Archive for April 18th, 2005
Ignacio Chapela Press Conference
Monday, April 18th, 2005
A special bit of first-hand journalism today — Ignacio Chapela was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley, who was denied tenure last November for reasons he and many others believe to be corporate or political in nature. Chapela did key research indicating that modified genes in Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) were being transferred to pristine plants in nature, specifically untouched corn crops in Mexico. He also did research into the effects of GMO foods on animal development, which, once published in 2001, swept him into a vortex of corporate interests attempting to defame the research. It culminated last year when Chapela was denied professorship, and he is now suing the Regents of the University of California, saying that there were corporate conflicts of interest in the tenure decision process. Read more about the situation (second article on the page).
Chapela held a press conference today at 2PM, and I went with camera and digital recorder in hand. You can download audio Chapela’s wonderful introduction (mp3, 1.4 MB), or the full conference (mp3, 8 MB) (sorry about the wind). Here are some of key quotes catching the general theme:
“The university used to be the place where people could ask any questions and hear the answers no matter how uncomfortable they were — we used to call that science. And it seems as though the university has lost that capacity to do science.”
“This is not a lawsuit against the university. It is a lawsuit for the university and against the people who have bastardized and taken away the incredible privelage of this campus.”
My own opinion on the subject is near complete support of Chapela and his lawsuit. My only concern is that he brings up the racial factor, which is completely understandable. Still, I believe it detracts from the scientific and academic focus. It absolutely needs to be addressed, but perhaps not at the same time as the scientific point.
In every conversation I have had with scientific minds on this subject (GMOs), I have always felt shunned for bringing up the slightest doubt. When faced with even solid science like Chapela’s, many scientists still will not consider both sides of the argument. This one-sided view on GMOs has very likely been influenced by large corporations funding research at universities like Berkeley, and the effect has been devastating to the scientific process in the field. I can only hope this lawsuit causes some stir in the system, and hopefully lessens the impact of politics and corporate interest on scientific research in genetic engineering.