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IHHI~ ~t cause of tax concessions afforded to such operations from the early 1970s, many small farmers who once depended on the income from their hogs have gone out of business. The potential of genetically engineered live- stock to squeeze still more small farmers out of the market has motivated many farm-advocacy organiza- tions-among them the National Farmers Organiza- tion, the American Agriculture Movement, the Center for Rural Affairs, the Land Stewardship Project and the National Farmers Union-to join with various environmental and religious groups in calling for a halt to the patenting of animals such as the transgenic pig.2P Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-OR) and Rep. Charles Rose (D-Ne) introduced bills in the Senate and House tha~ would have put a moratorium on the patenting , of genetically engineered animals, but both bills died in committee. The commercialization of genetic engineering has been accelerating since 1980, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in the landmark Diamond v. Chakrabarty case, upheld the right to patent a recombinant-DNA bacterium. In April 1987 , the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that it considers not only bacteria, but all nonhuman, multicellular organisms, including animals, to be patentable subject matter. The ruling caused alarm among many religious groups and civil- liberties advocates, as expressed by Thomas Murray~ a bioethicist at the University of Texas Institute fot" Medical Humanities in Galveston: "The decision draws us dangerously close to the concept of owner- ship of human forms.'" The partly-human Beltsville pigs may be just the tip of the iceberg. Only after a public outcry several years ago was a halt put to research that sought to develop a human/primate "anthropoid" which could' be used as slave labor to perform menial tasks such as street cleaning.2'1 Frighteningly, not until two years after the 1987 animal patent ruling did Congress legislate, almost as an afterthonght, an amendment to the patent code that specifically exempts human beings from being patented."'" Unless citizens educate themselves and take action, greed rather than concern for the common good will dictate the course of molecular biology just as it has that of nuclear physics. Unfortunately, the very complexity and expense of genetic engineering, like nuclear technology, militate against democratic participation. Since a thorough knowledge of gene- splicing technology is limited to a small elite of experts, the general public is ill-equipped to partici- pate in decisions regarding the use of that technology. Decisions are made by the corporations and venture capital f"Irms that alone can come up with the huge amounts of capital the technology requires and that will proflt from its development. The food industry is already shrouded in mounting layers of secrecy. Few Ameri- cans are aware of the condi- tions in pig confinement opera- tions described earlier, al- though animal-welfare organi- zations have educated many ,citizens about factory-farming conditions through circulation of photographs and statistics obtained in their investigations of such operations.30 Unfortunately, such information is getting harder and harder to come by. A law passed in Kansas in May of this year makes it illegal to photo- graph facilities where animals are kept, bred, exhib- ' ited or offered for sale without permission of the owner." A similar federal law would make unauthor- ized entries into animal research or agricultural fa- cilities "a federal offense, subject to $10,000 fines and three-year prison terms. It also would require the FBI to go after perpetrators. "8' Nevertheless, some of the pork industry's most macabre aspects are revealed in the pages of the trade magazine, Hog Farm Management. There we ' find articles and advertisements about pig confine- ' ment operations where pigs are kept on slatted or perforated floors over large pits in which wastes collect, until drained a way into outside storage tanks. Concentrations ofrnethane, ammonia, hydrogen, sulf"1de and carbon monoxide from these pits can reach toxic levels, killing hogs in a matter of minutes thorugh respiratory paralysis. Hog asphyxiation is a continuing problem in confinement operations." Humans occasionally suffer the same fate: From 1979 to 1986, at least nineteen people died from exposure to toxic gases from hog manure pits.34 In addition to toxic gases, 'bacterial contamina- tion is a major problem where hogs are confined in large numbers. Researchers from the University of Illinois found up to 700,000 bacterial cells per cubic meter in commercial hog houses. The result is that "over half of,the hogs marketed in the United States have evidence of rhinitis or chronic pneumonia.... Odds are, the average American has no idea of these facts when s1he bites into a bacon cheeseburger. Only an informed, vocal populace can insist on humane and healthy alternatives in pork productiQn. Luckily, there are many examples of hog-raising methods that are not only profitable but humane, and healthier for both pigs and people. Dick and Sharon Thompson of Boone, IA, for instance, manage 80 sows with "virtually no drugs or antibiotics" in open-air farrowing, nursery and finishing units." Other farmers such as Richard Bennett of Napoleon, OH, have found success with rotational grazing on pas- ture. S7 Even more radical is a system that returns , t l , ~ , ,. ,. f . v ~ ~ ~ ~ ,. ~ ;s ~ ;~ ~ >, ~ rs i~ ~ ~ 1:j I' ~ if; ~ f>;; ~ f,~ .,. .~ ~ ~l gj ,- ,.~ ~ ;:" ~ .. .:~ '~J. ~:--~ :f, it ~ ~ ff: ~;:.: .;~ t~ :-:; ~~" ~.: ~,~ ~;' .;, ~~ ~~~ s,: .~~ ~,~ 22