The Biotech Century by Jeremy
Rifkin
Our Stolen Future
When two Scottish scientists successfully cloned a sheep in July 1996, the
news sparked fierce scientific, ethical, theological, and philosophical
debate, momentarily pulling biotechnology from the laboratories and
thrusting it onto the front pages. With living proof that such advancements
are no longer the stuff of science fiction, a whole new world of
possibilities--and dangers--presented itself. Jeremy Rifkin is more
concerned with the dangers of this technology, and in The Biotech
Century , he presents numerous compelling reasons why we should be,
too. Many of these dangers revolve around the seemingly inevitable
commercialization of genetically engineered life forms that would come if
corporations battled for the rights to patents on new or modified species of
plants, animals, or even human beings. Rifkin warns that designer babies
and genetically perfect humans, along with any other artificial creations,
would wreak havoc with the gene pool and the natural environment. While
he concedes that there are benefits to biotechnology, he makes it clear
that the risks far outweigh the rewards at this time, urging for greater
restraint and responsibility before opening what could be a Pandoras box.
Personal Review: The Biotech Century by Jeremy Rifkin
Adam Smith warned us that we didn't had to rely on the goodwill of the
baker or the butcher to supply our meals. Following Smith, we should only
rely on the care they take to fulfil their own interests. We shouldn't address
their humanity, only their egoism. We shouldn't talk to them on our needs,
but only of their advantage. Now, I think Smith really had bad luck with his
baker or butcher. But I suppose that even he would be flabbergasted at all
the inventiveness capitalism has put into lowering the standards of our
food, especially since 1940 - when agriculture became chemically fertilized
and pesticides were introduced - with the sole objective to obtain more and
more profits. We know corporations have no soul, but I do wonder how the
CEO's of those big corporations are able to sleep at night, when they
knowingly are poisoning our food chain. Do they really think that money is

more important than the future of mankind ? Even if they don't care what
the future of mankind will behold, what about their own children and
grandchildren ?
Now, as if we hadn't poisoned our food chain enough with chemicals,
agricorporations launched genetically modified foods. That is what this
book is about, and as always, Jeremy Rifkin offers us a fluently written
book, with some very good arguments. He wonders in the first place how
it even became possible to obtain a patent on a living organism. That is
where the corruption began. How can you patent something when you
only modify a very small part of the genetic structure ?
Furthermore, no studies were undertaken on the dangers of introducing all
those newly modified genes into the environment. Rifkin warns us that we
are "on the eve of a new Genesis". Genes of humans, animals and plants
are interchanged "as if" it were "natural".
Finally, we have no idea if those foods are dangerous for consumption,
since the FDA considers those foods as GRAS ("generally regarded as
safe"), because... they are "similar" to normal tomatoes, potatoes, corn,
canola, soya, etc... That's strange, isn't it ? On the one hand, genetically
modified foods are "patented because they are different", and on the other
hand, they are "safe because they are equal". Welcome to the fake
democracy we are living in, defending only the interests of big
corporations, but never of the general public (well, let's say, never again
since the government fired Dr. Harvey Wiley in 1912, the last director of
the FDA who really tried to put the general interest before private interests)
!
What do we really know on the safety of this Frankenstein-food for
consumption ? Dr. Arpad Pusztai discovered that Monsanto-potatoes
produced deformations when fed to rats. It really produces a bunch of little
Frankenstein's... His reward ? He got fired, under pressure of Monsanto.
Rifkin observes that insurance companies will never insure this kind of
technology, since the risks are impossible to foresee. That's also why
insurance companies will never insure nuclear plants. Common sense
within the capitalist system is only available at insurance companies. In
the meantime, the whole planet is used as the playground of this new
Genesis, for big corporations to make profits, stealing our future.
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