Inside the FDA's Public Forum

A Vegetarian Inside the FDA's "Public Forum"
by John Beske

From the very beginning it seemed like the FDA's visit to Chicago wasn't going to happen as advertised. For one thing, they waited seven years until the biotech industry had already insinuated their frankenfoods into the majority of processed products on our grocery shelves before ever giving anyone the chance to say anything about it. And they have pretty much let Monsanto, Novartis et. al. run roughshod over any semblance of a free exchange of ideas. These corporations managed to buy experts for huge sums of money, intimidate the media with blitzkrieging lawyers threatening everything from losses of major advertising revenue to crippling lawsuits, and silence all criticism by painting all opposition as leftist alarmists and kooks. What's more, the word was out of a multimillion dollar attempt by the biotech industry and their über-villian public relations agency, Burson-Marsteller, to stack the hearing with pro-biotech shills. They even managed to buy the soul of Jerry Morrison, a once-respected progressive activist, and the mastermind of Jan Schakowsky's successful run for the U.S. Congress, to insure that the Chicago event would play exactly into their hands. Add to this the cozy relationship between the FDA and the biotech industry, and it was easy to see the whole thing as a lost cause.

Still, I dutifully dialed the phone number set up ostensibly to invite comments by consumers. A terse mechanical message on the other side told me that the meeting had been filled, and contrary to their expressed intention, they were not interested in hearing my opinion. I left a long, passionate voice message extolling, Mr. Smith-Goes-To-Washington-style, the values of fairness, and how they were being compromised by the FDA's efforts at obfuscation. I followed this with an even longer e-mail message, where I expounded on the necessity of allowing the voice of an avowed vegetarian activist in the room. Hoping to add credence to my message, I mentioned my partnership in Vegan Street, as well as my association with EarthSave, the Chicago Vegetarian Society and several other vegetarian and animal-rights groups. Then I decided that since I wouldn't be allowed to speak, I would concentrate my efforts on agitation outside the forum, so I set about designing a nine-foot Bt corn costume and a series of children's butterfly wings, and then calling some puppet-making friends at Art and Revolution to help me build them. If I couldn't be heard inside the room, I would at least do my best to make a commotion outside.

About a week later, I received a message on my voice-mail informing me that somehow the FDA had decided to move the circus to a new, larger room, and that they would allow me to speak after all. I would have exactly two minutes to make my case. I was told to report to the third floor of the Metcalfe Federal Building at 2:45 pm, November 18th.

At noon on November 18th, I attended the Rally to Stop Genetically Engineered Foods, which was hastily arranged by Sustain: the Environment Information Group, where I work as the creative director. The children in their butterfly wings died right on cue in front of more than a dozen television cameras. Several speakers stood at the podium in open contradiction to Monsanto's assertion that there is no reliable criticism of biotech foods. Finally, it was my turn.I stood at the podium and recited a fairy tale about a vainglorious scientist who felt he was so powerful that he could create new life, and so much smarter than everyone else that their opinions of his experiments weren't worthy of discussion.

Little did I realize, how accurate my words were. At 2:45 I reported to the third floor of the Metcalfe Federal Building, and after an amusing Buster Keaton-like episode of trying to pass through a super-sensitive metal detector with pockets full of markers, staplers and other accoutrements of a rally organizer, I finally gained access to the inner sanctuary and dutifully took my seat at chair number 58 of the 84 chairs reserved for commenters (Interestingly enough, the forum had reportedly been moved to a larger room because the original room could only hold 110 people, this room certainly couldn't accommodate any more than that).

At the front of the room, five FDA officials sat sternly at a table facing two podiums, where the lucky 84 commenters would be gently herded by sweet, matronly ushers for their brief two minutes in the spotlight. The whole event was videotaped for posterity, and a few bored members of the press club hung around the fringes of the room. The gallery area for TV cameras had long-since emptied out after the conclusion of the morning's propaganda session. Real comments by real people didn't seem to matter. Oh well, at least they all came to the rally.

The commenters were easily divided into two camps. There appears to be no middle ground on this issue. Roughly half of the speakers were a broad cross-section of society - mothers, religious people, health advocates, organic farmers and shopkeepers, who all expressed fear of and concerns about different aspects of genetically altered food. Occasionally, a testifier would make a remark about the apparent hollowness of the proceedings. This would be met by loud applause from the anti-frankenfood participants.

The other group was far more calculated. A parade of dark-suited biotech advocates haughtily stood at the podium one-by-one, and with patronizing tones, each read a litany of their many titles and achievements before professing, in their highly esteemed opinion, that genetically engineered food was not only as safe as anything, but was also absolutely essential to the health and well-being of our planet. Each speaker's words were so similar, in fact, that they all appeared to have been penned by the same Burson-Marsteller copywriter. A typical tirade would begin, "I am the senior professor emeritus of applied microbiology at the most prestigious and well-endowed university in the world..." and would end with a statement about genetically engineered food that was so contrived that it seemed to spring directly from the mouth of the mad scientist from my fairy tale.

