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Steven M. Druker is the founder and
executive director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, a
non-profit organization dedicated to promoting
technologies that foster human and environmental health
and addressing the problems of those that do not. The
Alliance's first major project is to gain a more rational
and responsible policy on the use of genetic engineering.
As executive director of the Alliance, Mr. Druker
organized a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration to obtain adequate safety testing and
labeling of all genetically engineered foods. In doing so,
he assembled an unprecedented coalition of eminent
scientists and religious leaders to stand as plaintiffs.
The suit was filed in May, 1998 in U.S. District Court in
Washington, D.C. in collaboration with the Center for Food
Safety.
Since founding the Alliance in 1996, Mr.
Druker has become known as one of the leading figures
discussing the problems of genetically engineered foods,
viewed from both the scientific and the spiritual/ethical
perspectives. He has been invited to speak at many
conferences and appear on several expert panels, including
the food safety panel at a conference held by the National
Research Council in Washington, D.C. in May, 1999 and the
panel on scientific, safety and regulatory issues at the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Public Meeting in
Washington, D.C. in November, 1999. In January, 1998 he
was invited to the White House Executive Offices to
discuss the environmental risks of agricultural
biotechnolgy with the Interagency Sustainable Development
Indicator Group of the President's Council on
Environmental Quality. In February, 2000 he was invited to
address a special meeting for members of parliament held
at the House of Commons in London and was also invited to
appear at a press conference at the Scottish Parliament
building. He has appeared on several nationally broadcast
radio programs in both the U.S. and the U.K., and he has
been invited to speak to religious audiences and
contribute articles to religious publications (both
Christian and Jewish).
Besides practicing law, he has devoted
substantial time to the study of human development and
ethics and has lectured extensively in these fields at
universities and for professional groups. He co-authored
the introductory and final chapters of Higher Stages of
Human Development, published by Oxford University
Press, and wrote a chapter on ethical development for Transcendence
and Mature Thought in Adulthood, published by Rowman
and Littlefield.
He received his Juris Doctor from the
Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California,
Berkeley, where he was elected to the California Law
Review and to the Order of the Coif (the legal honor
society). He also received his B.A. from U.C. Berkeley. He
majored in philosophy, received a special award for
"Outstanding Accomplishment" in that field, was
elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year, and
graduated with “Great Distinction in General
Scholarship.”
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