OHIO FARM BUREAU FEDERATION INC. 
m 
35 East Chestnut Street, P.O. Box 479, Columbus, Ohio 43216 
Phone: Area Code 614/225-8911 
C. William Swank 
Executive Vice President 
October 1, 1984 
Mr. Bernard Talbot, M.D., Ph.D. 
Acting Director 
Office of Recombinatant DNA Activities 
Building 31 Room 3B10 
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF HEALTH 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Dr. Talbot: 
The recent comments of Jeremy Rifkin published in the 
Federal Register on Thursday, September 20, 1984 have 
come to my attention as a representative of 95,000 
families in Ohio related to production agriculture 
and as a part of a 3 million member family 
organization nationwide, the American Farm Bureau 
Federation. I am quite concerned with the impact 
these comments may have on the future of agriculture 
and the well being of the citizenry of this country. 
My organization is a joint sponsor of work being 
conducted by Dr. Tom Wagner and his associates at 
Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, dealing with this 
very field. The impact that it can have on the 
animal industry has great potential. From what I 
understand as a non-scientist it can also have impact 
on the field of medicine and can provide the hope of 
conquering some of the health problems that have 
plagued mankind for years. 
I sincerely hope that the negative comments about 
scientific research in this exciting new area will 
not cause any branches of federal government to 
withdraw support or deny support for this kind of 
research. The potential is so great and the concerns 
are the age old concerns levied against change. 
Hybrid seed corn revolutionized agriculture in this 
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