From Caroline Mitchell
Congratulations on your editorial on corporate control of science
(Editorial, 5 June, p 3).
You are absolutely correct about the public reaction to the
Strangelove-type images created by the behaviour of the ever fewer corporations
involved in food production.
Genetic engineering is being used to take control of every step in the
production of food, from the patenting of interesting genetic material to the
farmer who is obliged to sell his produce back to his corporate suppliers, and
is sued and harassed if he doesn’t play the game, all the way through to the
supermarkets—where the European public have experienced corporate and US
bullying tactics.
What they—the corporations and the US government—repeatedly refer
to as “sound science” we should read as the “corporate science”, to which your
editorial refers. Thank you for that lead. Those of us who wish to keep
democratic control of food and medicines alive will need to watch that
space.
gaia@gaianet.org
