Newsgroup: it.discussioni.folli
Titolo: Genes - the facts. Biotechnology

the facts-
Biotechnology - the techniques of molecular biology - is one of the
fastest-growing industries in the world. By altering genetic make-up and
moving genes between species it has the power to change the shape of our
world. It is a heavily contested area, dominated by Northern corporations
and governments who want to gain a foothold in a profitable industry. This
is often at the expense of the peoples and the environments of the South.
All the largest biotechnology corporations are based in the US, Europe and
Japan. They are increasing in size as the industry becomes more competitive.
They buy each other up and also take over the smaller companies where the
cutting-edge science goes on. In 1995 more than $70 billion changed hands in
just three mergers, with the loss of 20,000 jobs. The largest occurred in
1996 when Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy merged to form Novartis ­ a $27 billion
union.2
-Genes mean money-
Biotech is big business - and big money. The same big corporations often
have a stake in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, seeds and animal health.
They wield power mightier than some nation-states.
-Stealing the genes-
From plants....
The rich world has plundered the poor one of its genetic resources and
turned them into profit. The countries and peoples from which the original
plant material came see few of the benefits - or the cash - derived from its
use. These generally go to big corporations in the North, which can take out
patents on parts and processes of plants, animals - and even humans.
Estimates place an annual value of $32 million on medicinal plants from the
South used by the North's pharmaceutical industry.4
* California's $160-million barley crops are being protected from the lethal
yellow dwarf virus by a gene plundered from Ethiopia5 - a country which in
1993 had a GNP of just $100 per person.6
* The sugar content of tomatoes in the North has been increased, producing a
$5 - 8 million-a year rise in the crop's commercial value5 - thanks to a
wild tomato strain found in Peru, a country which in 1993 could afford to
spend a mere $28 on health per person.6
* The sugarcane industry in the south-eastern US has been saved from
collapse thanks to a disease-resistant gene from a wild Asian strain of
sugarcane.5
Animals...
Animals too can be patented. In 1988 the US Patent and Trademark Office
issued the world's first patent on a mammal, a transgenic mouse known as the
'oncomouse' because a breast-cancer gene had been spliced into its
genetic-makeup. Despite the suffering inflicted on the animal, the European
Patent Office granted this patent in 1993, although it is still being
challenged by non-governmental organizations. Today there are over 300
European patent applications filed on animals, though only three have so far
been granted.7
And people too...
Since a landmark decision in the US in the 1980s, human material too is
patentable. Indigenous peoples are particularly vulnerable as their genes
have been relatively isolated and therefore are more likely to have 'useful'
properties. The Human Genome Diversity Project is a multi-million dollar
scheme which aims to 'harvest' the genes of indigenous peoples.
*In 1991 cells were taken from a Guaymi woman from Panama who had leukaemia.
Without her consent, the US Government filed a patent on her cell-line in
1993, effectively acquiring rights over part of her body to be used for
commercial purposes.
*In 1995 the US Government filed a patent on a human cell-line of a Hagahai
person from Papua New Guinea. The cell-line is potentially useful in
treating adult leukaemia. It also filed patents on the cell-lines of two
people from the Solomon Islands with a potential for producing vaccines. The
people from whom this blood was taken knew nothing about it.
Although the above patents have now been withdrawn after huge opposition,
more are in the pipeline.
-How does your garden grow? -
Corporations need to conduct field tests in order to check out how their new
genetically engineered crops grow. This involves potential risks to local
populations and to the surrounding environment, as all these tests are
experiments. Thousands of such tests have been taking place since 1987,
mainly in the US and Britain, sometimes in great secrecy. They have also
taken place in Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba,
Dominican Republic, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Puerto
Rico, South Africa and Thailand, where there are fewer controls.
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Foot notes:1 RAFI Communique, The Life Industry, September 1996. 2Nature
Biotedchnology, Vol 14, May 1996. 3 Ricarda Steinbrecher, 'From Green to
Gene Revolution', The Ecologist, Vol 26 No 6. 4 RAFI Communiqué, Biopiracy
Update: A Global Pandemic, Sept/Oct 1996. 5 Mark J Plotkin, Biodiversity,
National Academy Press 1988. 6 UNDP, Human Development Report, 1996. 7 Ruth
McNally and Peter Wheale, 'Biopatenting and Biodiversity', The Ecologist,
Vol 26 No 5 Sept/Oct 1996.
Comments? Quetions? Drop us a line... 
sa...@newint.org
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I'm not reading this whole thing but why R.E.M., i hope you don't think
that this newsgroup discusses R.E.M. sleep or something.  Any Dexter
Holland is working on phd in microbiology and The Offspring have been
discussed here before so I thought I'd say that.
Ben Tolsky
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~tolsky/rem.html


> ...
as no lady or gentleman, with any claims to polite
breeding, can possibly sympathize with the r.e.m.
without being first assured of the extreme antiquity
of the race, it is a great satisfaction to know that it
undoubtedly descended in a direct line from oxen.
' j

Thats so f**ked I can't stop laughing, 
man we're getting some good posts lately!
James

