Jeremy Rifkin

“A refuge is supposed to prevent what? The genes from flowing out of sight? This refuge idea won't stop insects from moving across boundaries. That's absurd.”

“They're now turning those seeds into intellectual property, so they have a virtual lock on the seeds upon which we all depend for our food and survival.”

“The 10 largest antitrust law firms in the United States have gone into the federal courts charging Monsanto with creating a global conspiracy in violation of the antitrust laws, to control the global market in seeds.”

“We are entering a new phase in human history - one in which fewer and fewer workers will be needed to produce the goods and services for the global population.”

“So my attorneys brought litigation in the U.S. federal courts. The judge ruled in our favor.”

“We are already producing enough food to feed the world. We already have technology in place that allows us to produce more than we can find a market for.”

“One thing I've learned over these last 30 or 40 years is that people make history. There's no fait accompli to any of this.”

“If your corn has a herbicide-tolerant gene, it means you can spray your herbicides and kill the weeds; you won't kill your corn because it's producing a gene that makes it tolerant of the herbicide.”

“Many of the genetically modified foods will be safe, I'm sure. Will most of them be safe? Nobody knows.”

“The insurance companies aren't covering that. Should Monsanto be liable for these losses? Should the state government? Who's going to cover the losses? The fact is, here's an industry with no long-term liability in place.”

“It may be that everything the life science companies are telling us will turn out to be right, and there's no problem here whatsoever. That defies logic.”

“The American public is not aware that there might be potential allergenic and toxic reactions. With regular food, at least people know which foods they have an allergy to.”

“In this country, the health concerns and the environmental concerns are as deep as in Europe. All the surveys show that. But here, we didn't have the cultural dimension. This is a fast-food culture.”