Re: Cuba

[ken hanly <northsunm@xxxxxxxxx>]

I saw part of the documentary. It was interesting and
showed how the Cuban government and people adapted
successfully in the "time of troubles" and managed to
actually produce more food without dependency on gas
and diesel fuel. I didn't see anything about their GM
program in the parts I watched. Did Suzuki mention
that? Cuba is at the cutting edge in some
biotechnology research. Here is a summary of some:

Cuba?s genetic engineering

Dr Carlos Borretto of Cuba?s agricultural
biotechnology centre went to great lengths to explain
the nature of Cuba?s genetic engineering project.
Obviously acutely aware of the controversy that
surrounds GM crops in the UK, he was emphatic:

?Public confidence is high in our biotechnology and we
not wan to lose that support from our people. You can
be sure that before anything we do is released into
the environment it will be safe.?
Dr Borretto showed slides of the way in which Cuban GM
crops are tested. Unlike in the UK where open fields
are used, Cuban GM crops are grown in special
greenhouses that completely sealed from environment so
that no genetically modified material can escape to
the outside.

In addition, Cuba?s approach to GM is different from
that which has been taken by the big multinationals.
Cuba is not interested in patenting the plants so that
they can control the sale of seeds. Instead, Dr
Borretto?s institute is dedicated to producing strains
of Cuba?s staple products that are truly resistant to
diseases and whose performance in terms of yields is
enhanced.

The work already done has produced a GM strain of
tobacco that is resistant to blue mould, but
ironically this has not been accepted.

?When we told the big tobacco buyers of our product
they turned it down because cigar lovers would not buy
cigars made form a GM plant!,? said Dr Borretto, ?I
find this position somewhat strange, given the known
dangers of smoking tobacco, that people should be
concerned at the risk of GM!?

Cuba also has GM potatoes, rice and maize under trial.
But most exciting is the development of tobacco plants
that produce human monoclonal antibodies in their
leaves. Currently, all the monoclonal antibodies that
are manufactured in the world come from specially bred
mice. It takes a hundred thousand mice to produce on
kilo of antibody material. However with the new plant
production the possibility will be to produce much
more material much more quickly in a way that is more
animal friendly.
And what of Cuba?s famous transgenic fish?

Dr Borretto explains: ?We produced a transgenic
tilapia, a type of edible freshwater fish, that grows
twice as fast and uses less food. We genetically
modified its stomach to be more efficient in absorbing
nutrients from food. We have had this fish for 8 years
now, and the story has been around the world that we
are already eating this fish and selling it to the
population. But this is absolutely untrue, the fish
has not escaped the laboratory and we have no
intention of marketing it. That would be a public
relations disaster! We don?t want to be the first to
release a transgenic fish into the world!?

However, the fish could yet yield a reward for Cuba.
The research has discovered how the new fish absorbs
nutrients more efficiently and Cuban scientists have
now isolated the enzyme that triggers the effect.
?In other words, we can now manufacture an enzyme that
can be given to normal fish that will make them
perform like the genetically modified ones. So here we
have used GM to make non GM organisms perform better.
This is very exciting.?

Exciting just about sums up what is a tremendous
achievement for a Third World country. The overall
impression received was that perhaps the US opposition
to Cuba?s science is really rooted in envy. For it is
clear that the only danger Cuba poses to the US is in
the field of competition in the marketplace

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--- paul phillips <phillipsp@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> Just finished watching the two-hour documentary on
> Cuban agriculture,
> medicine, education, etc., produced for CBC TV by
> David Suzuki, "The
> Nature of Things."  It had been broadcast over two
> weeks by CBC but,
> since we were away both times, we had recorded it
> and tonight was the
> first time I had a chance to sit down and watch the
> whole thing.
>
> Wow! Totally inspirational.  Of course, there were
> the required comments
> about the lack of bourgeois democracy at the end of
> each of the two
> segments, but they were far less critical than the
> comments about
> American imperialism before the revolution.  In any
> case, what the
> documentary shows is the enormous
> humanitarian/ecological advances that
> Cuba has made in agriculture, education and medicine
> -- but more
> importantly, in  developing a sense of compassionate
> commitment to human
> values.  And a very human face to the Cuban
> revolution.
>
> I wonder if US audiences will be  allowed to see
> this documentary.  The
> stuff on agriculture was nothing new to me as I have
> an article on the
> subject coming out in the next issue of Canadian
> Dimension. But in the
> 'movie' version it is so much more dynamic. And it
> is totally subversive
> of agribusiness values.  Louis, I would appreciate
> your review.
>
> Paul P
>
>
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