Biodevastation: The Process Has Been Named.

• Author: Thompson, Greg
• Position: First Grassroots Gathering on Biodevastation: Genetic Engineering, Fontbonne College, St. Louis, Missouri, July 17-19, 1998 - Brief Article

The "First Grassroots Gathering on Biodevastation: Genetic Engineering" was held July 17-19, 1998 at Fontbonne College in St. Louis, Missouri. The gathering brought together 250 farmers, environmentalists, scientists, journalists and Green Party members. It marked the beginning of a citizen-led, organized resistance to biodevastation, genetically engineered foods and corporate control of the world food supply. Three days of panel discussions and workshops focused on all aspects of these critical issues and included the following topics: ethical and legal issues, the right to know, media censorship, genetic discrimination, patent issues, threats to biodiversity, bioprospecting and citizen organizing.

Attendees came from across the United States and from several other countries including Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Uruguay, Mexico, India and Japan. The Japanese delegation was particularly impressive. They sent more than 20 representatives to the conference and their group included two interpreters who provided simultaneous translation between English and Japanese.

One of the highlights of the event was an electrifying speech by the Indian physicist, Vandana Shiva, author of Biopiracy: The Plunder of Nature and Knowledge. Shiva rejects the idea of patents on life forms. She compared this idea to claims by European colonizers that the "undiscovered" lands of the New World were "empty." She also pointed out that the devastation wrought on the agricultural areas of India has led to the suicides of over 3,000 farmers in the past year. Hundreds of tractors from bankrupt Indian farms are sitting abandoned, waiting to be scrapped and recycled, while consumers are paying twice as much for food and farmers are paying twice as much for agricultural inputs. She advised that Monsanto and companies who engage in biopiracy should be taken off ethical investment lists.

Shiva pointed out that 60-70% of the world's food is still grown on small farms by women. A 10,000-year-old system of traditional agriculture has been targeted for destruction by giant corporate agribusiness. This is "biodevastation" Shiva stated, "The phenomenon that had not...