cgi eB? ? ARTS & he. g ; we am: : t e es ~ Ethiopian farmers distr’ can’t. rather than to satisfy hunger. warfare. ibute new seeds. Choosi have evolved to meet local conditions could avert famine. ‘Veggie snack’ boom Few in the ‘have’ countries are unaware of the tragedy of arms spending, trillions of dollars wasted while those in the ‘have-not’ nations needlessly die of starvation and disease. However it is less well-known that those who profit from the arms manufacturing are also in the food business. Our planet has evolved in a very intricately and complex manner giving birth to an infinitesimal range of plant and wildlife, each delicately balancing the other. Humans can fit comfortably into this ecological chain but the transnational corporations This is the subject of ‘‘Fragile Harvest’’, showing Feb. 5, 8 p.m. on CBC television’s Nature of Things. It is a disturbing examination of what happens when food is produced for profit Filmed in Ethiopia, Peru, Turkey and North America, Fragile Harvest examines the world monopolization of the food industry from the seed to the can. Genetic engineering, holding the pos- sibilities of improving and protecting plant food, has moved from government and university labs into the corporate boardrooms, bringing with it the spectre of ‘‘veggie snacks’. The names on the seed packages are the same as those borne by the fertilizer and chemical preparations — Dow, Texaco, Shell and others, are as familiar to a North American farming magazine as a billboard in Latin America. Not surprisingly they are also sported on the stockpiles of chemicals and machines destined for Produced and directed by Robert Lang, in cooperation with the National Film Board and CBC, Fragile Harvest will be available through NFB offices and Lang’s own Toronto production com- pany, Kensington Communications. ing grains which — Kerry McCuaig Canada’s-own world renowned zoologist Gerald Durrell is angry with the media these days. ‘‘It’s not atomic war we want to worry ° about,”’ he says. Instead he’d like the newsgatherers to focus their attention on the *‘deliberately and stupidly”’ declared war on the bio- logical world. Durrell is undoubtedly short- sighted in not drawing the con- nections between saving the planet for both humanity and the animal and plant kingdoms, but it is almost forgiveable coming from this man who has so passionately. devoted his life to saving en-~ dangered species. It is not ironic that the country most committed to saving the world from nuclear war, is also . the most advanced in animal con- _servation. Which is why you find “Durrell in Russia’’, a 13-part-se- ries now showing on CBC. Durrell credits the Soviet Union’s ‘‘excellent record for saving creatures’’. Vast nature reserve are set aside in all geographical areas of 1C e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, FEBRUARY 5, 1986 _ Sharing the planet Television the country. On each a section is set aside where animals are bred © in captivity and are then released into the wild. A Canadian-British co-produc- tion, created in association with CBC, TV Ontario; Societé Radio-Canada and television networks in the Soviet Union and England, Durrell’s agreement to do the series stems from his con- viction of the need to educate young humans to respect animal Tg -- For him two years old is not too early to introduce children to biology and it is to children that many of his books are geared. To his delighted surprise he is a household word in the Soviet Union. A 200,000 run of one of his children’s books sold out in just three days. but his appeal is not limited to the young set, much of the Soviets’ conservation tech- niques have been influenced by his work. a STAR WARRIORS. William J. Broad, Simon and Schuster, New York 1985. Cloth 245 pages $20.25. “ Star Warriors takes us into a world we will never see. A world surrounded by barbed wire, armed guards and military secrecy; the inner world of the young scientists working on Reagan’s Star Wars program. The Livermore Laboratory, in rural California, is the site where these ‘‘warriors’’ do their re- search. An all male work force has been selected for their outstanding scientific abilities and devo- tion to Reagan’s cause. William Broad, a science news reporter for the New York Times, went there out of curiosity. He says he wanted to find out how the scientists involved in Star Wars research felt about their work; how they justified to themselves their participation in the most advanced weapons project ever undertaken. ‘‘Warriors are intrinsi- cally more interesting than worriers’’, he remarks. Star Warriors is not about Star Wars technology. As Broad points out, the technology is veiled in secrecy through an elaborate security system that keeps all but the select few from knowing the full implications of their research. What Star Warriors gives us is a biographical sketch of some of the young scientists whom Broad was permitted to talk with. Out of this comes a picture of their outlook; on the armsrrace, scientific research, and their role in the development of “‘third generation’’ weap- ons. Gone are the days of weapons of mass de- struction, these warriors insist, what they are working on are ‘‘weapons of life’’. Just how they can have such a dangerously distorted outlook is Broad’s concern. Lowell Wood, the leader of the research team: on his office door are two pictures. One labeled ‘before Lowell’’, is a map of the Soviet Union. The other, labeled ‘‘after Lowell’ is a map of the moon’s cratered and barren surface. Lowell has a big role to play in recruiting Liver- more’s scientists. Through the Hertz Foundation, unaccountable to the American public because it is private, graduate scientists are selected and funded to