For years the American public supported the Vietnam War until we found out about the nonevent called the Tonkin Gulf incident. It never happened. Our government lied to us to promote the war.

For years we were told that nuclear power was “too cheap to meter.” But we found out there was no solution to the nuclear pollution. We were deceived.

Then we were told American people had been experimented on with radiation without their consent or knowledge. What a shock.

And today we are told that genetically engineered food is the same as any other food and perfectly safe. With the Europeans and others rejecting not only that premise but the technology itself, the citizens of the United States are again being experimented on without our consent. Why are we so complacent or so willing to be guinea pigs?

The approval process for ge foods is weak and biased. These foods have never been given thorough tests for long term effects on humans or for safety. The Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Department of Agriculture and Evironmental Protection Agency all rely on summaries of testing from the very companies that stand to benefit from the technology. FDA’s own records reveal a process of approval tainted by corporate science. The record also shows that the agency, with blatant disregard for opinions of their own dissenting scientists, clearly violated the U.S. Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in allowing ge foods to be marketed without first being proven safe. Genetically engineered foods are on the market illegally and should be recalled immediately for rigorous safety testing says Steven Drucker who has initiated a lawsuit along with several farmers. (see the lawsuit’s Web site: www.biointegrity.org).

Public opinion is rapidly shifting as we learn more about the dangers and this approval process, and a referendum on the labeling of these foods is possible in Maine as a major first step in confronting this flawed process mainerighttoknow@acadia.net. But the fact remains that these foods are already ubiquitous in grocery stores in spite of the fact that the technology has the the possibility of releasing “whole new classes of accidents and abuses,” according to Bill Joy, chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, writing in a blockbuster article in the April Wired Magazine.

Joy says scientists and engineers should step back from advances that might “ultimately threaten the human species.” This is the kind of warning from a top scientist in the field that weshould have listened to about nuclear power. If we had, the Maine Legislature would not have to be making the Faustian bargain about waste disposal from Maine Yankee that it is making now 50 years too late. The abuse of genetic engineering technology lies with in the reach of many individuals and corporations with little ability of the public to control them, says Joy. All it needs is knowledge.

The introduction of these foods, driven almost solely by the commercial sector, has put GE ingredients in 60 to 70 perceny of processed foods now on the shelves.

In the short period since the major introduction of ge crops hit the market the acreage has gone from zero acres in 1994 to an estimate of 90 million acres this year. The technology, marketed and corporate fast tracked, has far exceeded both the science and regulation.

Bill Joy warns that genetic engineering with its ability to self-replicate runs the risk of “substantial damage in the physical world” and that the only realistic alternative that he can see is “RELINQUISHMENT (my emphasis) — limit development of the technologies that are too dangerous, by limiting our pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge.”

These are major words of caution and we had better take heed.

How do we stop this runaway horse? The problem is not simple.

The genie is out of the bottle and getting it back in is more that just a technology problem it is a political problem. Corporate interests are driving science, education and our entire political spectrum. According to polling most Mainers want some better form of gun purchase regulation, universal health care under a single payer system, to block the sale of Maine Blue Cross to Anthem, to list the Atlantic salmon as endangered, and to protect and support third-party efforts. For these issues the two-party Congress and Legislature are desperately out of touch with their constituents, weighing only the pros and cons of corporate sponsored lobbiests and never hearing the general public because the public has lost its abiltity to influence the debate. Skepticism about politics runs rampant and fewer and fewer of the population votes. But even though political influence without the power of money is terribly hard (ask Maine Green Party members) it may be the only solution we haveand we better take part or our future looks dim indeed.

Ralph Nader, campaigning hard in every state for the Green Party nomination, clearly agrees the GE foods problem is political, and by advocating for the fledgling Greens as an alternative to the two major parties, he has the ability in this election to help ordinary people begin again to take back their rights to a democracy and a government where power, money and influence work for the people not against us.

Nancy Allen lives in Brooksville.