One of the backers of a popular anti-biotech Web site in Seattle is the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. If people can be convinced that biotech foods are unsafe, sales of organic foods, which prohibit biotech ingredients, will skyrocket. To stop biotechnology in Maine, activists are calling for laws to ban the planting of biotech crops and require special labels on biotech foods. One extreme proposal would end all biotechnology in Maine, even for medical uses. But the real battle isn t over what crops we can plant or what our food labels will say, it s over jobs.
Biotechnology is one of the industries state planners say can provide stable, good-paying jobs.
Biotechnology is expected to play an important role in Maine s resource-based industries like forestry, agriculture and aquaculture. Regrettably, the anti-biotech battle is beginning to take its toll on Maine s biotechnology companies. Activist-led boycotts of biotech potatoes forced the closing of one Maine company, putting 20 people out of work. One biotechnology company, fearing that news stories would invite vandalism, told its employees not to talk to the press. Companies also are paying more attention to security.