Program Mission

The Biotechnology Project's mission is to educate the public about the underlying ethical issues and possible public health and ecological consequences of the wholesale substitution of genetically modified food crops for more traditional crop varieties.

Background

Much of this work is derived from CETOS's early efforts in 1997-98 (see Against the Grain, Common Courage Press, 1998 -- in its third printing as of early 2004), which identified the most pressing issues related to the introduction of genetically modified food crops as being loss of genetic diversity of food crops, non-engagement of the public in dialog, labeling, and absence of adequate safety testing, monitoring and tracking of potentially harmful crops or their byproducts.

Project Focus

The focus of the current project is the expansion of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into previously underutilized agricultural lands (e.g., Brazil's Amazon Basin) and developing countries more generally (e.g., India); the risks attendant on spread of genetically modified germ plasm to non-engineered varieties (e.g., the spread of GM corn into Mexico); and the ecological disruption that comes with over-reliance on single herbicides or biological controls.

Our ongoing work on biotechnology links the Genetic Integrity Project's efforts to ensure genome stability and the Critical Habitat Project's concern about loss of genetic diversity with the expansion of pesticide use required by herbicide tolerant genetically modified crops.

Today Show

Mendocino County

Genetically Altered Soybean Research and Article

CETOS has conducted research on genetically engineered and conventional soybeans, testing the levels of phytoestrogens present (particularly the isoflavones thought responsible for protective benefits). Our Study titled, "Alterations in Clinically Important Phytoestrogens in Genetically Modified, Herbicide-Tolerant Soybeans" has been published in the Journal of Medicinal Food  (Copyright © Maryanne Liebert Publishers, Vol. 1, no.4, 1 July, 1999.)

• Abstract of CETOS Study

• Open Response to the American Soybean Association and St. Louis Post-Dispatch 6/25/99

• Nature Biotechnology Reports Favorably on CETOS Soy Research, September 1999 (Vol 17)

Biotechnology Articles & Reports

• Conservative Take on a Radical Technology
  OpEd printed in the San Francisco Chronicle on the need to label genetically engineered foods.

• Reductio ad Absurdum
  Is "life" held within the confines of a genetic sequence? Or do genes merely provide the building blocks of living entities which are then formed and framed by their interaction with nature?

• The Pacific Declaration
  The Environmental, Health, and Religious response to agricultural biotechnology in the United States. This document has been signed by 65 organizations in the U.S., and is an outcome of a conference held in July, 1999 in Bolinas, California.

• An Island Region's Self-rule: Kona Opposes Genetically Engineered Coffee
  Britt Bailey discusses the social and ethical aspects pertaining to the introduction of genetically engineered coffee plants to a pristine Hawaiian environment.

• On Civil Disobedience and Genetic Engineering
  An article discussing the need for persons to accept moral responsibility for their actions, and thus not violate the fundamental axiom of satyagraha: that the proponent of activist steps to oppose evil accepts whatever consequences his resistance to evil generates.

• US Farm Report
  Are we simply on an agricultural treadmill, racing furiously to maintain high levels of food production while exhausting environmental resources and damaging the potential for future food crop production? A look at current farming statistics.

• Soy Story: The Politics Behind the Boneless Protein
  How will soy fair during the second wave of biotech? This article discusses the current projects involving soy and the regulations pertaining to foods containing soy.

• Tour the Roundup Ready™ Fields (a photo journey)
  Photo-journey of Roundup Ready™ fields, from Arkansas 1997.

• Corralling Roundup®
  This article addresses the toxicity of Roundup® herbicide.

• Biotechnology's Awe Full Prospect
  The long-term implications of agricultural biotechnology.

• A Code of Ethics for Biotechnology
  Marc Lappé's draft of ethical guidelines for biotechnology.

• Feeding the World with Bioengineered Foods
  This article discusses the "myth" behind company and government claims of genetically engineered foods feeding the world.

• Genetically Engineered Soya: Contaminating the Great Treasure
  The history of the soybean, including its newest modification by biotechnology.

• Genetically Engineered Cotton in Jeopardy
  Mississippi farmers lose acres and acres of GE cotton.

• Crop Busting: More on the Roundup Ready™ Cotton Failure
  Mississipi farmers lose acres of Roundup Ready™ cotton.

• Engineered Crops Struggle in West Texas
  West Texas farmers lose acres and acres of engineered cotton.

• Bromoxynil Resistant Cotton
  The potential dangers of BXN cotton.

• Monsanto and the First Amendment
  CETOS staff has book project squelched temporarily.

• The Ecologist and Monsanto Company
  The story of the pulping of the Ecologist Magazine.