For my story about synthetic biology in this week's Guardian, I tried to reach Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, where Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is building its second campus. The group Synbiowatch is questioning the safety and environmental responsibility of these new technologies. McLaughlin was traveling and just got back to us, so we thought we'd share the perspective of a Green Party mayor of the city where this work will take place.
SFBG: Do you have any concerns about safety at the lab or with the regulation of the synthetic biology field?
GM: I understand that this issue is extremely important. I was at the symposium "Unmasking the Synthetic Biology Lab" held in Berkeley last week and have been learning about the risks and concerns related to this field.
SFBG: Are you worried that we're entering another "economic bubble," this time with so-called "green jobs," and that it could pop like previous bubbles and end up hurting Richmond?
GM: I think that green and sustainable job development will continue, as there is an absolute necessity for our human survival that we create a sustainable planet on which to live and thrive as well as pass along to future generations.
SFBG: The activists say the Precautionary Principle should dictate a slower and more careful and regulated approach to developing newly engineered microorganisms, do you share that view?
GM: I absolutely agree. There needs to a slow and deliberate process that fully researches and regulates this new engineering. I believe that science has a responsibility to examine step by step what is in the interest of us all as human beings - what truly advances us and what may cause us more problems.
SFBG: While the lab diversifies Richmond's economy, much this research is funded by and could ultimately by developed by Chevron and other big energy companies. Is that appropriate for research into new energy forms that is sponsored with public money?
GM: I agree that the lab diversifies Richmond's economy and I support opportunities it offers our community that come from positive, safe and healthy scientific exploration, education, and job opportunities.
The fact that big energy corporations are funding much of the research definitely brings up concerns for me. We need to make sure that science is not conducted with an eye toward profit-making, but rather for the advancement of humanity. We know that our society currently is corporate-run, so we need to continuously raise the issue that true science has an obligation not to the corporations but to the people. This issue is something that should be raised everywhere.