25 June 2002

PROPAGANDA IS NOT SCIENCE

Good to see Canada's industry lobbies AgCare and Agnet getting some exposure as well as Doug Powell's propaganda exercise where consumers are offered GE sweetcorn as an alternative to sweetcorn previously drenched in highly undesirable agrochemicals

1. PROPAGANDA IS NOT SCIENCE
2. Genentech/Fatal Harvest

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1. Propaganda is not science

June 24, 2002
The Chatham Daily News
Bradford Duplisea of Hull, Quebec

Kim Cooper would have readers believe ("Food safety is a fact," June 7) that Jeff Wilson's road-side project is about advancing food safety. In fact, this pseudo-scientific spectacle is really about convincing people that their concerns about GM foods are groundless.

Mr. Wilson likes to portray himself as a humble vegetable farmer. Consider this: he is former chair of the very pro-biotech "organization" known as AgCare, which your journalist failed to note. This is a serious omission of fact, because it ignores the obvious self-interest behind this endeavour. In addition, the "options" that Mr. Wilson presents to consumers are, conveniently, black and white - products of conventional, chemical-intensive agriculture, or products of agriculture biotechnology. All other possibilities are ignored, including organic.

Mr. Wilson's collaborator is Doug Powell, the industry-funded darling of the pro-biotech lobby and its chief attack dog. He regularly appears on the op-ed pages of the nation to denigrate anyone who criticizes the science or the regulatory framework around biotechnology, including the Royal Society of Canada.

Together, Powell and Wilson like to present a Norman Rockwell image of the farmer responding to the wishes of consumers. Given their strong financial ties to an industry that has forced these products down the throats of Canadians, and their long-standing opposition to the mandatory labelling of GM foods that an overwhelming majority of Canadians desire, one wonders who they really serve.

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2. Genentech/Fatal Harvest

Genentech Faces $500 Million Charge After Large Punitive-Damage Award
DAVID P. HAMILTON / Wall Street Journal 24jun02
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE4/Genentech-$200M-Punitive-Damages24jun02.htm
 
Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture
Book Review by STEVE HEILIG / SF Chronicle 23jun02
http://www.mindfully.org/GE/GE4/Fatal-Harvest-Heilig23jun02.htm
 
Steve Heilig is on the staff of the San Francisco Medical Society and Commonweal, a Marin health and environmental research institute. He wrote the policy for the American Medical Association calling for the reduction of antibiotics in food production.