Biotechnology Papers by R. A. Crater

 Dreams of America 2023: The Hands of the Profits           In thinking about patents on genetically modified crops, it reminds me of the struggles my grandfather and uncle faced on their small dairy farm when the patent storm first began many years ago. I remember them talking in angry tones about how the seed companies were squeezing the life blood out of them by making them pay high costs for seed every year, and the their neighbor farmers were also upset and in the same situation too. Many years later as I was teaching at a small community college in Northwest Iowa amid the vast fields of genetically modified corn and soy beans these same refrains were being echoed still by my students, a few who still lived on struggling small farms and most who had sought employment with the large farming corporations that had supplanted the small farmers by purchasing their land as the small farmers steadily and continually went bankrupt. Even though Resnick (2004) proclaimed he was an supporter

One Take Regarding the Ethical Affect of Culture and Religion on Biotechnology   I don't do religion. This is no put down to anyone who does follow some religious doctrine or another, that is their choice and their life. One cannot coin me as an atheist either, as I do believe that there is a cosmic fabric of some sort that holds this whole state of affairs together. I was convinced of this twice. The first time I traveled "up the tube" at the age of 21 (Manfred Mann's Earth Band, 1976), a result of consuming the wrong natural edible fungi (Iowa State University, 2020; pfaf.org, 2023), I was kicked back through the tube with a solid thunk and a reasonable impression to always make sure to know absolutely which plant to harvest. The second time, after contracting H1N1 and lying on the edge of death in the ICU, I sat on the edge of existence and was given a choice of joining the other-world or returning to the here and now. Understand please that this was a year after l

  Evermore Incorporation's[1] Perpetual Longevity Product:  Ethical SWOT Analysis Evermore Incorporation stands proud among its competitors as a lionhearted biotechnology venture blazing exciting trails into new and fresh domains. We are well on our way to finalizing the development of a breakthrough prolongevity product that can extend vibrant, high quality human life for hundreds of years, perhaps even a millennia, at a price affordable to most income levels. All phase II trials have have shown valid cellular regenerative efficacy and we are now set to begin phase III trials in early April of next year. Before we embark on this last trial stage it is important that we do our best to limit potential risk for the company on release of successful phase III results. To accomplish this we must not only understand the mindset of our target customers, but also comprehend the overarching attitudes of the general populace, including the thoughts and attitudes for and against extending lif

Quote the Raven, "Nevermore": Escaping the Drug Conditioning Addiction      At the age of 12, in 1971, my family's television (TV) sputtered its last sparks from the prongs of its vacuum tubes, and when stations went off the air, the lone Native American test pattern shown on the cathode ray tube, Nevermore. My parents decided not to replace that small TV with its metallic rabbit ears, and it was one of the best things they could have ever done for me. At such a vulnerable teenage age, I was no longer being conditioned by the commercial drivers of commerce. I was left bereft of the conditioning of the masses. Programmed, consumer response was established in my mind, Nevermore. "Proper" social norming presented by fictional families in supposedly popular TV shows and sitcoms was ingrained, Nevermore. I was left only with book, nature, and my imagination -- and what a blessing that has been. Since losing the TV as a teenager I have watched television since then, S

  Why You Hurt Me? Its happening again! I'm so scared, I cannot move. The fear is like a wedge driving deep into my chest. Oh please no, please no, the pain, it hurts, it hurts, make it stop! Oh please make it stop. No where to go, can't get free, not again, I feel so sick, just let me lie here... The pain is so bad, can't stop cry a little, but must be quiet to stay unseen. Head ache, ears rushing, nausea, my jaws grip, agony keeps coming, wave, after wave, after wave.      Empathy. It is my first memory, as an infant, of a collie guiding me through a crawl hole under the partition of a stall shed, tractor parked behind me, my faithful fur mother guiding me out of danger's way. Empathy and respect for all that is, all that lives, has guided me since. To watch in wonder at how each and every living thing exists and cohesively participates in the dance of togetherness on this infinitesimally minute grain in the middle of some unfathomably large void.      The garter snak

Let Me Welcome You All to the Wild, Wild West: Facing Reality in the Age of Genetic Testing      I truly, and deeply love California, including all of the six years spent living in San Diego, Twenty Nine Palms, Barstow, Santa Ana, Westminster, Newport Beach, Fontana, San Bernardino, Lemoore, Fontana, Roseville, and Sacramento and the five years spent in Monterey, and I agree "It's all good from Diego to the bay" (2Pac, 2018, 1:16). Despite Tupac Shakur's (2Pac, 2018, 0:47) claim of "the state that's untouchable like Elliot Ness" and the fact that it is the only state to enact a law that prevents discrimination in housing based on genetic information (Clayton et al., 2019), even California has a long journey ahead of it regarding the protection of personal rights and privacy in relation to genetic information.       Truly, if we are to face reality and not relinquish our objective view to the illusions that are often spoon-fed to us, we need to face the f