When my turn finally arrived, I brought up my vegetarian point-of-view (here's the text of my testimony), which was duly noted by the court-appointed videographer, and, I must admit, appeared to be earnestly listened to by the five FDA officials at the front of the room. As expected, half the audience responded positively, and the other half impatiently waited for me to finish, while they rehearsed their carefully prepared two minute speeches.

Here is the text of fairy tale I read while members of Art and Revolution and a group of beautiful young children acted out the words:

Once upon a time there was a mighty scientist who thought he was very very wise, but was, in fact, very very foolish. One day, he thought to himself , "maybe I could take a little bit of an animal, and put it in a plant. Maybe if I put, say, a little bit of a fish inside of a tomato, people would like it better than the tomatoes they are eating now."

So he made his new tomato, and he proudly displayed it to all the people. But the people said, (hold up sign) "THAT DOESN'T SEEM SAFE!"

To that, the scientist replied, "Of course, it's safe, and I should know. For I am a brilliant scientist, and you, well, you are just ordinary people."

Then he took a cow, and gave it a special magic potion that made the cow's udder swell up like a balloon. And he proudly showed the cow to all the people and said, "Look how much milk you shall have! More than you can possibly even drink!"

But when he showed the cow to the people, the people said, (hold up sign) "THAT REALLY DOESN'T SEEM SAFE!" And once again, the scientist smiled and said "Of course it's safe, and I should know. For I am a brilliant scientist and you, as you well know, are all just ordinary people."

So the scientist tinkered away, and came up with all kinds of different combinations of animals and fish and vegetables and fruits and bugs and little things that were so small they couldn't even be seen. And he kept mixing and mixing until they all came together into a giant monster made up of so many things that nobody knew what it was.

When the people saw the monster, they said, (hold up sign) "NOW THAT CAN'T BE SAFE!" And the scientist haughtily scoffed, "Oh you silly, people. I am the most brilliant scientist in the whole world, and if I say it is safe, then it must be so. How could it possibly be otherwise?"

Then the scientist came up with his greatest idea of all. "The bugs are eating some of our corn, so why not make corn that makes its own poison to kill bugs before the bugs can eat it?" And he presented his magnificient new corn to the people. And as he showed off his amazing new creation, a large group of young Monarch butterflies began to flutter in to get a see the commotion. And with butterflies dipping and circling all around, the scientist began to shout "Look now! This is the new corn that we will use to make your children's breakfast cereal each morning, and to make your children's crunchy snacks, and sweeten your children's soft drinks! Look how wonderful it is!"

And all of the people and all of the butterflies came in to get a closer view. Then suddenly, a terrible thing happened. When the butterflies flew near the corn, the corn's terrible poison began to sicken the beautiful young creatures, and they began to stop fluttering and flying, and one by one, they began to die. And the people said,... (turn the page)

...you know, I just realized, this story hasn't ended yet. This isn't just some faraway fairy tale. This is all really happening, right here, right now. The mighty scientists of the biotech industry are creating monsters right before our eyes, and the Food and Drug Administration, who should be protecting us, are standing by and letting it happen. So now it's up to us...

Are we going to let this happen? (Crowd response)

Are we going to let biotech's mighty scientists control our food supply, kill our butterflies, and threaten the safety of our children? (Crowd response)

Are we going to stop these mad scientists? (Crowd response)

C'mon everybody, let's get him. (Creatures and butterflies attack scientist, while narrator leads chant)

Butterflies, Yes! Frankenfoods, No!

back to where we left off

Here is the text of my testimony to the FDA:

Good afternoon. My name is John Beske, and I am a Chicago-based vegetarian activist, and an active member of several environmental and vegetarian groups, and one of more than 15 million vegetarians in the U.S. So far, the debate concerning genetically engineered foods -- beyond the fact that it has been highly controlled by the millions of dollars and the highly paid "experts", lobbyists, and propagandists of the biotech industry -- beyond all that, the debate has centered almost entirely on one subject -- food safety. You are hearing a lot of testimony declaring these products as safe, and a lot of other testimony saying that they might not be. I want to say that even if we knew unequivocally that every single GE product is safe, and I personally can't see that happening, there are still a great number of reasons to oppose them, particularly when we place animal genes in plant foods. It is, at the very least, essential that all of these products are explicitly labeled, so that vegetarians like myself will know to avoid them. It is critically important for the FDA to understand that a great number of Americans are opposed to genetically engineered foods for purely ethical reasons, and we need to be able to have access to a wide variety of foods that are free of genetically modified organisms. Thank you.

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