Genetically modified foods and organisms are considered by some top scientists to be a greater threat to humanity than nuclear war. The possible implications are devastating to our farmers, our health, our environment, and our happiness. Some possibilities are bacterial strain mutations caused by antibiotics inserted into DNA, or violent reactions caused by allergies to foreign DNA. In addition to risks like these, the science of improving our food is dangerously married to pesticides.

Enormous corporations in the chemical industry have been knowingly poisoning our environment for decades. Since the early 1950’s they have ignored less expensive, time tested, natural processes of protecting agriculture from harm. Processes like introducing natural competitors -which is less expensive and usually more effective than pesticides. Their indifference to the facts is more criminal than big tobacco. They ignore evidence proving that what they do is detrimental to the health of billions of people worldwide. And we have had no choice in the matter.

Bio/chemical companies are now running advertisements that claim a better world as a result of their products. However, they are modifying soy, for instance, to withstand incredibly high levels of pesticide treatment; allowing application to greatly exceed current levels of resistance. Another example of better, is the actual insertion of pesticide producing DNA into the genes of existing produce.

To most historians, the advent of agriculture is the blossoming of human beings, the birth of civilization. Today the experimentation and the introduction of genetically modified Foods and organisms into our environment, and onto our shelves threaten the very thing we depend on most. Without safe nourishment, no life can exist.

What can we do to protect ourselves? The only safe source of food in the United States is organic food. Organic food is not New Age; it is practical. Organic means that a product has been grown without harmful pesticides or herbicides, and it means that it is free of genetic manipulation. It is good old-fashioned food, and it is the target of many bio/chemical companies -who lobby for legislation that attacks organic foods.

Unfortunately, no such protection is currently available at UMass Boston. Though it is rumored that Sodexho-Marriot has venders available to distribute organic food, that food has not been made available to UMass students. It is our right to eat what we know to be safe and healthy, our right to choose between risk and certainty. When will our rights be acknowledged here? When will we finally have the right to choose?