In San Diego the annual meeting of BIO, the official trade and lobby association of the genetic engineering industry, is facing huge demonstrations from family farmers, consumers, environmentalist and others outraged at US policies that have forced untested, unlabeled GE foods onto the market. Industry front groups including the American Council on Science and Health and the Guest Choice Network are viciously attacking the real citizens groups in news releases and on websites such as www.guestchoice.com.

Genetically modified (GM) canola is appearing in farmers' fields where it wasn't planted, and because the plant has been engineered to resist conventional herbicides, it's tough to kill. "The GM canola has, in fact, spread much more rapidly than we thought it would," said Martin Entz, a plant scientist at the University of Manitoba. "It's absolutely impossible to control." Monsanto, which created one of the GM canola strains, says that if farmers call the company, they'll send out a team to manually pull up the weeds.

The industry-funded American Council on Science and Health is warning journalists to beware of accepting misleading information presented by activists protesting the Bio 2001 conference being held in San Diego June 24-27. ACSH wants journalists to report on what it views as the sound science used by the biotech industry to demonstrate the safety of biofoods.