Greetings all, (I'm not subbed to Cc lists - fwd if desired)
The strength of Tony Judge's idea lies in the probability that the industry
lobby against it should be both deafening and unanimous. The admission that
there is the *possibility* of harm could be a deciding factor for those on
the edge of deciding whether or not to make extraordinary efforts to
support or undertake local agriculture and seed bank activities. The
publicity of efforts to establish such a fund would also be negative PR for
the TNCs involved.
In other words, this 'reasonable' request would be an incremental weapon.
Sure I agree with Bill Ellis :
> Tony, before I'd think of an insurance policy for hazardous materials I'd think
>harder > of eliminating the hzard. I woouldn't be particulrly happy to be a vegetable
>and have > my family rich because on any hazard
But this may be a tool in helping to accomplish that!
Robert Lorge wrote:
> Many large corporations would
> underwrite such a fund,
I am not so sure about this. They have two fears: the unknown future
consequences of gentech activities - any of which conceviably could become
runaway COSTLY catastrophes, and the negative PR I mentioned above. If
people see/hear that a 'disaster fund' is being established for possible
hazards, it seems likely that they'd work to find alternatives. The media
should also make hay with the issue, pointing even more than they are now
at the hundreds of countries being outmuscled by the US & seven other major
food exporting nations.
> but the political and economic purpose would not
> be to pervent the risk of exposure to the public, but rather to spread
> the risk, economically, so that the pool of biotech firms could continue
> to produce and distribute the risks to which the public or environment
> would contune to be exposed.
As long as the fund was designed to be "experience rated" with no cap on
premiums, the unlimited liability should scare the pants off the TNCs. I
think they'd fight the idea tooth & nail.
RL goes on to say that he supports both the fund idea, penalty damages, and
multinational agreements. I fully agree with him, but I'd try to get a foot
in the door with the Hazard Reassurance Fund. The multinational convention
failed this go round. Pressure and negative PR will continue in many
countries; the 'reasonable' request for indemnification is a way to keep
the issue hot IMHO.
Steve Kurtz
"To teach how to live without certainty, and yet without being
paralyzed by hesitation, is perhaps the chief thing that philosophy,
in our age, can still do for those who study it."
Bertrand Russell, "A History of Western Philosophy"
