Capitol Reflections (57 page)
“He’s the wild card. I think I’ve convinced him that pursuing the story any further was likely to be dangerous somewhere down the line, though. He’s not stupid either; he himself realizes that the trail has grown cold. It was wise to terminate operations so abruptly. That said, I think we should read his columns—maybe keep occasional tabs on the man—and try to feed him enough scandalous stories that lead nowhere to keep him fat and satisfied. He can’t be trusted; I don’t trust him.”
“Neither do I,” said Pembroke. “But we have accomplished what we set out to do. I think even Randall understands our higher purpose. Of course, Senator Broome was never one to look further than his own money and power to the bigger picture of the nation’s productivity.”
“Agreed.”
Wallace Pembroke coughed and cleared his throat. “You remember, Lane, it was a lowly midlevel staffer at the Department of Labor who noticed that worker productivity seemed to spike up in each region that Pequod’s entered.”
“Yes, I remember,” said Chase. “Carl Richey, the guy we made our chief operative in Central America.”
“And the rest is history,” said Pembroke. “The nation is finally coming out of its twenty-year manufacturing slump, isn’t it, Lane? We’re actually manufacturing steel in Cleveland again. Auto plants are about to gear up for increased runs. Consumer goods are hitting the shelves at an all-time record, and it’s all because workers feel better and work harder with d-caffeine in their systems. They don’t call in sick as frequently. Assembly lines run ten percent faster with fewer errors and half as many stoppages. Overtime hours have increased without the usual grumbling. It’s almost reminiscent of a wartime economy, with workers turning out the necessary equipment to keep the nation strong, competitive, and on the move. You know, there’s nothing new in all of this. It’s how we won the naval battles of World War I. Admiral Josephus Daniels took away the rum ration from the sailors and substituted coffee. The navy calls the stuff ‘joe’ to this day. All thanks to a little juice in the java.”
“You’ve done a masterful job, Wallace. What’s become of the Tabula Rasa force, by the way?”
“They’re playing cards somewhere in their bunker, I suppose, waiting for their next assignment. Well, it’s time for me to go outside and have a smoke and a cup of coffee.”
“Always good talking with you, Wallace. Take care.”
Lane Chase leaned back in his chair. The country was on course. All it needed was a little juicing up. As a public servant, he was gratified to have played a small part in its destiny.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
As stated at the outset, this book is a work of fiction. I have sprinkled it with some real-life characters, both to add verisimilitude and to have some fun. For the same reason, I have expropriated the names of some of my friends and assigned them to entirely fictional characters. Any unscrupulous characters out there that think they may have been “outed,” should look into their own consciences, since any resemblance between the evildoers in
Capitol Reflections
and living persons is entirely coincidental.
Capitol Reflections
and living persons is entirely coincidental.
I will admit that Gwen’s character is inspired by a real-life American hero, Dr. Frances Kelsey, who retired from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005 at the age of ninety, and who was awarded a Presidential Commendation for her bravery and tenacity. Dr. Kelsey was charged with granting approval for Thalidomide, a new German sleeping pill that was reported to be particularly good for combating nausea associated with pregnancy. The manufacturer reported to the FDA that the drug had no side effects and, therefore, Kelsey was under significant pressure from above to speed up the approval, with external pressure from both the German company and consumers. Kelsey just couldn’t believe that any drug had zero side effects, and continued to demand more information from the company. When her supervisors ordered her to stop stonewalling, it is rumored that she called President Kennedy’s office on a Saturday morning with her concerns. Clearly, her career was on the line and she put a target on her forehead as far as her supervisors were concerned. However, her actions triggered a re-review of the matter and during that period, the first tragic reports came pouring in from Europe of children born without arms and legs. Only because of her unselfish disregard for her own career was the United States the sole Western country to be spared the heartbreak of the Thalidomide disaster.
This book began entirely as a product of my imagination. However, as with many cutting-edge topics, truth has begun to overtake the fictional elements of the story. Clearly, the actions depicted in this story are illegal and reprehensible. With that said, they have become increasingly plausible as the science for genetic modification of foods rapidly overtakes our ability to implement regulatory safeguards. As this book was going to press, the first news stories appeared showing that much of the U.S. rice supply was contaminated with a genetically modified strain of rice that has never been approved for human consumption. Whether or not human harm might result from its ingestion is unknown.
Imagine how difficult it would be to determine whether subtle symptoms arising in a small number of people were attributable to the rice they ate at dinner. The complications to worry about are not immediate toxic effects, which can readily be recognized, but rather subtle interactions with medications people may be taking, other foods they may be consuming, and their underlying genetic ability to metabolize various classes of molecules. It is important to remember that the major initiatives in genetic modification of crops are for the purpose of increasing yields by rendering them more pest and infection resistant. This is generally achieved by inserting genes to enable crops to manufacture molecules that are toxic to insects and to various fungal infections. Ironically, this seems to be the reason nature evolved caffeine from the coffee bush to begin with.
