We’re winning on food. That much is clear. The likes of Monsanto will never again be able to arrogantly assume consumer acquiescence over the wholesale introduction of their mutant products. What started with letter-writing, supermarket blockades, test site decontaminations and Arpad Pusztai’s rats has ended with a massive split in the corporate supply chain – with retailers and manufacturers finding their interests irreparably damaged by the greed of the ‘life sciences’ multinationals.

As a recent report by Deutsche Bank analysts re-affirmed, premiums are beginning to be paid for segregated non-GM agricultural commodities. Brazil’s judiciary just upheld a ban on the planting of Monsanto’s soya –hampering efforts by the company to plug this dangerous breach in its efforts to control the market. US exports have been badly hit. Even Japan is now introducing labelling laws, and its major beer producers are going GM-free.

One of the twentieth century’s biggest abuses of corporate power is being beaten by a broad-based coalition of environmental activists, consumers and pressure groups. Yes, there’s much work still to be done. An unholy alliance of AgrEvo and the Government are conspiring to inflict genetic pollution across the UK under the guise of farm-scale GM trials. Investors are still propping up the beleaguered biotech firms – using our money. Perhaps the biggest battle of all will come when the US uses the World Trade Organisation in a last-ditch attempt to force the EU and Third World countries to accept its unwanted produce.

But the menacing heart of the genetics revolution remains hidden and relatively unscathed. Although the first rush by private capital to generate profits out of transgenic plants is failing, the commodification of life itself continues apace. As science continues to gain new insights into the DNA of plants and animals, the corporate grip over the application of this knowledge intensifies through the patents system.

There was widespread public revulsion when the cloning of Dolly the sheep was announced. Now there’s a steady flow of stories in the press about how cloning can save endangered species. People find the idea of xenotransplantation (the use of animal organs for transplantation into humans) abhorrent – not least because of the potential for it to generate horrific new diseases. But research is continuing rapidly, and ‘success stories’ are becoming more regular. Functional foods – such as fruit genetically engineered for extra vitamins – are seen by Novartis as a clever way to tempt consumers out of their suspicion of eating unnatural GM produce.

The genetic battle lines are moving away from food and agriculture and into medicine. And now the stakes are even higher. Public distrust of scientists – reinforced by the enduring Frankenstein image – does not extend to doctors. The opportunities for ‘transgenic kidney could save my sick son’-style emotional blackmail are also new, and in many ways unique to medicine. Society will soon have to face the question of whether alterations to the human genome, which can be transferred through generations, are ethically acceptable.

If the answer to this question is left in the hands of private corporations, the consequences for humanity will be truly horrific. Eugenics will re-surface as laudable efforts by the medical community to tackle human diseases with a genetic component. But how could we ever define the limits of what constitutes a disease? Would the definition ever extend to sexuality and physical appearance? And as people with, say, Downs Syndrome are eliminated, what does this say about the perceived value of their lives?

It is unnecessary and immoral for science to develop the capacity for using genetic technology to select and eliminate certain types of human beings, or to prevent their existence. The hard fact is that science has been bought, and there’s no-one we can trust with this power.

The campaign against human genetic engineering will not be like another food scare. This is tricky moral territory, with much less clarity between the good and bad guys. But it’s far easier to stop an abuse of power before the first instance of it happens. And we’ve got to stop the approaching nightmare of eugenics – before it’s too late.

Mark Lynas

Stopping the crop
- Anti-Genetics events this summer.

May 21:
Activists enter and blockade AstraZeneca offices at Stanhope Gate, London. Later that day protest erupts at the company's Annual General Meeting as 'concerned shareholders' take a stand.
May 29:
Forty Indian farmers from the pre-June 18 Inter-Continental Caravan visit a GM crop squat on a decontaminated oilseed rape test site - to bring attention to the threat posed by biotech crops to Third World farmers.
June 16:
Four 'genetiX snowball' activists openly remove Monsanto sugar beet at 'Cereals 99' exhibition as farmers and Monsanto staff look on.
July 8:
Abandoned farm next to farm-scale oilseed rape trial at Model Farm, Watlington, Oxfordshire, squatted and renamed 'The Alternative Model Farm'. Within a week gardens become a model for permaculture and organic growing.
July 12:
Over 150 AstraZeneca genetically engineered poplar trees - supposedly aimed at mitigating the environmental effects of paper-making - cut down in the night by anti-GM activists.
July 18:
Watlington farm-scale trial invaded and trashed by at least 600 people attending a rally next to the site - nearly all wearing biohazard suits and masks. Some activists remain on the field for two hours in the hot sun, rolling around and pulling up crops.
July 25:
Greenpeace activists attack maize farm-scale trial site at Lyng in Norfolk using a crop-trashing machine. Police are called, and a confrontation with the farmer ensues. Several arrested, including Greenpeace director Lord Melchett, who remains incarcerated for two days.
July 31
: 'Smash Genetix' action at Home Farm, Lincolnshire - 46 arrested. The target is a farm-scale maize trial, but extensive damage is reported to a field of non-GM maize.
August 3:
Three genetiX snowball activists defy their injunction and uproot GM oilseed rape at AgrEvo trial site at Chishill Orchard Farm, Royston, Hertforshire. The plants are bagged up and delivered to AgrEvo's HQ at East Winch, Kings Lynn, Norfolk.
August 25:
Deutsche Bank report, saying that GM companies are no longer a good investment, hits the press.
September 17:
People Against Eugenics group stops meeting of Eugenics Society (official title: Galton Institute) at Royal Zoological Society, London, at which three known racists were due to speak.
September 26
: Over 150 cows, chickens and fish deliver petition and hold rally at Labour Party conference in Bournemouth, protesting against GM ingredients in animal feeds.

Anti-Genetics events this summer