You think thats fucked up, you should read my anti-moving law of 1982
that I wrote in Chemistry my junior year of high school.  That was the
opinion of the entire class.  Unfortunatly it is at home inside the
front cover of my junior year book so I can't get and type it in right
now, but it did have some stuff about R.E.M. in it, It mentions Pop Song
89, and then goes onto Nirvana and finally ends back at how the law says
how it is illegal to move (which would be a good idea because it would
stop all crime if noone could move, but if you did move, the police
couldn't arrest you because they can't move so in the end the law
failed).
Ben Tolsky
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~tolsky/rem.html


man we're getting some good posts lately!
j russel from university of auckland we love you.
here, in italy, oxen are the extreme endeavour of
the earth to speak to the sky. the condition of ox is
a condition of war of every one against every one
consequently it is a precept, or general rule of
reason: that every ox ought to endeavour peace,
as far as he has hope of obtaining it; and when
he cannot obtain it, that he may seek and use all
helps and advantages of war.
ox is the sacred and the profane.
' j

undoubtedly descended in a direct line from oxen.
Oxen 12:2, [..] And i will strike down upon thee with great vendeange and
furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brother oxen.. and
you will know my name is the ox when i lay my vendeage upon
thee.youuuuuuuuuuouuuuuuuouuuuu

 > James
-- 
Adam Newman			
ane...@uiuc.edu
         "god gave you balls- use them" 
	   - Stephen "Fuzzy" Rogowski

 I spent hours browsing them (but then again I was out to lunch) :-)


Where can I get a copy of all this Ox stuff, this is great, are there
like whole scriptures or anything?
:-)
James



 
   The other day, for once, I actually went to his page and I love it.
It's bookmarked.  The survey is brilliant.  Everyone here should take
it. Plus I never knew that Greg Maddux hit a single to lead of the third
inning in a 1993 game.  Folks, that's a fact that'll be useful for life.
and i love the great erasing box, I could do that all day.

I'm glad that I have changed the direction of someones life by looking
through old score cards.  Now the infamous Greg Maddux single shall live
on forever.  And a special note with the erasing box, if you type
nothing in and hit erase you won't notice anything happened, so I
suggest typeing you 15 page essay that is due tomorow and then hitting
the erase button so you can see the amazing results of the button.
Ben Tolsky
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~tolsky/rem.html


I could probably write some if you really want and have Intoxicated
Burrito publish it in conjunction with Skankin Rabbi.
Ben Tolsky
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~tolsky/rem.html



http://members.aol.com/rynocub/ben.htm
please update it with alink to my site.. it has infos on moving-police
devices produced by my old @no-moves dep. factory in Sbulogna
http://at.freeweb.org

ox is the sacred and the profane.
ox is our vanity made sacred

failed).
we can provide police with a moving-machine
Just contact our moving-police dep. industry at
@nomoves .. 
http://at.freeweb.org

No, police can't survive without there beloved donut, which can't be
made if noone can move, even if it is "time to make the donuts" as some
might say.  Plus the machine would be arrested, this law is for
everyone, not just people, not even the wind can move.
Ben Tolsky
http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~tolsky/rem.html


:-)
thank you, thank you
very much for asked us...
' j

and i love the great erasing box, I could do that all day.
ox, therefore, is not an accident, but
a necessity... It is a part of nature.
' j

 be the only criminal? and yes, i think yeas

ox is our vanity made sacred
ox is a warranty
' j

> like whole scriptures or anything?
I think OXford University is full of that stuff, they have old archives
testimonying the old cultures of the oxen, to which they've dedicated entire
lives and prayings
and even cities and universities
The real founder of the OXford universities were actually camuflaged oxen
coming from the outer space, but noone really wanted to know about this
reality cause they feared that
Ox costellation is the first thing they wiped off from books
Oxen have power

ox is a warranty
ox warranty is for life-time
and, if he broke, we will send whore cows at your home
while we're repairing him, in the meantime,
We also have these beautiful cows at the very special price of one cow, and
you can have them even if your ox isn't broken.
Just remember, they will run away after one night,
Just call our now Cow-free number 
800-888-9052
 dept. 500



ox warranty is for life-time
on-site warranty...
' j
- I don't want to boast -

overcrowded as they are, we can't fit in another 5 billion people.
okay, let's fix it.. see:
Almost all of the 5 billion people, and future people too, have and shall
have a house in which they live and shall live.. so
Let's construct prison instead of houses, and, let's modify houses into
jails
People will work from their prison-houses, new born people will be
automatically generated in prisons, without the annoying thing of teaching
them not to be criminals, cuase you know they will be already criminals and
already in jails.. so no prisoner transport from house to jail or jail to
jail, no gasoline, no enviromenal pollution, and that's just a ring of the
long positive chain..
Plus, if we have all people cut of their heads, there will be no need to
shave their heads, with cut on the hairdressing expense, Babe Ruth baseball
card will be forgotten, cause people without head it has been tested they
won't think.. nor remember
that's all
APLLY NOW FOR OUR SPECIAL ENVIROMENTAL CHANGE
GIVE IT A CHANGE
JUST DON'T BOTHER TO MOVE AGAIN
http://at.freeweb.org
OUR SPECIAL FEATURES
  ARE
OUR FUTURE SPECIAL