis, they are hyper-tolerant, and can thus be sprayed repeatedly without killing the crop. Though decaying in the soil, Roundup residues are left on the plant en route to the consumer. Malcolm Kane, (former head of food safety for Sainsbury’s chain of supermarkets) revealed that the government, to accommodate Monsanto, raised pesticide residue limits on soy products about 300-fold from 6 parts per million to 20 parts. Lastly Roundup is a human as well as environmental poison. According to a study at the University of California, glyphosphate (the active ingredient of Roundup) was the third leading cause of farm worker illnesses. At least fourteen persons have died from ingesting Roundup. These cases involved mostly individuals intentionally taking this poison to commit suicide in Japan and Taiwan. From this we know that the killing dose is so small it can be put on a finger tip (0.4 cubic centimeters). Monsanto, however, proposes a universal distribution of this lethal substance in our food chain.
17. Soil Sterility and Pollution In Oregon, scientists found GM bacterium (klebsiella planticola) meant to break down wood chips, corn stalks and lumber wastes to produce ethanol - with the post-process waste to be used as compost - rendered the soil sterile. It killed essential soil nutrients, robbing the soil of nitrogen and killed nitrogen capturing fungi. A similar result was found in 1997 with the GM bacteria Rhizobium melitoli. Professor Guenther Stotzky of New York University conducted research showing the toxins that were lethal to Monarch butterfly are also released by the roots to produce soil pollution. The pollution was found to last up to 8 months with depressed microbial activity. An Oregon study showed that GM soil microbes in the lab killed wheat plants when added to the soil.
18. Extinction of Seed Varieties A few years ago Time magazine referred to the massive trend by large corporations to buy up small seed companies, destroying any competing stock, and replacing it with their patented or controlled brands as "the Death of Birth." Monsanto additionally has had farmers sign contracts not to save their seeds - forfeiting what has long been a farmer's birthright to remain guardians of the blueprints of successive life. 
19. Super weeds It has been shown that genetically modified Bt endotoxin remains in the soil at least 18 months and can be transported to wild plants creating super weeds - resistant to butterfly, moth, and beetle pests – potentially disturbing the balance of nature. A study in Denmark (Mikkelsen, 1996) and in the UK (National Institute of Agricultural Botany) showed super weeds growing nearby in just one generation. A US study showed the super weed resistant to glufosinate to be just as fertile as non-polluted weeds. Also in a UK study by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, it was confirmed that super weeds could grow nearby in just one generation. Scientists suspect that Monsanto’s wheat will hybridize with goat grass, creating an invulnerable super weed. An experiment in France showed a GM canola plant could transfer genes to wild radishes, what persisted in four generations. Similarly, an Alberta Canada farmer began planting three fields of different GM canola seeds in 1997 and by 1999 produced not one, but three different mutant weeds - respectively resistant to three common herbicides (Monsanto's Roundup, Cyanamid's Pursuit, and Aventis' Liberty). In effect genetic materials migrated to the weeds they were meant to control. Finally an Ontario government study indicated herbicide use was on the rise primarily largely due to the introduction of GM crops. 
20. Plant Invasions We can anticipate classic bio-invasions as a result of new GM strains, just as with the invasions of the kutzu vine or purple loosestrife in the plant world.
21. Destruction of Forest Life GM trees or "super trees" are being developed which can be sprayed from the air to kill literally all of surrounding life, except the GM trees. There is an attempt underway to transform international forestry by introducing multiple species of such trees. Unlike rainforests teaming with life, where a single tree can host thousands of unique species of insects, fungi, mammals and birds in an interconnected ecosphere the super trees are often sterile and flowerless,. More ominously pollen from such trees, because of their height, has traveled as much as 600 kilometers.
22. Terminator Trees Monsanto has developed plans with the New Zealand Forest Research Agency to create non-flowering, herbicide-resistant and with leaves exuding toxic chemicals trees to kill caterpillars and other surrounding insects – destroying the ecology of forest life.
