Mark Dion

Daily Planet, 1991

offset lithography on newsprint
22 x 13 in., each page (detail)
Courtesy of American Fine Arts, Co.

1. The biotech industry claims that genetic engineering is merely a new technology developed to overcome some of the problems of traditional selective breeding techniques. In fact it greatly differs from traditional husbandry and agriculture by allowing novel organisms to be produced across species boundaries. A traditional farmer could never cross a fish with a strawberry, or glowworm with tobacco, both of which have already been released in agribusiness fields. 2. Exotic organisms introduced to new ecosystems cause massive amounts of ecological disruption, including species extinction. Genetically modified organisms could (and already have) easily escape growth sites, and if their built-in resistance to herbicides and pathogens is transferred to a weed, there is potential for ìsuperweeds.î 3. Who wants GMOs? Many of the most ecologically destructive and untrustworthy multinational corporations. It is they who will profit, and despite the utopian rhetoric, they have often proved to not work in the public interest. They cannot be trusted. 4. Overwhelmingly, the public would rather not be exposed to GMOs in food. The biotech industry arrogantly disregards consumer concern. The public has little or no say in the application of genetic engineering. 5. The public is not well informed about issues of genetics and the biotech industry is spending millions on propaganda disguised as educational material. 6. The introduction of GMOs in food is not driven by a desire to make food taste better, become more nutritious, or even stay fresh longer. Rather, there is little benefit beyond increasing the financial gain reaped by giant agribusiness corporations and biotech companies. 7. While promising to reduce chemical use on farms, GMOs in fact lead to even greater chemical dependence. Indeed, some crops are even precisely modified to withstand higher doses of herbicides. 8. Field tests have proven that GMOs harm beneficial insects and fungi, damage soils, contaminate neighboring fields, and hybridize with non-modified crops. 9. Genetically engineered organisms increase farmersí dependence on large multinational agro-corporations. Modified crops do not produce fertile seeds. Farms cannot save seeds and must purchase new ones from biotech companies each year. Since farmers in the developing world rely on saved seeds many development policy groups and environmental groups believe that rather than solving the hunger crisis, GMOs could actually lead to a worsening of the problem 10. History has shown that most new industries have unforeseen negative long-term consequences. Thus caution should be used and long-term testing should be applied by the biotech industry. In the rush to cash in on novel techniques, and under the pressure of the chemical and agricultural industries, neither the FDA, the USDA, nor the EPA have yet established testing protocols, thereby leaving the testing to the industries themselves.