Word: antibiotech
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...started about two years ago, when the buzz from European antibiotech protest groups began to ricochet throughout the Net, reaching the community groups that were springing up across the U.S. Many were galvanized by proposed FDA regulations that would have allowed food certified as "organic" to contain genetically modified ingredients--an effort shouted down by angry consumers. Meanwhile, Greenpeace began to target U.S. companies such as Gerber, which quickly renounced the use of transgenic ingredients, and Kellogg's, which has yet to do so. With so-called Frankenfoods making headlines, several other companies cut back on biotech: McDonald's forswore...
...food activists with a reasonable point to make--whether it be the fatty meals in restaurants, the dangers of genetically modified crops or the risks of a milk-rich diet--have increasingly relied on rhetorical bomb throwing to make sure they get heard. Or, in the case of one antibiotech group, real fire bombs...
Such lawlessness can get groups noticed, of course, but it can also leave them marginalized. Even Jeremy Rifkin, president of the antibiotech Foundation on Economic Trends and no stranger to street theater, agrees that when it comes to protesting, less can be more. "If you go too far," he says, "nobody pays attention." On the other hand, it's hard to argue with results. In December the biotech giant Novartis announced that it was washing its hands of agritech. And last week delegates at the Montreal conference agreed to require labeling of all genetically modified goods...
Your article on the reaction to genetically modified crops read just like an antibiotech pamphlet. Your reporting of a Food and Drug Administration public hearing on biotechnology quoted no government scientists or university experts who discussed the safety of the technology. What's most appalling, though, is that you ended your piece with a warning that food producers might uproot an industry that could help feed the world if they overreact to "fears fanned by well-fed consumers." Articles headlined "Who's Afraid of Frankenfood?" serve only to fan those fears. C. MANLY MOLPUS PRESIDENT AND CEO Grocery Manufacturers...
...critics, organized by antibiotech gadfly Jeremy Rifkin, don't buy that line. They point out that cows treated with BGH are more susceptible to udder infections, and they are worried that unless milk is rigorously inspected, antibiotics used to treat the cows could find their way into the milk supply. While there is a germ of truth to their argument, their tactics -- and their rhetoric -- go overboard. Calling BGH "crack for cows," an alert issued by Rifkin's Washington-based Foundation on Economic Trends warned consumers -- erroneously -- that ice cream and infant formula from treated cows would be "laced with...
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