As representatives of the biotech industry prepare to descend on Vancouver for the Pacific Rim Biotechnology conference, the city’s citizens are planning a resounding rejection of genetically modified organisms(GMOs)and the corporations promoting them.

Big Money, Bad $cience, a day-long “teach-in” on Friday, November 10, which has been arranged by Greenpeace and other members of Canadian Alert on Genetic Engineering (CAGE), will bring together scientists and other experts from around the world to detail the known and suspected environmental and human health risks inherent in our current unchecked race to embrace this unproven technology.

Citizens of the world can attend.The teach-in will be simultaneously broadcast on the web by Vancouver Independent Media Centre and can be accessed at www.vancouver.indymedia.org or by logging on to the Greenpeace Canada www.greenpeacecanada.org or Greenpeace International www.greenpeace.org web sites. (Full program follows – all times PST or minus 8 hours GMT.)

“The people of the world do not want or need genetically-modified crops, fish or trees,” said Greenpeace Canada Executive Director Peter Tabuns. “We already know there are problems. We are gathering in Vancouver to demand that governments put people and the environment first and end this genetic experiment now.”