Agriculture Reference
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No one should approach the temple of science with the soul of a money-changer
.
—Thomas Browne (1605-82), English author
Some call J. Craig Venter the Bill Gates of artificial life.
1
He refers to himself as an accidental millionaire
who's been gifted large sums of money to start companies that use advanced genetic sciences to generate
a profit. Perhaps developing the first synthetic life gives one an omnipotence complex. An iconoclast with
an outsized ego, Venter travels around the world in his large research vessel collecting genetic materials
from the sea (in what sounds more like piracy to me), plundering our collective genetic resources for private
gain.
2
Venter is a self-made man. After serving a tour of duty in Vietnam, he went on to the University of Cali-
fornia to get a PhD in physiology and pharmacology. Afterward, while working at the National Institutes
of Health, he developed a new technique for decoding genes. In 1992, Venter founded the Institute for Ge-
nomic Research where in the mid-1990s he and a team of scientists decoded the genetic material of the first
living organism. He went on to fund a for-profit company, Celera Genomics, to sequence the human gen-
ome, which culminated with the February 2001 publication of the human genome in the journal
Science
.
3
Sometimes reality really is stranger than science fiction—especially when pursued by extremely ambi-
tious men hidden in the labs of private enterprise, scientific institutes, and the business plans of major cor-
porations. And more and more, there is no escaping the impacts upon our food and ecosystems of new tech-
nologies that are pursued for profit.
Very quietly—with little public fanfare or regulatory scrutiny—a new field of biotechnology is emerging
that is based on the belief that synthetic life can be engineered through chemistry, and that mankind has the
right to create new life-forms.
This new breed of scientist believes so deeply in his own abilities that he is willing to make humankind
a guinea pig as he seeks to outdo nature in producing synthetic organisms for food. Craig Venter is just one
prominent example of how far our food system has gone awry, at the expense of farmers, consumers, and
the environment. Corporate control of science and the food system has taken us far afield from the basic
ingredients of a healthy food supply—all in the relentless pursuit of profit.
The June 2010 issue of
Scientific American
calls it genetic engineering on steroids. Oil, chemical, and
agriculture multinationals joining forces to create artificial life may sound like a low-budget Hollywood
movie, but many of the largest corporations in the world are banking on its viability. Among the companies
joining the fray are Cargill, Unilever, Bunge, ADM, Dow Chemical, and BASF. Venter's new venture, Syn-
thetic Genomics, funded in part by BP, is working with ExxonMobil to develop biofuels. It is also creating
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