In the May issue, in the Biotech column, there was news about an entirely Italian experiment on a new genetically modified rice variety designed to resist Rice Blast, a serious disease that afflicts rice paddies and necessitates regular fungicide treatments. Resulting from Crispr-Cas9 technologies, the new rice had obtained all the necessary authorizations and was subsequently transplanted in Mezzana Bigli, in the Pavia area, at the farm of Count Federico Radice Fossati. The past tense is used because that rice no longer exists. On the night between June 20th and 21st, some vandals bypassed the surveillance cameras, tore down the weak fence surrounding the experimental field, and uprooted every plant, ruining the research. “Ris-8imo,” the name given to that rice, was thus wiped out, plunging anyone with minimal expertise in agriculture and genetic improvement into despair. The researchers from the State University of Milan, starting with Vittoria Brambilla and her team, who had developed that variety, were understandably distraught.
Predictable Criminals
In May, the short piece published on the event by Macchine Trattori ended with a laconic “Further developments are awaited,” developments that, to the utmost infamy of the usual suspects, were not as hoped. Not awaited, as knowing for some time the inherent criminal nature of anti-biotech eco-terrorism, the editorial team feared that something like this might happen. The indications given at the time about the location of the trial were deliberately false, placing it fictitiously in the Vercelli area to mislead those who were sure to immediately plan the vandal attack.
This unfortunately did not help, partly due to the media frenzy that accompanied the planting of those crops. Videos, photographs, and interviews amplified the imprudent triumphalism of all those who attended the transplant in that experimental field, from representatives of regional and national politics, to passionate Biotech supporters, to journalists from local and national newspapers. Experience teaches that eco-vandals are everywhere, with their distorted perception of the world and scientific research. Deluded into thinking they have the Truth in their pocket, they consider themselves saviors of the planet and thus morally justified in destroying what collides with their ideological orientation.
An extremist orientation that now smells of quasi-religious and that, as often happens, founders in hatred for science. There is indeed nothing different between the destroyers of “Ris-8imo” and those who devastated the experimental trials of Golden Rice in the Philippines in 2013, or the GMO corn fields in France in 2014. Nor are there any differences with anti-nuclear and anti-chemical fanatics, whose behavioral patterns have long been comparable to those of anti-vaxxers of the past and present. These are all minorities of exalted extremists who afflict every corner of the globe and whose predisposition to destroy must always be taken into account whenever attempting to foster progress with new research and solutions.
Better to Camouflage
Macchine Trattori thus expresses its solidarity with the Milanese researchers, but also takes the liberty of giving them humble advice. Next time, because there will be a next time, hide the trial well from everyone’s eyes. Work in secret and in silence, perhaps sowing false targets everywhere, as submarines do when chased by enemy boat torpedoes. It’s unpleasant to say, but it is well understood that those who conduct research in a world of mentally disturbed people like today’s must defend themselves. And in this sense, camouflage is the best weapon.
Author: Donatello Sandroni
Translation with ChatGPT