Regulation of genetically modified food is further hampered by the divided nature of our regulatory apparatus. Field crops are regulated by the Department of Agriculture. The Food and Drug Administration only gains jurisdiction when those crops enter the food chain. Safety of prepared foods in restaurants is the province of multiple state and local health departments. Although the characters in this book took the liberty of enlisting some resources of the Centers for Disease Control, food safety is not part of their mandate. Thus, it is not at all clear whether our government has any effective mechanism for reacting to the type of threat hypothesized in these pages.
The seemingly miraculous leap of d-caffeine from Henry Broome’s plantation to other commercial coffee crops is less unlikely than one would like. In the past five years, we have seen genetically modified strains of corn and rice that were supposedly confined to controlled laboratory environments unexpectedly appear in field crops. Recently, coffee farmers on the Hawaiian island of Kona destroyed experimental GM strains of coffee being grown by the University of Hawaii because they feared the same type of accident.
Moreover, and more worrisome, it is not at all clear that the genetic manipulation envisioned in
Capitol Reflections
is against the law in any way. Those skilled in FDA regulatory law may take issue with Lane Chase’s final comment that d-caffeine could not be regulated. Obviously, were the FDA to determine that a food, even a naturally occurring food, posed a major health hazard, the FDA has ample regulatory authority to force that product off the market, even if it has to seize the product at the store. In this case, however, the deaths were being caused by the manipulation of d-caffeine to gain market share for Randall. Although the d-caffeine was certainly addictive, it’s not clear that without deliberate manipulation it was hazardous to the point where FDA could have forced it off the market on public safety grounds without a major battle. Certainly, there are those who might argue the theory that inserting a gene for d-caffeine constitutes the addition of a food additive not generally recognized as safe. This theory has been used voluntarily by at least one company that successfully sought FDA approval to bring a rot-resistant tomato to market for human consumption. The fine points will likely be debated in law school classes and law review articles until Congress clarifies the issue.
Capitol Reflections
is against the law in any way. Those skilled in FDA regulatory law may take issue with Lane Chase’s final comment that d-caffeine could not be regulated. Obviously, were the FDA to determine that a food, even a naturally occurring food, posed a major health hazard, the FDA has ample regulatory authority to force that product off the market, even if it has to seize the product at the store. In this case, however, the deaths were being caused by the manipulation of d-caffeine to gain market share for Randall. Although the d-caffeine was certainly addictive, it’s not clear that without deliberate manipulation it was hazardous to the point where FDA could have forced it off the market on public safety grounds without a major battle. Certainly, there are those who might argue the theory that inserting a gene for d-caffeine constitutes the addition of a food additive not generally recognized as safe. This theory has been used voluntarily by at least one company that successfully sought FDA approval to bring a rot-resistant tomato to market for human consumption. The fine points will likely be debated in law school classes and law review articles until Congress clarifies the issue.
The broader point is that there is currently no law that requires premarket safety review of genetically modified foods, the way there is for drugs. Moreover, there is no requirement that genetically modified foods be labeled as such. The above discussion was originally part of the narrative, but wise editors suggested that I move it here for those readers who are determined to read every word.
While the story is fictional, much of the background is not. The major exception, of course, is d-caffeine. Nobody, to my knowledge, knows the properties of d-caffeine and it is unclear as to whether it has ever been synthesized, much less mapped to a specific gene. However, the definitions of “adulterated food,” which is the primary tool the FDA has for enforcement, certainly doesn’t contemplate such a manipulation. When it comes to food safety, the FDA is hampered by a limited scientific workforce and a body of law that was written in the fifties and sixties, long before today’s science of genetic modification was ever imagined. We owe it to ourselves and our children to design a twenty-first century basis for ensuring food safety that rewards innovation and scientific advancement, while protecting the public.
In case you are wondering, Gwen Maulder is not done with her adventures. Please stay tuned for more of her escapades. If you would like to learn more about the issues raised in
Capitol Reflections
or to contact me for any reason, please go to
www.capitolreflections.com
.
Capitol Reflections
or to contact me for any reason, please go to
www.capitolreflections.com
.
As stated above, this book began as a work of fiction. I can only hope that it remains so.
Jonathan Javitt
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I had a great deal of help in bringing this project to publication. First of all, I want to thank Billy Hamlin for his invaluable teaching and Lou Aronica for brilliant editing. Dan Troy, Mark McClellan, and Scott Gottlieb were generous in answering many questions about the FDA’s inner workings. I also took merciless advantage of my friends Bill Botts, Jan McDonnell, Maury Dewald, Gwen Feder, Elena Neuman, my mother Suzanne, and my wife Marcia by making them read multiple versions. Other friends have had their names appropriated as characters here and there. Others were unwittingly pulled into the story as themselves, simply to add verisimilitude to the plot. Tess Gerritsen and Michael Palmer were kind enough to teach me what a McGuffin is. From Sterling & Ross I want to thank Rachel Trusheim, Anna Lacson, Nicola Lengua, Jessica Gardner, Wenny Chu, Heidi Ward, and Mimi Lin. Most importantly, I want to thank Drew Nederpelt, publisher at Sterling & Ross, for believing in this project and making it his company’s first novel.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
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Stamford, CT 06907
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For information, address The Story Plant.
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