23. Superpests Lab tests indicate that common plant pests such as cotton boll worms will evolve into super pests immune from the Bt sprays used by organic farmers. Pests the transgenic cotton was meant to kill - cotton bollworms, pink bollworms, and budworms - were once "secondary pests." Toxic chemicals killed off their predators, unbalanced nature, and thus made them "major pests."  
24. Animal Bio-invasions Fish and marine life are threatened by accidental release of GM fish currently under development in several countries – trout, carp, and salmon several times the normal size and growing up to 6 times faster. One such accident has already occurred in the Philippines – threatening local fish supplies. 
25. Killing Beneficial Insects Studies have shown that GM products can kill beneficial insects – most notably the monarch butterfly larvae. Swiss government researchers found Bt crops killed lacewings that ate the cottonworms which the Bt targeted. A study reported in 1997 by New Scientist indicates honeybees may be harmed by feeding on proteins found in GM canola flowers. Other studies relate to the death of bees (40% died during a contained trial with Monsanto's Bt cotton), springtails (Novartis' Bt corn data submitted to the EPA) and ladybird beetles. 
26. Poisonous to Mammals In a study with GM potatoes, spliced with DNA from the snowdrop plant and a viral promoter (CaMV), the resulting plant was poisonous to mammals (rats) – damaging vital organs, the stomach lining and immune system. CaMV is a pararetrovirus. It can reactivate dormant viruses or create new viruses - as some presume have occurred with the AIDS epidemic. All transgenic crops containing CaMV 35S or similar promoters which are recombinogenic should be immediately withdrawn from commercial production or open field trials. All products derived from such crops containing transgenic DNA should also be immediately withdrawn from sale and from use for human consumption or animal feed."  
27. Animal Abuse Pig number 6706 was supposed to be a "super pig." It was implanted with a gene to become a technological wonder. But it eventually became a "super cripple" full of arthritis, cross-eyed, and could barely stand up with its mutated body. Some of these mutations seem to come right out of Greek mythology - such as a sheep-goat with faces and horns of a goat and the lower body of a sheep. Two US biotech companies are producing genetically modified birds as carriers for human drug delivery. Gene Works of Ann Arbor, Michigan has up to 60 birds under "development." GM products, in general, allow companies to own the rights to create, direct, and orchestrate the evolution of animals. 
28. Support of Animal Factory Farming Rather than using the best of scientific minds to end animal factory farming - rapid efforts are underway to develop gene-modified animals that better thrive in disease-promoting conditions of animal factory farms. 
29. Genetic Pollution Carrying GM pollen by wind, rain, birds, bees, insects, fungus, bacteria – the entire chain of life becomes involved. Once released, unlike chemical pollution, there is no cleanup or recall possible. Pollen from a single GM tree has been shown to travel 600 kilometers. Bees and other insects are likely to transport and pollinate organic plants and trees with transgenic elements. Even falling leaves can dramatically affect the genetic heritage of soil bacteria. The major difference between chemical pollution and genetic pollution is that the former eventually is dismantled or decays, while the later can reproduce itself forever in the wild. All of organic farming - and farming per se - may eventually be either threatened or polluted by this technology. 
30. Disturbance of Nature’s Boundaries Genetic engineers argue that their creations are no different than crossbreeding. However, natural boundaries are violated – crossing animals with plants, strawberries with fish, grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes with bacteria, viruses, and fungi; or like human genes with swine.
31. Unpredictable Consequences of a Gunshot Approach DNA fragments are blasted past a cell’s membrane with a "gene gun" shooting in foreign genetic materials in a random, unpredictable way. According to Dr. Richard Lacey, a medical microbiologist at the University of Leeds, who predicted mad cow disease, "wedging foreign genetic material in an essentially random manner…causes some degree of disruption…It is impossible to predict what specific problems could result." This view is echoed by many other scientists, including Michael Hansen, Ph.D., who states that "Genetic engineering, despite the precise sound of the name, is actually a very messy process."

