Thanks to Pete Shanks for a great report on his time at the counter events to the big BIO convention in Philadelphia last week.

Some of the events Pete refers to should be available, at least in part, as audio via Philly Inde Media - phillyimc.org. *BUT* this particular site seems to be down for the moment - details of audio available at these urls:
http://www.lobbywatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5394
http://biotech.indymedia.org/
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Biodemocracy 2005
Philadelphia, June 18–21
A personal account by Pete Shanks

Pete Shanks is the author of Human Genetic Engineering: A Guide for Activists, Skeptics, and the Very Perplexed (Nation Books, 2005; http://www.wordsontheweb.com). In Philadelphia he also represented the Center for Genetics and Society (CGS; http://www.genetics-and-society.org/) for whom he often does contract work, but nothing in this report should be construed as representing the views of CGS. It's edited from an even longer, and more unruly, account, which he'll send to anyone who asks nicely.

Summary

This was essentially a three-day Teach-In, held at two locations in Philadelphia to counterbalance the (much larger) annual convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). It was preceded by a Festival in a Park and followed by a public demonstration and march, which unfortunately drew national headlines only because a policeman suffered a heart attack.

I attended almost the whole thing, arriving the night before it started and leaving during the final demonstration. The panels and workshops were of very high quality -- many of the speakers stayed for the whole weekend, which helped -- and the discussions were excellent. What follows is mostly a heavily annotated version of the program (see http://www.biodev.org/ for more details, speaker bios, etc) with notes of varying quality for the events I attended. There were almost always several things happening at once, so inevitably I missed many, aside from the few instances where I, ah, networked off-site...

As a counterbalance to BIO, it has to be said that it was not as effective as one would like. The city was full of signs welcoming BIO "with every molecule in our state," not to mention that the railroad station had a huge poster from a law firm promising that your intellectual property was safe with them. The Philadelphia Inquirer seemed to think that BIO 2005 was big news, with its 18,000 delegates from all over the world, and the demonstrators were not really, unless of course they planned on holding the city to ransom by blocking the streets. Oh dear.

As an inspiration, however, I found the Teach-In wonderful. I learned a little science, a fair amount about the Latin American experience, and above all networked widely with a lot of lovely people. The principal locations were Clark Park (Saturday daytime), the Friends Center (Saturday and Sunday) and the Ethical Society (Sunday and Monday), not forgetting the streets (principally on Sunday and Tuesday).

Saturday, June 18th 10 AM – 2 PM

Reclaim the Commons Festival/Farmers Speak Out in Clark Park, featuring Green Circus, displays, kids' activities, etc.

Scheduled speakers included: Percy Schmeiser (Canadian farmer)
Ignacio Chapela (University of California)
Shepherd Ogden (Rodale Research Institute)
Nelson Carrasquillo (Comite de Apoyo de Trabajadores Agricultures)
Lisa Mosca (Pennypack Farm CSA).

The event was as you might expect -- fun, varied, a pleasant day in the park. I caught the second half of Ignacio's improvised speech, which focused on the amount that biotech companies have lost (an estimated $40 billion of about $200 billion invested so far) and the extent that this is public money being thrown down a private drain (my metaphor).

Saturday afternoon at the Friends Center

2 - 3:45 PM Communities resisting GMOs

3 - 5 PM The Health Care Crisis and the Pharmaceutical Industry

4 - 6 PM Sustainable agriculture roundtable

Saturday afternoon workshops:

2 - 3:30 pm :: Playing God With Genes? Interfaith Perspectives on Biotechnology included Rabbi Larry Troster and Sha'ifa Ma

Rabbi Troster stressed both holiness and environmental justice, and expressed concern about corporate control of such a sacred activity as eating. He was quite exercised about the concept of "dominion" and insisted that this modern (i.e. 17th-century) interpretation of the Bible was incorrect and had been shown to be wrong many times over the last thirty years.

Shai'fa Ma, who cited and may come from a West African tradition (I am not sure) exuded calm and tended to speak in generalities. When asked about communicating with pro-biotech folks, she talked about sharing their heart. I acknowledged the politics of consciousness, but expressed concern that if we do not act we may be too late. Rabbi Troster strongly agreed -- he seemed deliberately to contradict Ma -- and called for "prophetic voices" which might actually be a point of contact between the two of them.

Buddhist, Muslim and other traditions were mentioned but not exhaustively discussed. Several pagans were present and expressed general identification with the Earth and deep distrust about interventions on a genetic level.

3:40 - 5 pm :: A Silent Forest: The Threat of Genetically Engineered Trees 
Anne Peterman and Orin Langelle (Global Justice Ecology Project)
Ricarda Steinbrecher (EcoNexus, UK)

There were 28 present, when I counted at 4:15. I missed the opening, which was a shame. Anne (whose presentation I basically missed) seemed very competent. Orin was that, and also amusing: Brian Tokar "made me write a chapter for his book" so he called someone and was told "Congratulations! You are now one of the five people in the world concerned about this issue." Ricarda stressed that multi-generational testing for trees takes a long, long time, and they are not waiting.

GM trees are rapidly coming to Chile and Brazil, and China is the biggest immediate concern. In their case, it is not exactly dollars that are behind it, more the techno-fix approach to the problem of desertification; it's also the case that global warming is being used as an excuse for GM trees, which may (therefore) get World Bank subsidy. In fact Orin ended the workshop with a superb rant that connected Wolfowit