Runaway Heart (11 page)

     
"Amazing that their little brainstems know exactly where to
go, guiding them year after year to the same breeding ground thousands of miles
from where they came from. I'm asking you to keep this fact in mind the next
time you see one of these breathtaking organisms.

     
"Over the course of the next few days I'll be inviting some
brilliant doctors and professors from around the country to explain these
butterflies to you. Dr. DeVere is going to explain their eating patterns and
how they breed, reproduce, and migrate. Dr. Masuka is going to explain, and
even demonstrate to you, why they are dying in such vast numbers. Professor
Viotti is going to explain the evolution of these magnificent creatures—take
you on a voyage of natural selection and show you the evolutionary steps,
millions of years in the making, that created this unbelievable species of
butterfly that is now being threatened with destruction by one generation of
careless science.

     
"In the end you will know more about butterflies than you can
imagine, but that is just part of what you will have discovered. Although these
magnificent creatures are enchanting, their existence, and, yes, even their
ultimate fate, is merely a symptom of a much greater problem. Ladies and
gentlemen, I implore you to help me with this problem. The problem lies with a
new, dangerous kind of science.
Biologically Enhanced Foods."
He
pronounced the words like a death sentence. "In this case, a strain of
corn that produces its own insecticide. In an attempt to quickly make this new,
bio-enhanced Frankencorn and rush it, untested, into the market, the defendants
have completely overlooked
their responsibility to this three-million-year-old species, and
in a larger sense, to us, as well."

     
"Objection, Your Honor. He's arguing the case. This is
supposed to be an opening statement," Joseph Amato said from his seat.

     
Judge King smiled. "Objection sustained, Mr. Amato."
Then she swiveled in her chair. "Herman, maybe you should control
yourself."

     
"Yes, I'm afraid I'm very passionate about this. I'm sorry,
Your Honor." Herman was once again dismayed. She had called his opponent
Mr.
Amato, and him Herman, like he was just some sort of courtroom joke. Worse
still, he had let the defense break up his opening statement with an objection.
Shitty tactics, and he knew better.

     
Herman went on. "Dr. Masuka is going to explain to you how
this biologically enhanced corn is producing a chemical that gets into the corn
pollen that blows with the wind. This pollen from the transgenetic corn, or TG
corn, then lands in the milkweed that surrounds most cornfields. Milkweed, it
turns out, is a staple of the monarch butterfly's diet, so the butterflies are
eating this pollen and are dying off by the millions.

     
"Dr. Masuka will tell you about GMO crops—Genetically
Modified Organisms. Right now, GMOs make up over half the U.S. soybean crop and
over one third of the U.S. corn crop. Thousands of crops in the U.S. today are
trans-genetic crops, and that calls into question the safeguards that are being
taken not only for butterflies, but also for human beings who ingest these same
untested products. Are we safe, or will we follow the path of the tragically
beautiful monarch butterfly?

     
"Over the course of this trial you will see that the
defendants are blatantly disregarding these earth-sharing organisms. You will
be asked to remember the cross-breeding of African honeybees, a
well-intentioned experiment aimed at producing hives with more honey, but,
instead, produced swarms of disastrous killer bees that have overtaken half the
American continent. In their rush to try to improve upon

     
God's work, science all too often makes tragic mistakes. We don't
seem to be able to learn this lesson. So, while commercial science plays
genetic roulette, the rest of the life-forms on this planet suffer. Over the
course of this trial you will discover that the defendants are failing to do an
adequate job of testing these genetically enhanced crops prior to their
worldwide distribution. How long will it be before other species suffer and
die? How long before we find
ourselves
in the crosshairs of this new,
careless science?

     
"Frightening, isn't it?" Herman paused for maximum
effect. He had one eye on Judge King, watching her body language, hoping she
wouldn't cut him off. She shifted, so he resumed immediately. "Because,
like Agent Orange and Gulf War Disease, we have come to learn that the
government agencies sworn to protect us are often more interested in protecting
themselves—or the balance sheets of huge corporations and laboratories that
contribute to politics and buy influence in Washington."

     
"Objection."

     
"Sustained."

     
"I'm done," Herman said. "Ladies and gentlemen, it
is in your hands."

     
After a lot of shuffling, and whispering, and passing of notes
between attorneys at the defense table, Joseph Amato got to his feet and moved
front and center.

     
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury," he began. "I'm
Joseph Amato, and I represent the government. So, in essence, I represent you.
I'm here to explain to you about the great care and diligence that must take
place before any new food product, no matter how insignificant, can enter your
lives. The monarch butterfly is dying off at alarming rates and we do not
contest this fact. But my clients are also not responsible for it. Oh, yes, I
suspect a few butterflies have died from eating milkweed with TG corn pollen on
it. This is far from the disaster the plaintiff makes it out to be. We will
show that many more butterflies are being killed off by insecticide spraying
than by GMO food, but the plaintiff will ignore that
fact. The
plaintiff will give you no figures about butterfly deaths from insecticide
spraying, because, of course, that wouldn't help his case. However, I am here
to keep him honest, so you will hear from me about the devastation insecticides
cause to monarch butterflies.

     
"You will also learn about the horrible downstream effect
this frivolous lawsuit will have on starving Third World children who, if the
plaintiff prevails, will die at an even more alarming rate than the monarch
butterfly. Poor children who now directly benefit from these enhanced foods.
What does the plaintiff hope to accomplish with his legal action? Well, I'll
tell you. He is attempting to shut down this entire new and exciting field of
genetic food research.

