RE-REMEMBERED

Your article “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained” [spring ’04] is generally excellent, but I would like to correct three errors that apparently crept into peoples’ memories over the past 25 years:

• I am not a “scion of a family firm that had funded such start-ups as Genentech and Apple Computer.” I wish.
• Ray Valentine’s academic research involved nitrogen fixation from air (in the soil!) by Rhizobium bacteria, which form nodules in the roots of soybean plants. Calgene’s research for Allied Chemical involved more efficient utilization of the nitrogen and phosphate fertilizers applied to leaves of crop plants. The research was as far apart as, well, roots and leaves.
• The Allied Chemical project did not trigger the conflict-of-interest controversy. My understanding is that some faculty members were insulted and kicked up a fuss when we announced the members of our scientific advisory board, and they were not included.

Thank you for telling Ray’s story. He is a great scientist, a great man and always a decade or two ahead of his time.

Norman M. Goldfarb
Founder and former CEO and
president of Calgene Inc.
via e-mail

THE SLAVE TRADE

Kudos on Bryant Furlow’s “The New Slave Trade” [spring ’04]. A few afterthoughts: If indeed “migration is a fundamental part of the human condition” then so, too, is the territorial instinct of the human species. Are we Americans simply to accept the “fact” that limiting and even stopping immigration, both legal and illegal, is impossible? Should we simply accept the idea of America becoming Bangladesh and our cities becoming Calcuttas as our population soars towards 420 million and the quality of life plunges?

This sickening trade in human cargo will stop only when we make up our minds to stop it by adopting a zero-tolerance toward overpopulation wrought by massive migration.

Martin Bickerstaff
Alameda

I truly enjoy receiving my UC Davis Magazine. However, your recent publication depicted a truly unpleasant and downright awful illustration on its cover. Aside from the fact that the artistic ability is grade school quality, I question whether the article itself is a proper subject to feature in a magazine that has been to date generally uplifting.

Grove Bolles ’81
Lehi, Utah

Bryant Furlow’s article on modern-day slavery was most illuminating and discouraging. We in Florida see the field workers in sugar cane fields and in vegetable crops, and we have programs to help provide for their children’s food and clothing. But I am discouraged when we see five or more children under 8 years per family. Nothing will help these poor people in the long run as much as family planning and birth control.

I am surprised that Furlow does not mention that the driving force to migrate under hazardous conditions is over-population, i.e. local population greater than the land and water will support. They can stay at home in misery or try to migrate to better conditions.

W. Dexter Bellamy
Fort Myers, Fla.
via e-mail

FDA FEARS

[re: “When the Cows Went Mad,” spring 2004]

I agree with Jerry Gillespie that the public needs to become “engaged in looking at the broader issue of food and where it comes from.” . . . But of more importance to everyone in the United States is what actions our government could take to ensure our food safety. Recall that the lead agency responsible for food safety is the Food and Drug Administration under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Its task is to ensure safety and efficacy regardless of cost. To get a glimpse of what could occur, look at the FDA’s track record. It is the agency that set the rules and guidelines for the pharmaceutical industry. The result has been that the typical new drug costs over $800 million and 15 years to bring to market, and millions of Americans now cannot afford health care. As I write this letter, the FDA is currently developing protocols for ensuring our foods here at home.

When we demand of our government safe food, we need to be careful what we ask for. We could end up with very safe foods, like our drugs—and a $400 hamburger.

Michael Speer ’76
via e-mail

A PEARL AFTER SWINE

Was pleasantly surprised to see the Hog Barn being gently moved down the road to join its contemporaries at the Silo complex (“End Notes,” spring 2004). Having spent several years at the barn as an assistant herdsman under the tutelage of herdsman Jim Moore back in the mid-’60s, [I was pleased] to see that the university preferred to preserve this building and the agricultural traditions it represents rather than simply bulldozing it for a more contemporary building (or parking lot). I’m sure that Jim would have been equally pleased with the $1.5 million remodel, though I suspect the former Duroc tenants probably wouldn’t have been terribly impressed.

Jeff M. Johannes, D.V.M ’68
Saint David, Maine

CORRECTION

In our summer 2003 “In Memoriam” notice for alumnus Jerry Garibaldi, we incorrectly included Julie Eptsein-Sears as a survivor. The corrected item follows:

Jerry Garibaldi ’52, D.V.M. ’54, died in February 2003 from leukemia. He was 75. Among his achievements was the creation of the Romie Lane Pet Hospital in Salinas in 1964. Survivors include his wife, Pat; his son, Timothy; his daughter, Jane Garibaldi, and son-in-law, Ken Nakagawa.