A farmer on CIAS's Citizens Advisory Council phoned me bright and
early the other morning to share his cold Cassandra sweat over
hearing about the "terminator gene." Asked me for further info to
pass along to some folks in whom he hopes to inspire interest and
concern on the topic. Thought I'd share the results of what I found
in a quick Web search.
Here is RAFI's news release, 13 March 98, as an overview; I believe
this is the one that came across SANET?
http://www.rafi.ca/pr/release14.html
Here's the story via The WINDS (World Internet Distributary Source, I
can't figure out who these people are; I take with salt any info
whose producers I don't know, regardless of whether I agree with what
they're saying, but in any case they see the possibility of using
food for social control, and thus I pass it along to you):
http://www.thewinds.org/archive/newworld/terminator_seeds04-98.html
Here is Mother Jones magazine's (admittedly yellow around the edges,
but then we expect that of MoJo) take on the issue:
http://bsd.mojones.com/news_wire/broydo.html
Click also on the link in this article "USDA Inc." for MoJo's take on
corporate influence in the USDA.
This URL points to seed-related biotech issues; but scroll up and
back for some excellent resources on genetic engineering in general
from NAL's Biotech Information Center:
http://www.nalusda.gov/bic/BTTOX/bttoxin.htm#ind
Chris King, a mathematician at the University of Auckland, has
compiled an interesting set of links on genetic techology politics
and ethics, population eugenics, gene therapy, xenotransplants,
foetal cell transplants, reproductive engineering, antibiotic
resistance, biodiversity/evolution, genetically engineered food, and
related issues.
http://www.mat.auckland.ac.nz/~king/Preprints/book/genes/genes.htm
He is also a Gnostic. Gnosticism is a philosophy that considers,
among other things, the relationship between the male and female
principles or energies as a way of knowing the cosmos. A very old
theme, articulated in many cultures and faiths. One might argue that
biotechnology is an effort to supplant that dynamic by making a gun,
rather than whole-genome sexual recombination, the mechanism of
biodiversity...which of course says a lot about the culture that
invented biotechnology...but I digress. This site has pointers to
some wonderful historical materials on Eden as the place of primal
biodiversity (a mythic agri-view) and the "sacred marriage" (hieros
gamos) as an agricultural ritual.