     
"We will show that tomatoes can be designed to contain
enhanced vitamin A. Think of it. Super vegetables can be grown and fed to
children in Africa, or in the Sudan where babies die by the thousands from vitamin
A deficiency. We'll show how, in the future, because of this science it will be
possible to make soybeans and vegetables with larger mass and added nutrients
and grow more produce per acre—and that product will be vitamin-enriched and
healthier. One day this science may well save the people of our overpopulated
planet from starvation.

     
"You will learn that the impact of GMO foods on the monarch,
is in fact very small, perhaps even infinitesimal, because this corn pollen
that Mr. Strockmire is so concerned about is only produced for a very short
time during the growing season—less than two weeks. It does not easily blow in
the wind, and the monarchs' host plant, the milkweed, is vigorously controlled
around cornfields.

     
"We will show you that most of the concerns about this new
food technology are overblown and misunderstood; that this science is based on
the laws of natural selection. We will show you how many plants over time have
even developed their own natural resistance to pests. What is being done here,
simply put, is to scientifically speed up this natural process of evolution. As
the population of the planet grows exponentially and hunger becomes our major
world problem,
the labs and federal agencies Mr. Strockmire finds so dastardly are in fact
attempting to beat the clock and feed the planet. However, you won't hear about
any of this from the plaintiff.

     
"You will see that the men and women of science, who I will
bring before you during this trial, are not monsters. They are not Frankensteins
who are cooking up genetic nightmares. Instead, you will see that they are
people not unlike yourselves who are concerned with die problems facing our
society, concerned with world hunger. In fact, far from heartless monsters, you
will see that they are the real heroes in this war against starvation.

     
"I beg you, don't listen to fanatics. Don't side with
alarmists like Mr. Strockmire and his radical plaintiffs, but be messengers for
the future. Be careful, and sure, and apply common sense to your judgment. The
children of the world may live or starve by the outcome of your deliberations.
Thank you."

     
Joseph Amato walked back and sat, elegant, assured, tugging at his
French cuffs, diamond studs glittering.

     
Herman had left his jewelry case in Washington, so he had been
forced to use paper brads from some scripts he'd found at Lipman, Castle &
Stein to hold his frayed cuffs together. The little metal tacks glittered
dully.

     
"Okay, first witness, Herman," Judge King ordered.

    
 
"The
plaintiffs call Dr. Deborah DeVere."

     
The door opened and Deborah moved into the courtroom. She looked
smart and confident as she took the stand and was sworn in.

     
"Dr. DeVere," Herman began. "Would you please cite
your qualifications for testimony here today?"

     
"I graduated from UCLA with honors in undergraduate studies,
then completed my master's at the School of Entomology at the University of
Virginia. I graduated in the top ten percent of my class, then went on to take
my doctorate there and, again, graduated in the top ten percent. I've won
several awards in research from Tulane University, where I did some
postdoctoral work on arachnid reproduction and earned several grants, among
them a Fulbright and a Holenbeck. I am currently the head of the Entomology
Department at the University of Texas."

     
"So, you would be considered an expert in the field of
butterflies, with a wide-ranging knowledge of their breeding and feeding
habits?"

     
"Objection. Calls for speculation."

    
 
"I'll
withdraw it. On that basis, Dr. DeVere, would you consider yourself an expert
on the feeding and reproduction habits of the monarch butterfly?"

     
"I've done extensive work on the disappearance of the monarch
butterfly due to its ingestion of TG corn."

     
"Excuse me, Dr. DeVere," Judge King asked sweetly from
the bench. "Since you are a leading expert in the plight of the monarch
butterfly, I have one question."

     
"Of course. Go ahead, Your Honor," Herman demurred.

     
"Have you ever heard of the Danaus Plexippus
Foundation?"

     
"I beg your pardon?" Dr. DeVere shot a worried look at
Herman, who just barely managed to keep his growing panic under control.

     
Judge King said, "I've just been assured by counsel in a
sworn affidavit this morning that the Danaus Plexippus Foundation, his new
client, is a world-leading organization, devoted to the preservation of the
monarch butterfly. As a renowned academic expert on the monarch, I was
wondering if you'd ever heard of this world-famous foundation?"

     
"Uh . . . of the ahh . . . Danaus Plexippus Foundation?"

     
"That's the one," Melissa said from the bench, a smile
now tickling the edge of her mouth. "Counsel said that it's the 'foremost
foundation.' I said, 'In the
worldT
And he said, 'In the whole
wide
world.'
I figure a leading doctor on monarch butterfly feeding and reproduction would
certainly know about the leading foundation chartered with the protection of
same. How about it? Ever heard of these guys?"

     
"No, Your Honor."

 
    
'Wo?" Melissa shifted, her
pregnancy signaling more discomfort, but a smile twitched happily at the
corners of
her mean,
ruler-straight little mouth. "This is very strange. How could this be? The
leading doctor on monarchs has never heard of the leading preservation society.
Herman, are you as shocked as I am?"

     
Herman didn't answer, didn't know what to say. He'd been busted.

     
Judge King went on. "I'd hate to think that an attorney
trying a case before me would stretch the truth—would
lie\
Please tell
me that's not what's going on here, Herman?"

     
"Well, Your Honor, technically, what I said was . . ."