RE: Genetic Engineering

Wilson, Dale (WILSONDO@phibred.com)
Wed, 11 Feb 1998 10:17:54 -0600

> Jeff,
>
> What alarms me are the values that I perceive as underlying the
> current
> gene-mania. To me these values smack of simple greed, and the
> result is
> economic imperialism on a global scale fueled by a monomaniacal
> drive for
> control and centralization, carried out by huge transnational
> entities
>
> To tell you the truth, I'm alarmed too by the scale and consolidation
> of industry, including the seed industry. But this has been a long
> story, and the evolution of hybrid seed production systems has played
> a bigger role in this than the introduction of DNA technology. I'm a
> newcomer to the seed industry, although I worked on vegetable seed
> production and testing when I was with the University of Idaho. Then
> I took a job with a medium-sized seed company just before a surprise
> merger.
>
The company was absolutely driven to get Bt corn on the market
first. But there was a desperation about it, because the company was
having a hard time, and had been gutted a few years before by a big
downsizing. Rather than imperialism, my former colleagues were just
trying to keep their jobs. The corn seed industry is really
competitive, driven to a large extent by my current employer, Pioneer,
who does traditional breeding very well.

> The big pharmaceutical companies began buying into the seed industry
> some time ago, I guess with a view toward a long term outlet for
> genetic technology. But the path hasn't been that rosy. The seed
> business is just not very profitable. One thing is clear though, an
> economy of scale exists. Companies like Novartis, Monsanto, and the
> Pioneer/DuPont partnership are the only ones big enough to do the R &
> D needed to develop and implement biochemically-based genetic
> products. I don't see this as particularly sinister, although it may
> have some negative consequences. I think an analogy with the
> automobile industry is appropriate. If this is "economic imperialism"
> it is the same old stuff we've seen for a hundred years across the
> globe.
>
> which
> seem to have no respect or appreciation for the innate harmony,
> order and
> sanctity of life. That may sound a bit harsh, but that is how I
> see it. The
> future is created by our choices.
>
> IMO, the harmony, order and sanctity of life are threatened more by
> large scale crop production, tillage, monoculture, fertilizer runoff
> and the like, and simply by being overrun by humans, than by genetic
> tweaking of crop varieties.
>
> Dale
>
>

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