US Agroterrorism Prevention Act tabled
Fires destroyed facilities, plants, and other materials in Oregon and Washington late in May where poplar trees and a variety of horticulturally valuable plant species were being grown and studied. The radical but elusive Earth Liberation Front (Portland, OR) is taking credit for the fires, whose damage amounted to more than $3 million, as part of the organization's wider campaign against genetic engineering research and its commercial implementation. However, several of the University of Washington (Seattle, WA) scientists, including Toby Bradshaw (pictured), whose work was damaged by the fire there say that their research did not involve genetic engineering. Sentiments were echoed at the second target site, Jefferson Poplar Farms (Clatskanie, OR), where a number of vehicles were also damaged or destroyed, although the site was once connected with a university-based group planning such research. Sporadic incidents of vandalism directed against biotech research facilities or plant growth test plots date back at least several years and seldom, if ever, lead to arrests or trials of those who are responsible for the damage (Nat. Biotechnol. 17, 1053, 1999). But that may change: on June 5, US Representative George Nethercutt (R-Wash.) introduced the Agroterrorism Prevention Act of 2001 that would establish a Federal clearinghouse to accept, collect, and maintain information on agbiotech vandalism, and proposes a minimum sentence of five years in prison for anyone attempting to damage or destroy a plant or animal research facility with fire or explosives. JF
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