IMPACT ON FARMING

"The decline in the number of farms is likely to accelerate in the coming years…gene-splicing technologies… change the way plants and animals are produced." Jemery Rifkin

32. Decline and Destruction of Self-Sufficient Family Farms “Industrialization” of agri-business have destroyed small, self-sufficient family farms via cutthroat competition (such as legal product dumping below production costs to gain market share - legalized by GATT regulations). The marketing of GM foods augments this centralizing trend on an international level. For example, two bioengineering firms have announced a GM vanilla plant where vanilla can be grown at a lower cost – and this could eliminate the livelihood of the world’s 100,000 vanilla farmers – located on the islands of Madagascar, Reunion and Comoros. Synthetic cocoa substitutes are also threatening farmers. It is estimated that the biotech industry will find at least $14 billion dollars of substitutes for Third World farming products.
33. General Economic Harm to Small Family Farms Many GM products, such as rBGH, seem to offer a boom for dairy farmers - helping their cows produce more milk. But the end result has been a lowering of prices, again putting the smaller farmers out of business. The same is true for GM pig and hen raising, when hens lack the gene that produces prolactin proteins. The new hens no longer sit on their eggs as long, and produce more. Higher production leads to lower prices in the market place. The average small farmer's income plummeted while a few large-scale, hyper-productive operations survived along with their "input providers" (companies selling seeds, soil amendments, and so on). Thus the self-sufficient family farmer is shoved to the very lowest rung of the economic ladder. Kristin Dawkins in Gene Wars: The Politics of Biotechnology, points out that between 1981 and 1987, food prices rose 36%, while the percentage of the pie earned by farmers continued to shrink dramatically.
34. Losing Purity At the present rate of proliferation of GM foods, within 50-100 years, the majority of foods may no longer be organic.  
35. Contamination A Texas organic corn chip maker, Terra Prima, suffered a substantial economic loss when their corn chips were contaminated with GM corn and had to be destroyed.  
36. Losing Natural Pesticides Organic farmers have long used "Bt" (a naturally occurring pesticidal bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis) as an invaluable farming aide. It is administered sparingly, in a diluted form. This harms only the target insects that bite the plant and is bio degradable. By contrast, genetically engineered Bt corn, potatoes and cotton - all exude this natural pesticide. Agricultural biologists predict this to lead to the destruction of one of organic farming's most important tools. The USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) now requires GM planting farmers to set aside 20-50% of acres with non-BT corn to attempt to control the risk and to help monarch butterflies survive.
37. Terminator Technology Plants are being genetically produced with no annual replenishing of perennial seeds so farmers will become wholly dependent on the seed provider. In the past Monsanto had farmers sign agreements that they would not collect seeds, and even sent out field detectives to check on farmers.  
38. Traitor Technology Traitor technologies developed and patented at a furious pace, control the stages or life cycles of plants – when a plant will leaf, flower, and bear fruit. This forces the farmer to use certain triggering chemicals to yield a harvest - causing deeper economic dependence. 
39. Less Diversity, Quality, Quantity and Profit One of the most misleading hopes raised by GM technology firms is that they will solve the world’s hunger. Some high technology agriculture does offer higher single crop yields. But organic farming techniques, with many different seeds interplanted between rows, generally offer higher per acre yields. This applies best to the family farm, which feeds the majority of the Third World. It differs from the large-scale, monocrop commercial production of industrialized nations.
40. Fragility of Future Agriculture With loss of biological diversity there inevitably develops a fragility of agriculture. During the Irish potato famine of the 19^th century, farmers grew limited varieties of potatoes. By contrast, there are thousands of varieties of potatoes in Peru – what provides adaptability and a constant resource for blight resistance. Farm researchers have tapped into this treasure chest for the benefit of the rest of the world. Reminiscent of the Irish potato catastrophe of the 1840's, Cornell Chronicle reports a still more virulent strain than ever - known as potato late blight is presently attacking Russian potato crops and threatening regional food shortages. The new strain can survive harsh winters. Thus the destruction rather than preservation of alternative, adaptable seed stocks by GM companies is dangerous for the future of agriculture.  
41. Lower Yields and More Pesticides Used With GM Seeds - The best of organic farming techniques - using rich natural compost - can produce higher drought resistance as well as higher yielding plants than with current technological attempts.  

