UC Berkley students have asked for support with an international petition against a proposed deal between their university and BP.

You can find the text of the petition and a sign up form here:

 http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/international-petition-on-bps-500m-
project-to-genetically-engineer-biofuels or tinyurl.com/2r5lku .

This deal would see $500 million spent mainly on biofuel research
involving genetic engineering. It would be one of the largest
corporate grants ever made. The students, as well as a number of
academics at the university, are deeply concerned about this
proposal. Some of their reasons for objecting to it are:

- environmental sustainability and social impacts have not been
taken into account in this proposed business deal - this includes
the potential impacts of GM microbes, fungi, and plants developed as
part of cellulosic ethanol research;

- BP will have strong influence over all decisions and there will be
a major focus on research which will lead to patented technologies,
rather than research for public benefit;

- according to the Stop BP Berkley campaign ( http://www.stopbp-
berkeley.org/) some of the funding will actually go towards oil and
coal developments;

- the proposed director of the planned Energy Biosciences Institute,
which is to be set up as part of the deal, Chris Somerville, has
stated that "my personal conviction is that every plant used by
humans will eventually be GM".