I was really thrilled by the BIODEV2000 conference and I feel blessed to now feel so much more well informed on this urgent issue.

So, it turns out that I work at the Park Plaza Hotel, where a lot of the Bio2000 conference participants are staying. Yesterday, the day of our protest, I was working in the lobby bar and overheard some of the things that the people wearing badges were saying about the protests. Several times I heard them remarking in suprise on the number of people that were there, (yay us!) and they were also talking about the costumes. I heard one guy say to the bartender "the music was actually really good, and there were all these people dancing on top of a bus from Vermont." The bartender asked him what the protesters were protesting exactly, and the guy said, "oh, they're worried about cloning people, but that's really not an issue. There might be a few companies that would do that, but that can't really happen."

(Think again, mr. biotech!) I heard four of them discussing the protests and they said, "I guess they were protesting genetically engineered food. Well what does that have to do with Biotech?" And they all shrugged their shoulders and said, "I don't know." (Well, it's all really the same thing, isn't it? Aren't we concerned about any issues having to do with the manipulation of our gene pool as living beings?) I was talking to one guy directly and I asked him what the conference was really all about, since he said it didn't have much to do with the genetic engineering of food, and he said, "It's all just making deals." Let it be known too that these people have tons of money. They were buying the most expensive champagne, schmoozing, etc.

Well, I actually got my hands on one of the programs for the conference, and here are some of the titles for the speeches, workshops and symposiums: [author's remarks in parenthesis]

• Leveraging Communications During Financial Transactions: How Strategic Communications and Public Relations Can Help in Closing the Deal

• Let's Make a Deal!

• Accelerated Approval, Challenges and Rewards: FDA's Perspective on Accelerated Approval

• Biotechnology: Framework for a Sustainable Future: The Potential of a Biorefinery

• New Trees Grow Closer; The Ecological, Ethical and Scientific Issues of Forest Biotechnology (no new trees please!)

• Industrial Biotech Model, is there One That Works? (industrial biotech doesn't work for us!)

• Chemical Giants Impact Biotechnology: Plastic from Corn-derived Lactic Acid (speech by VP of technology of Cargill Dow Polymers)

• Gene Switching

• Biotechnology as an Aid in New Business Development at Dow

• The Consumer Market for Value-Added Biotech Foods
  "It's a complicated world, but someone's got to feed it. Shoppers have a lot to think about as they choose foods for their families. What are consumer priorities? As foods with better nutrition, taste and variety come to market, how will the role and acceptance of biotechnology fare? What are the implications for providing meaningful consumer information and education around the world?" (I don't want to eat off your plate!)

• Bright Consumers Clean with Biotechnology Products (bright and shiny people!)

• Youthfulness Through New Product innovations (we'll be able to live forever!)

• Environmental Regulation of Agricultural Biotechnology: Emerging Trends in the United States and Around the Globe

• EPA and FDA Regulations and Self-Regulations (Speaker from Novartis Seeds)

• Regulatory and Litigation Developments

• Maximizing Profits Through Intelligent Planning-What Every Pharmaceutical Executive Needs to Know about Intellectual Property

• Developments and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the U.S.Patent and Trademark Office (speech from Associate Solicitor, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office)

• Building a Winning Patent Portfolio: Strategic Considerations

• Litigation: Avoiding and, If Necessary, Winning

• Seeking and Avoiding Patent Interferences

• Interference Law and Procedure; Licensing and Settlement

• Improving Profitability: Presenting Intellectual Property to Strategic Partners and Venture Capitalists

• The Whitehead Forum: Policy and Progress in Biotechnology
  "The speakers will explore how public perceptions of the biotechnology industry will affect government policies and the adoption of new products. Recent events in Europe and the U.S. have shown that the public's fascination with new technologies can quickly turn to fear and misunderstanding. After the opening talks, speakers will lead an interactive discussion exploring how corporate leaders and scientists can help resolve the fears, enhance public understanding of science and maximize the benefits of new technologies for all concerned." (I think we understand perfectly!)

• The Road to $100 Billion

• Beyond Approval -- Obtaining regulatory approval to market a biotech product is not the end of the road but the start of a long process to sell the product worldwide. This session will capitalize on the experience of companies with biotech products on the market for several years.

• Biotechnology Developments from USDA - ARS Laboratories

  (And here's my favorite:)

• Consolidation: Catching the Wave -- Selling the Farm to Big Pharma

It seems pretty clear that the goal of BIOTECH mainly is to keep the machine of globalization growing with power, money, and mergers. It's all about deals, making deals, making itself bigger and bigger, more and more powerful and influential. It's going to be an uphill battle against the corporate machine, especially when they have government officials on their side. (Some of the featured speakers at the convention are people from the FDA and the U.S. Patent office and the USDA.) The more these machine people exert control the more they medicate their fears. Freedom, expression, nature, the wild of the wilderness - these are the fears of the machine. The machine fears the unknown. Nature in all of it's beauty and unpredictability is intolerable to this machine. The machine must be in control, it must be supreme, it must be the only thing that understands life and must be the ultimate authority. The machine must conquer the world of the unknown in order to sustain itself As long as the machine keeps finding ways to make things new and to make new things that it created and owns then it is securely in power. It must convince or force people to believe that the machine improves on what exists and if people believe this there is no need for the unknown. Then its fear will go away. The machine will force its will on the world and nothing will be powerful enough to stop it.

We must say NO to the machine! Make the machine very afraid! Express yourself! Don't be afraid of not being "normal"! Being normal is having the disease! We are not machines and we won't let our planet be turned into a machine that uses the sacred life of our earth as its fuel!

If you like this e-mail send it along. Much love to my brothers and sisters at the biodev 2000 gathering.

love from a newly-made-aware activist
Alissa Ferranto

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