 ECONOMIC, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL THREATS

42. Monopolization of Food Production Introduction of GM technology was made possible by quick mergers and acquisitions that control farming industry. Despite 1500 seed companies worldwide, about two dozen control more than 50% of the commercial seed heritage of our planet. In 1999, the top three controlled 88% (Dupont, Monsanto and Novartis). In the cotton seed market, Delta and Land Pine Company control about 75% of the market, threatening small family farms. Almost a quarter of all farm operating families lives below the poverty level, and most seek income from outside the farm to survive. A similar pattern is developing in Europe. It is meaningless to provide subsidies to farmers, who cannot control their production. 
43. Impact on Long-Term Food Supply If food production is monopolized, the future of that supply becomes dependent on the decisions of a few companies and the viability of their seed stocks. Like the example of Peru, there are only a few remaining pockets of diverse seed stocks to insure the long-term resilience of the world’s staple foods. All of them are in the Third World. Food scientists indicate that if these indigenous territories are disturbed by biotech’s advance, the long-term vitality of all of the world’s food supply is endangered.
44. Bio-colonization – In past centuries, countries managed to overrun others by means of fierce or technologically superior armies. The combined control of genetic and agricultural resources holds a yet more powerful weapon for the invasion of cultures. Only when people lose food self-sufficiency do they become wholly dependent.  
45. Dependency Under the new regulations of WTO, the World Bank, GATT, NAFTA, the autonomy of local economies can be vastly overridden. Foreign concerns can buy up all the major seed, water, land and other primary agricultural resources – converting them to exported cash rather than local survival crops. This is likely to further unravel the self-sufficiency of those cultures - and as with the past failures of the "green revolution."  

HUMAN RIGHTS

46. For the sake of consumer rights – Why should we consumers not know what is being sold to us? Why don’t we get full information as buyers? After all a market is never for the sellers alone. Let’s make it a buyers’market.
47. For Health/Environmental/Socio-Political Reasons The lack of labeling violates the right to know what is in our foods – and choose - use or not use GM ingredients. Even if GM foods were 100% safe, the consumer has a right to know such ingredients - due to their potential harm.
48. For Religious Dietary Reasons Previously if someone wanted to avoid foods not permitted in certain religions, the process was simple. With transgenic alterations, every food is suspect – and the religious and health-conscious consumer has no way of knowing without a mandated label.

DEEP ECOLOGY

49. The term bioengineering is a contradiction in terms. "Bio" refers to life - that which is whole, organic, inwardly organizing, conscious, and living. "Engineering," refers to the opposite - to mechanical design of dead machines - things made of separate parts, and not consciously connected - to be controlled, spliced, manipulated, replaced, and rearranged. "The crying of animals is nothing more than just the creaking of machines," wrote the philosopher René Descartes in the 17th century, expressing a mechanical view of nature. The genetic model is derivative of this same mechanistic way of relating to nature.  
50. Atomic Weapons vs. Gene Mutated Foods The image of modern progress brought about solely by perfected mechanisms or technology was punctured in the 1940’s with the explosion of atomic weapons – which brought humanity to the brink of global annihilation. Einstein’s formulas created the bomb. Only in hindsight and seeing this result, Einstein expressed the wish of never having taken on the career of a physicist. Genetic engineering, or the splicing of genes, may bear a more perilous outcome. We can prevent nuclear disaster or hopefully keep nuclear weapons bottled up. But genetic engineering creates products intentionally released - with potential chain reactions that may not be stoppable.

Nathan B. Batalion, Published by Americans for Safe Food. Oneonta, N.Y. Email at@earthling.net.