Opposition reflects the diversity of a grass-roots movement

At Copley Square, wide spectrum expected

Raphael Lewis / Boston Globe 26mar00

One thread binds the hundreds of people attending BioDevastation 2000, a conference on the potential hazards of biotechnology taking place this weekend at Northeastern University: the belief that the booming biotech industry, which is holding its own convention at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center, is out of control.

Yet, if their opposition to biotechnology ties them together, those attending BioDevastation 2000 are really a patchwork group that reflects the diversity of a grass-roots movement all but nonexistent three years ago.

Today, the opponents move to Copley Square for a demonstration and protest march. The 500 to 1,000 people expected to show up will represent virtually every geographic region of the continent, every race, every class, and a wide spectrum of careers and interests, based on more than two-dozen interviews conducted by The Globe.

Some are farmers fresh from the open fields of the Midwest who fear the effects of genetically modified seeds and plant species on human health, the environment, and agriculture.

Others are students and young professionals from the crowded streets of the Northeast's big cities who worry that those who cannot afford organic foods are being forced to purchase genetically altered fruits and vegetables without knowing what the health consequences could be.

Some live in Vermont communes, others in San Francisco condos. Some are high school seniors, others senior citizens.

''I'm really amazed at how diverse this group of people is,'' said Abby Youngblood, 21, a New Hampshire resident who teaches fourth-graders about the environment. ''You'd think everyone here would look the same, but they don't at all.''

Many in attendance came by the busload from Maine, Vermont, and Canada, where opposition to genetically engineered foods has gained a strong populist foothold.

Several others are career activists from California and Washington, D.C., Europe and Asia, veterans of protests on issues such as nuclear power and human rights who have rededicated their lives to getting genetically engineered foods off store shelves.

More than a few are scientists, academics, graduate students, and researchers who fear that profit-driven discoveries funded by giant biotech corporations such as Monsanto have occurred in a moral vacuum.

Many others still are consumers craving more information on a topic they say they believe has received little attention in the mainstream media.

Dorian Brooks, 60, of Arlington, has watched for the past few years with a growing sense of fear and anger as multinational corporations began stocking supermarket shelves with genetically engineered foods - without labels that say so.

When she heard that BioDevastation was coming to town, she marked it off on her calendar.

''I will go to the rally,'' Brooks said Friday, as she ate a vegan lunch during a break between panel discussions at Northeastern. ''I want the industry to know how I feel.''

For Jill Rubin, 25, of Amherst, the route to BioDevastation began in Tanzania, where she spent a college semester digging ditches to create a water delivery system in an agrarian community.

''After 300 years as a farming community, they couldn't provide enough food to sustain their population anymore,'' Rubin said. ''But they were all saying that they needed chemicals and high-tech seeds to survive. That seemed wrong to me. I realized the answer is not with technology, but with distribution of food.''

Dana Pratt, 23, of Albany, came to learn more about a topic that frightens her, before heading to Maine this summer to do outreach work with migrant farmhands.

''I've dedicated my life for the last year to fight against bioengineered food,'' said Toby Kiers, 23, a soil scientist from Steuben, Maine.

Kiers is part of a grass-roots effort to get a referendum that calls for the labeling of genetically engineered foods on the ballot in Maine this fall.

When questioned why the issue struck her as so important that it swept her into a life of activism, Kiers paused, then said: ''This issue affects every aspect of our lives. What we eat, what we know, what we control. It's an issue that is nothing short of crucial to everyone, if they know it or not.''