The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

134 the world according to monsantoRoundup, Paul Berg succeeded in “recombining” DNA—that is, putting togethertwo fragments of DNA from different species into a hybrid molecule.A little later, his colleague Stanley Cohen announced that he had succeededin transferring a frog gene into the DNA of a bacterium able to reproducethe intruder in large quantities. These discoveries, which broke a law thathad been considered inviolable, the impossibility of crossing what wasknown as the “species barrier,” created great excitement, along with deepconcern, in the international scientific community. The worries turned intoan uproar when Paul Berg announced his intention to insert a carcinogenicvirus, SV-40, from a monkey into an E. coli cell, a bacterium that colonizesthe human digestive tract. Some scientific authorities, such as Robert Pollack,a cancer virus specialist, worried: “What will happen if the manipulatedorganism inadvertently escapes from the laboratory?” 4 The generaloutcry led to a temporary moratorium on genetic manipulation and, on February25, 1975, the first international conference on recombinant DNA. Fortwo days at Asilomar, a Pacific seaside resort in California, leading figures inthe rising discipline considered the risks of genetic engineering, focusingthe debate on experimental safety and the formulation of rules, such as measuresto contain manipulated organisms. But at no point did they broachethical questions, which were excluded from the outset. It was as thoughthe biologists had already decided to “limit the involvement of the publicand the government in their affairs to the minimum.” 5 The message wassoon received loud and clear by the future world leader in biotechnology.After the Asilomar conference, genetic engineering experiments proliferatedin the United States—the National Institutes of Health recorded morethan three hundred in 1977. While attempts to place legal restrictions onthese extremely hazardous new scientific activities were buried one after theother—in 1977 and 1978, sixteen bills were proposed in Congress, but nonepassed—start-ups and risk capital companies were flourishing, particularlyin California, where another promising technology had just given birthto Silicon Valley. Companies such as Calgene and Plant Genetics Systemswere established by biologists who had previously worked in universities andwho, carried away by an extraordinary burst of research activity and theprospect of huge financial rewards, plunged into the economic arena, raisingmillions of dollars on the New York Stock Exchange or taking shares in andjoining the boards of private companies.This veritable “race for genes” brought about an unprecedented associa-