Project: Archive of Agricultural Genetic Engineering and Society Center Interviewee: Ignacio Chapela, Professor in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley Interviewer: Matthew Booker, Jason Delborne, and Brad Herring Interview Date: February 22, 2015 Location: North Carolina State University Length: 01:37:30 Learn more at https://go.ncsu.edu/AAGES SEE FULL TRANSCRIPT AT: https://research.ncsu.edu/ges/files/2018/08/Chapela_Ignacio_20150222_transcript_FINAL.pdf Ignacio Chapela History Project Interview. 00:09 - Could you tell us your name, your institution, and your role? 00:23 - In which department are you a Professor? 00:46 - How would you describe what you do? 02:18 - Do you see yourself as having an audience outside of the University? 03:13 - Is that what you wanted to be when you grew up? 04:51 - Would you tell us a bit more about how you came to this career? 08:45 - Were there particular people along that path that were influential? 10:25 - This center that is conducting these interviews is The Genetic Engineering and Society Center. We’re interested in those themes in your research and career. What brought you into that world of Genetic Engineering from your interest in biology and fungi in particular? 24:30 - Have you continued to work with transgenic issues, in particular in your research, or do you regard this as a single moment? 35:33 - Earlier you drew a distinction between training and education. I wonder how that might be playing out as you imagine this major project you are doing. To detect the presence or absence of trans genes seems to be in the realm of training. But you clearly have something bigger in mind. How would education arrive? 38:47 - Are you looking at scientist as using this detection? Do you see this replacing the label? 43:27 - Recent developments in genome editing promise a transgenic activity that is not detectable. Does the technology that you are developing have the potential to identify genetic that are done by technologies that we haven’t seen yet? 46:38 - To take you back, you talked about the phone call with David Quest as a key moment. In hindsight, what are the other key moments of that story? 55:28 - You’ve mentioned may times the kind of opposition you’ve found. Are there people whom you disagree with or disagreed with, who you respected, and were you able to develop or maintain any of those relationships? 59:20 - I ask the question in part because I’ve heard this argument made about anti-GMO or anti-gene modification activists that it’s a kind of religion and there’s a stridency to it. That’s why I was so interested in you experience. I’m interested in this dialogue and the possibility of dialogue. I value your experience there. 01:02:34 - Broadly speaking, I’m interested in what you think are the main drivers of genetic engineering in agriculture. Here are some possible answers to seed the ground. Serious proven needs from farmers and consumers. Environmental threats like draught to farm land. Structural forces like grants from big foundations. 01:11:38 - You’ve had a long enough career that you can answer this question. What do you think is a particularly significant moment in the history of synthetic engineering in agriculture? 01:14:19 - What do you think are the most important emerging issues in genetic engineering when it comes to agriculture? 01:19:44 - What are your greatest hopes or fears for the way tis technology will go in the coming years? 01:25:03 - I have two questions about trust. How do you feel about American public’s, their level of trust in governance, in universities, and in private work in synthetic engineering. 01:28:04 - What would you like the general public to know about genetically engineered organisms and the policies that surround them? 01:31:51 - You’ve mentioned scandals that you’s had, this woman, Marty, that quit technology. What is it that gets you out of bed every morning? 01:33:16 - How do you negotiate the tension between the world’s of science and advocacy? 01:35:47 - Are there questions you expected me to ask that I didn’t?