>Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2000 19:08:06 -0500 (EST) >From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Subject: [corp-focus] The Nature of the Machine >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailman-Version: 1.1 >Precedence: bulk >List-Id: Sharp-edged commentary on corporate power ><corp-focus.lists.essential.org> >X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >The Nature of the Machine >By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > >Imagine this: you study your entire life to reach the pinnacle of your >profession. First, you secure an undergraduate degree in biology from >Oregon State University. Then a PhD in developmental biology at Yale >University. Then on to Indiana University, where you teach and run a lab >on the cutting edge of plant research. > >And you have tenure. But you wake up one day and realize that by doing the >scientific research, you are creating the road map for corporations to >come in and apply the science for profit, thus destroying the nature that >attracted you to the study of biology in the first place. > >By this time you have become well known in your field. You are >"respected." In 1990, your lab gets the cover story in The Plant Cell, the >leading journal of the field. But exactly one month later, you decide to >write an editorial for the same publication announcing that such >scientific research is unethical and that you will no longer conduct such >research, thus effectively ending your scientific career. > >That, in a nutshell, is the career trajectory of Martha Crouch, a >Professor of Biology at Indiana University in Bloomington. > >As a leading researcher in the field of plant molecular biology, Crouch >got in on the ground floor, when corporations were just starting to become >interested in biotechnology. In fact, Crouch consulted with a few of the >them in the late 1980s, including the giant British multinational >Unilever. > >Then, in 1989, Crouch picked up a copy of the New Scientist magazine and >read how Unilever was using her tissue culture research to harvest palm >trees in the tropics. > >Palm trees are grown for the oil in their seeds. The seeds are used for >snack foods and industrial lubricants. Unilever wanted to expand its palm >oil operations, but the trees were too variable in size to be >industrialized. > >So, Unilever tried to make genetically uniform oil palm trees through >tissue culture. > >"Some of the work that we did on rapeseed tissue culture helped them >perfect their techniques so they could make identical copies of the plant >and create large plantations of genetically identical palms," Crouch told >us recently. > >Unilever started buying out small farmers in places like Malaysia. Crouch >learned that the resulting oil palm boom was responsible for the cutting >down of tropical rainforests and the displacement of indigenous peoples. >Also, processing factories for palm oil caused severe water pollution. > >After reading the article, she asked herself: How could the research we >did in our lab be applied in this way that damaged nature? > >That question, combined with her day-to-day feeling of disconnection from >nature, stopped her in her tracks. She began to re-examine what she was >doing with her life. And that re- examination led to her editorial in >Plant Cell announcing that she was quitting research because she thought >it could not be done ethically. > >The editorial drew scores of responses, many of them from scientists who, >like Crouch, felt uneasy about the new emerging biotechnology companies >and how they were hijacking basic plant cell research. > >But many others were angry with Crouch. One of her colleagues confronted >Crouch and told her she was "more dangerous than Hitler," apparently on >the grounds that her views might limit government funding for researchers >like him, and that might slow the progress of medical or agricultural >discovery. "Therefore millions of people would die that wouldn't have to >die if science was progressing at a faster rate," she says. "And I would >be responsible for this carnage. " > >But Crouch had come to a different world view. > >She came to believe, for example, that the Green Revolution -- the use of >mechanized and chemical agriculture -- had resulted in an incredible >increase in hunger around the world. Farmers worldwide were better off >growing food organically and with appropriate technology -- as they had >done for thousands of years. > >"You are basically treating the agricultural environment as if it was a >factory where you are making televisions or VCRs," Crouch said. "If nature >is not a machine, if organisms are not machines, then to treat them as if >they are, is going to create big problems." > >Some of her students have quit the study of biology to pursue sustainable >agriculture -- one is a logger in Kentucky who uses draft horses -- but >most are working for the biotech industry -- one is at Monsanto and is >responsible for helping to commercialize genetically engineered corn and >soybeans. > >Crouch herself will quit her tenured position at Indiana University at the >end of this semester. After deciding in 1990 to not continue her research, >the department prohibited her from teaching science students. For the last >ten years, she has been teaching non-science students about the food >system. > >Crouch taught her students that we would be better off if we prevent the >food system from being further industrialized. And she urges everyone to >reconnect with nature. > >She's taking the lead, leaving the high-tech university setting and >heading back to the local farmers market -- inspecting mushrooms for the >City of Bloomington. > >"Local people all over the world know from experience which mushrooms are >poisonous and which are not," she says. "We've lost that ability." > > >Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime >Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based >Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The >Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common >Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org) > >(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber >and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or >repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on >a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us >([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). > >Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve >[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail >message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text: subscribe > >Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at ><http://www.corporatepredators.org>. > >Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to >comment on the columns, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
