MANY CURRENT USES of biotechnology, including the engineering of crops, animals, trees, insects and bacteria, create unique environmental, social, and human health risks. The threats to the balance of nature and to society presented by genetic engineering are due in large part to the current technology’s reliance on faulty science, corporate control, and the economic incentives provided through the patenting of life. Therefore, the CornerStone Campaign is working to ensure:

One: that the applications of biotechnology are based on sound science;

Two: that the technology does not harm the environment through large scale biological pollution;

Three: that the world’s food plants and other living forms, as well as the genes and cells of these organisms, are not subject to corporate or government ownership through patenting; and

Four: that there is a rapid reduction of corporate control over our society and its food supply.

We believe that these are the “cornerstone” issues about genetic engineering which must be fully confronted before there is any further application of this technology.