Vandals hit modified corn at UM Bangor (Maine) Daily News August 20, 1999 p. B1
By Jeff Tuttle, Of the NEWS Staf
OLD TOWN - In what reseachers are calling an act of ecoterrorism, a half-acre stand of genetically engineered corn was destroyed sometime late Wednesday night or Thursday morning, according to police.
Police are investigating the late-night vandalism at the University of Maine-owned Rogers Farm, where about 1,000 stalks of the man-made corn were hacked with what appears to be a machete, according to university researchers.
Genetically engineered plants differ from conventional plants in that they contain one to three additional genes, which are spliced into the plant's DNA, and a corresponding number of new proteins. The additions may increase the plant's size, help resist disease, or, in the case of the UM corn, prevent damage from herbicides.
John Jemison, a water quality specialist with the university's Cooperative Extension, said Thursday that he had been using the corn to study its resistance to the popular herbicide Roundup.
The seed for the corn at Rogers Farm was donated by the DeKalb Seed Co., a subsidiary of the Monsanto Corp. Monsanto also manufactures Roundup.
Jemison said he believed the act of ecoterrorism to be specifically directed against the genetically altered crop, which environmental activists have targeted for destruction elsewhere.
"It's a shame,'' Jemison said as he looked over the hacked plot of corn. "We're not trying to hide anything here. We're just trying to provide Maine farmers with some practical research.''
The crop is legal in Maine and has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Jemison said it was not being grown for human consumption, but was to be fed to cows when the research was complete.
Jemison said he was able to complete initial weed-control research, but the crop's destruction made it impossible to determine the crop's yield and difficult to estimate the weeds left over at the experiment's conclusion.
Jemison and John Rebar, the Extension's program administrator, shook their heads as they looked over the destruction Thursday afternoon. While welcoming civil public discussion of genetically engineered crops, Rebar said the late-night destruction was needless and made it difficult to continue productive talks with those opposed to the crop.
Those opposed to genetically modified crops - specifically corn - cite its potential for cross-pollination with other varieties of corn as well as the practice of inserting foreign genes into a plant to enhance its productivity.
"It may be that I find that farmers shouldn't be using this crop,'' Jemison said. "But I won't know until I study it. The people responsible for this didn't even want me to try. That doesn't sit well with academics.''
"I'm just glad no one was hurt,'' Rebar added.
Environmental activist Nancy Oden of Jonesboro said Thursday that while she did not destroy the plants, she commended those who did. "I'm glad they did it,'' Oden said during an interview at the Bangor Daily News offices. "It may not have been legal, but it was the moral thing to do.''
Oden, who was scheduled to meet with Jemison and Rebar on Thursday morning, said that she had planned to bend a few ears of corn down as a "nonviolent protest'' during the meeting, but did not know who was responsible for the late-night destruction.
The meeting was canceled Wednesday by Jemison after a scheduling conflict, he said.
In an Aug. 16 e-mail sent to other activists and also sent to the NEWS, Oden gave explicit directions to the location of the cornfield and advised activists to wear "a mask to avoid the toxic pollen, and gloves to avoid toxins throughout the plant'' if they had physical contact with the plants.
Oden said Thursday that the e-mail was not meant to incite destruction, only as information for environmentalists.
The scope of the destruction led researchers to believe it was carried out by more than one person. The vandals left a few rows of corn on the borders of the stand, presumably to hide their actions, researchers surmised.
Old Town police and officers from the university's public safety department will step up their patrols in the area of the research farm to prevent any further destruction, according to UMaine spokesman Joe Carr.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----
Back to ACTION REPORTS
Back to BAN MAIN PAGE