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held hostage to Mr. Rifkin’s personal ambitions? 
Finally, gene transfer brings the same basic recombinant technology to 
agriculture that has already been shewn to be of enormous economic value in 
several industries including pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals, and 
resource recovery. Growth hormone genes are being transferred into the 
germlines of swine and other livestock animals in our laboratory and in the 
laboratories of others because the resulting animals will probably be 
dramatically more feed efficient and will provide agriculture with some of 
the economic benefits of the biotechnology revolution. The Ohio Farm Bureau 
is a partner in this research undertaking in Ohio because this technology 
may serve to aid in improving the depressed farm economy. Rifkin’s attempts 
to block their access to biotechnological advances are viewed by farmers as 
a direct threat to their economic survival. As a scientist using gene 
transfer technology, and as a fifth generation farmer with deep roots in 
Ohio agriculture, I ask the RAC to consider the enormous potential value of 
this technology for agriculture and the people of Middle America. 
A technology allowing the transfer of genes into the genetic make-up 
of mamnalian species, with a tremendous potential for good in medicine and 
agriculture, is now a part of the scientific capability of our society. Do 
we carefully use this valuable methodology or march backward away from the 
future and into the unfounded fears and human miseries of the past? 
Thank you for your efforts in dealing with this important matter. 
Yours sincerely, 
Thomas E. Wagner, Ph.D. 
Professor and Chairman 
TEW/dpg 
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