work at Livermore. The Hertz Foundation’s board has included; Edward Teller, architect of Star Wars research and Lowell Wood’s mentor; Robert Lehman, head of an investment banking firm; Floyd B. Odlum, financer of the development of the Atlas missile; J. Edgar Hoover, past director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; General LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command and chief of staff of the Strategic Air Forces when the first atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Hans Mark, former Air Force secretary; and the board’s president, Wilson K. Talley, chairman of the Pen- tagon’s Army Science Board. The Foundation’s purpose lies in ‘‘fostering the technological strength of America’’. It also re- quires its recipients to ‘‘morally commit them- selves to make their skills and abilities available for the common defence, in the event of national — f emergency’’. When asked if he was attra, young students interested in peaceful research. turning them into weapons makers, Lowel] ““they’re free, white, and twenty-one when come here; with one or two exceptions’’. F s u The students have somewhat a different — proach. As one of them put it, after graduating Wy top marks and working in a cannery in Oregon ™ was a choice between your bomb factory a, beet cannery. And that’s the case witha lot of oi bachelor’s-degree holders.” u Larry West, who develops supercomputer military purposes: ‘‘I consider computers to \G much a weapon as nuclear warheads are’, he s “They have as much importance to the salvatiq® society’’. He is also a firm believer in Star yy? Although he admits that, at best it can never be effective as Reagan wants the American Peop]” ‘believe, he thinks his contribution to the devely ment of supercomputers will at least cut down aC losses. For him, Star Wars research means fin t “technical solutions to a technical problem,>~t# Rod Hyde, another weapons designer at Lj, _ more, sees things in simpler terms. One of Hy ¢ heros was Alexander the Great. Says Hyde, ‘te was so damn talented to do what he did at his | He was 32 when he died, and he had conquereq\@ known world at the age of 26’’. Rod’s ambitions tl perhaps a little less grand; his talents are focy? against the people of the Soviet Union. As he say, ‘I’ve been chosen. I intend to teach them a 4¥ humility’. tt Broad came away from these encounters sq, __ what unsettled. In fact it took him some timel clarify his feelings about Reagan’s Star Wars p { ram. What had once been merely a matte, V3 curiosity became a cause for concern. It was , £ the madness of the whole Star Wars program ty! turned him against it, it was the ‘star warrig,™ themselves. After insisting that what is needed is ing, national co-operation around peaceful sciens; research, more cultural exchange and negotiats rather than confrontation, he leaves the ‘‘star wy? riors”’ and the rest of us with a small, but very ‘thought: *“‘The young scientists have never x the sky painted with the reds and oranges 9 high-altitude nuclear explosion. They have ney, felt the flash of heat from a distant nuclear bj] They are creating a world of nuclear weapons t} can know only through the sanitized flicker of e}, tronic meters and the painstaking analysis of ¢ paper.” Such a misuse of science may satisfy t curiosity. But at what cost to us? — John Mc Getting it straight from Gorbachev Mikhail Gorbachev has taken the initiative of speaking directly to the American people through a new book ‘*Time for Peace’’ re- leased by New York publishers Richardson and Steirman. The book is a collection of Speeches and statements by the Soviet leader, since his election as general secretary of the Soviet Communist party in March 1985. ‘In a brief foreword he outlines the book’s contents, which he Says ‘‘represents my own and my colleagues’ ideas, arising from re- flections on the past and the pres- ent, acontemplation of the future, and from talks with very different people: factory managers and workers, farmers and scientists, politicians from other countries, my friends, and my critics.”’ Gorbachev writes that his book “reflects this particular historical moment’’, in which “even a single day may be equivalent to a whole epoch in terms of the scope of decisions that have to be made’”’ and their significance for the present and future. Stating that a country like the Soviet Union, whose primary task is providing its people with a richer and more rewarding life, “‘cannot but have a vital stake in peace’’, acknowledging. that many Americans share the same apprehensions as the Soviet people about the world situation. A choice has to be made, he continues, between ‘‘escalating the arms race to cosmic pro- portions, or curtailing it... Today we face ... total nuclear annihi- lation. Can it really be that we lack the wisdom, patience, per- severance and courage needed to ward off this formidable threat?’’ The weight of responsibility is ‘shouldered by the Soviet and American leaderships,. Gor-_ bachev writes. The Soviet Unj is ready to find common group, on disarmament. But, he goes 9! ‘this goal cannot be achieve, without reciprocal efforts on th, part of the United States”. Telling American readers th “‘the vital need for peace ways of achieving it are a m theme”’ of his book, he prom that the Soviet Union will ne unleash a war. “‘I would consid my aim achieved if the Ameri reader gains a better understa ing of our plans and intentio and if he feels our desire for pe and cooperation’’, he conclud Time for Peace, published j cooperation with Novosti P Agency of the USSR, is dis buted in Canada by H.B. F and Co. Ltd. of Mississauga, O The 212 pp. hard-cover volu featuring eight pages of co photographs retails in Canada | $17.95.