- Date: Thursday, Sept. 30
- Time: 7:30 p.m.
- Place: Fletcher Challenge Theatre, Room 1005, Forest
Sciences Centre, 2424 Main Mall - Parking: Available at the Health Sciences Parkade. Enter
at Gate 1 and turn left off University Boulevard onto East Mall.
UBC’s Faculty of Agricultural Sciences will present a free public
lecture Sept. 30 to inform the growing public debate about biotechnology.
“Perspectives on Biotechnology” features author and publisher Brewster
Kneen and Doug Powell, director of the Agri-Food Risk Management
and Communication Project at the University of Guelph.
“I intend to address the question of whether or not the manipulation
of life forms for corporate control and profit is a reasonable exercise
for society,” says Kneen, author of the book Farmaggedon: Food
and the Culture of Biotechnology. He is also publisher of The
Ram’s Horn, a monthly newsletter of food systems analysis.
Powell, an assistant professor of Plant Agriculture, is author
of Mad Cows and Mother’s Milk and Reclaiming Dinner.
A journalist and well-known speaker on public issues of science
and society, he will talk about the challenge of extracting technology’s
benefits while actively minimizing potential risks through rigorous
food safety risk management.
The lecture, co-sponsored by the UBC Biotechnology Lab, takes place
at 7:30 p.m. in the Fletcher Challenge Theatre in UBC’s Forest Sciences
Centre. It is the first of three community lectures organized by
UBC’s Faculty of Agricultural Sciences.
“Through this lecture series, the faculty hopes to provide information
that will help members of the public make their own choices and
form their own opinions,” says Agricultural Sciences Dean Moura
Quayle.
The D.B. Quayle Memorial Lecture, “Threats to Global Marine Ecosystems,”
features Tundi Agardy, senior director for marine conservation,
Conservation International, Washington, D.C. It takes place Oct.
28 in the Fletcher Challenge Theatre.
The final lecture is “Food Power: The Tussle between Pressure Groups
and the Food Barons over the Direction of the Market” with Tim Lang,
professor, Food Policy, Thames Valley University, London. It takes
place Nov. 25 at 7:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Maritime Museum. It
is co-sponsored by UBC’s School of Social Work and Family Studies
and Farm Folk/City Folk.
For more information on the lectures call 604.822.1219.
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