Biotech in agriculture: the issues and the stakeholders HSCI E137 Mar 9, 2011 Announcements: Essay Two assignment posted Sides and Roles for Debate 1 posted NW’s office hour in Rm 317

But first… Genetic testing and its dilemmas –Family implications –GINA and discrimination vs. privacy –Race and pharmacogenomics –Coerciveness –Slippery slopes –Genomania?

Krimsky’s Technology Assessment Index and rBGH milk

Agricultural biotechnology 1980s context familiar from Krimsky –Biopatenting –Deregulation –The mixed message Monsanto’s successful products –Bt (bacterial gene that produces a pesticide) –Roundup Ready (herbicide tolerance) –Arrangement with the seed companies

The Schmeiser Case 2001 Federal Court, Saskatoon 2004 Supreme Court Of Canada 2008 Out of court settlement From The classic David vs. Goliath struggle?

“The French may not think GM food fit even for animals. They are wrong. Grown safely, GM food will be the solution to the current food crisis in which too many die from having too much that is known to be bad, while too many die from having no food at all.” --Art Caplan, p. 50 “We must call this situation for what it is-- a situation of plunder for profit, of corporations willfully polluting our food supply….The answer is clear: stop the genetic experiment.” --Doreen Stabinsky, p. 77