Photograph Source: amir appel – CC BY 2.0

I first met Brewster Kneen sometime in the mid 1990’s, in the early days of Family Farm Defenders. One of our all consuming projects at the time was opposing the use of Monsanto’s Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). Brewster was working on one of his many books, Farmageddon- Food and the Culture of Biotechnology. He came to Wisconsin from Canada to see first-hand how universities were partnering with industry on the promotion of rBGH, —and there was plenty of biotechnology research being done (although quietly) at the UW Madison. John Kinsman was also protesting against rBGH weekly at the UW, so they made a natural team.

Brewster also wanted to visit the World Dairy Expo, and question the army of Monsanto staff that ran probably the largest trade show booth at the Expo. In those days, Family Farm Defenders were allowed to have a booth at the Expo (we were deemed too subversive at some point) and boy did we have some discussions with the Monsanto folks, so, we were on common ground with Brewster.

As he recalls the early opposition to rBGH, he stated that it was “not on ethical grounds, but largely on grounds of food safety,” which he found totally unsatisfactory when so much more was at issue. While he was clearly concerned about food safety, he also pictured all the farmers who’s livelihoods would be at risk due to the further “totalitarian occupation” of........

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