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CREATED:20121004T044200Z
DESCRIPTION:Following the documentary, "Scientists Under Attack: Genetic Engineering in 
 the Magnetic Field of Money," UC Berkeley Professor, Dr. Ignacio Chapela," 
 will tell his story and speak about the suppression of scientific inquiry, 
 specifically with respect to genetically engineered food.\n\nThe 
 documentary, “Scientists Under Attack,” will be shown at Napa Valley 
 College in the Community Room next to McCarthy Library on Tuesday October 
 9th at 7:00 PM.  The film is about scientists whose research raised 
 concerns about genetically engineered food and, as a result, were 
 criticized, denied tenure, fired, and/or silenced. The event is free, and 
 the normal parking fee will be waived.  Donations to the “Yes” on 
 Proposition 37 campaign to label genetically engineered food in California 
 will be accepted.  Dr. Ignacio Chapela, a microbial ecologist at the 
 Universtiy of California, Berkeley, is featured in the film and will answer 
 questions afterward. \n\nIn 2001, Dr. Chapela, along with his graduate 
 student, David Quist, conducted research which revealed that genetically 
 engineered (GE) corn was growing in Mexico, despite the country’s 
 moratorium on the planting of GE corn that had been in place since 1998. 
 The Mexican government did its own independent research, confirming their 
 discovery, which it published in press releases. Chapela and Quist’s 
 findings were published in the prestigious journal Nature.  However, 
 controversy that Dr. Chapela has described as a “very well concerted, 
 coordinated and paid for campaign to discredit the very simple statement 
 that we made,” led to an editor’s note in April 2002, stating that 
 there was insufficient evidence to justify the original publication.  
 (Scientists from Mexico, the United States, and the Netherlands eventually 
 replicated Dr. Chapela’s findings, and their study was published in the 
 February 2009 issue of Molecular Ecology.) \n\nDr. Chapela has also been an 
 outspoken critic of the University’s corporate ties, initially with 
 Novartis and more recently with British Petroleum.  He criticized an 
 agreement in which the department of Plant and Microbial Biology and its 
 faculty at UC Berkeley took money from Novartis in exchange for some 
 publication oversight and trade secrecy.  Dr. Chapela was originally denied 
 tenure in 2003, which his supporters believe was due to his opposition to 
 the UC Berkeley-Novartis deal.  However, due to public outcry and protest, 
 and after Dr. Chapela filed a lawsuit with the Universtiy, he was awarded 
 tenure in 2005.\n\n“As people seek out information to make healthy 
 choices, it’s concerning that not only are the large majority of 
 scientists actually working for private industry, but even those working in 
 our public universities often have conflicts of interest if their research 
 is being funded and scrutinized by a private corporation,” states Erica 
 Martenson, local Coordinator for the “Yes” on Proposition 37 campaign 
 to label genetically engineered food in California.  “In the case of 
 genetically engineered food, not only is it difficult for scientists to get 
 access to GE seeds to do independent research due to intellectual property 
 rights and user agreements forbidding GE seeds from being used in that way, 
 but there also isn’t a lot of public funding for scientists to ask the 
 hard questions, and design and implement studies that might actually reveal 
 problems with GE food; and, when scientists do, they are immediately 
 attacked by powerful interests that are threatened by their 
 results.”\n\nDespite these barriers to research and in the midst of a 
 battle over GE food labeling in California, the results of the first 
 long-term animal feeding trial of GE food, conducted by microbiologist 
 Gilles-Eric Seralini, were published last month in the journal Food and 
 Chemical Toxicology.  His peer-reviewed study linked GE corn to kidney and 
 liver toxicity and premature death in rats, as well as large tumors on 
 their mammary glands-- the equivalent of breast cancer in humans. The 
 research design and results were immediately called into question.\n\nNapa 
 Valley College Campus Greens are hosting the event, which has been 
 co-sponsored by the Napa County Green Party, \nPreserving the Integrity of 
 Napa's Agriculture (P.I.N.A.), Carolyn Parr Nature Center, Slow Food Napa 
 Valley, Napa-Solano Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Napa 
 County Democratic Party.\n\nFor more information on Proposition 37, please 
 see the campaign’s official website at http://www.carighttoknow.org/.\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/10/03/18722996.php
SUMMARY:"Scientists Under Attack" -- A Film Event at Napa Valley College
LOCATION:Napa Valley College in the Community Room next to McCarthy Library
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/10/03/18722996.php
DTSTART:20121010T020000Z
DTEND:20121010T040000Z
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