Street theater and naked protest came together during the summer to counter the food industry's push for rapid, untested adoption of genetically modified foodstuffs.  Two separate groups — Genewise and T.H.O.N.G. — targeted two pro-biotech conferences held in Chicago in July 2003.  Read the below account and then click on the gallery button to view photos from these unique protests.

As the arrogant chants of the corporate slave driver and the counter chants of the enslaved victims rang up and down Michigan Ave., the press, a bewildered hotel security contingent, a bicycle cop, and some very curious passers-by gathered to watch the action.  Genewise protesters had struck at the 12th World Congress on Food Science and Technology about to begin at the Hilton and Towers, part of a nine-day campaign to challenge pro-biotech sentiments at two back-to-back conferences: the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Expo and the aforementioned World Congress on Food Science.

Taking place in Chicago and drawing in 20,000 food technologists and agriculture policy makers from all around the world, the conferences' main sponsors were pro-biotech companies and institutions such as Cargill, Monsanto, ADM, Conagra and the USDA.  The Genewise street theater action featured a diverse group of victims: a migrant farmer, an American farmer, Kraft Foods' CEO Betsy Holden, an energetic mad cow, a pig, a mother and child, and the Goddess of the cornucopia — a character created by the World Congress and displayed on their promotional materials for the conference.  This diverse group of victims was chained together and jerked along boastfully by a corporate slave driver representing the pro-biotech sector of the food industry as other participants held signs that said: "The World Food Con: Biotech makes hunger worse, not better.”

The morning of Sunday, July 13, 2003, brought food industry executives to Chicago's lakeshore to participate in a 5K “fun run” for the Institute of Food Technologists — it also saw a bevy of nearly naked protesters crash the corporate party.  A multi-level action, Genewise brought Mac and Genes and a local anti-biotech group called THONG (Topless Humans Organized for Natural Genetics) together to highlight the real problems of world hunger.

At 6 a.m. in the staging area at Columbus Circle off Lakeshore Drive, Mac and Genes ambled amiably around, greeting and educating the runners and occasional independent jogger on the really horrible plight of being a genetically engineered box of food.  The T.H.O.N.G. van, which had been circling the site with a full load of 20 naked protesters, received the order to drop its payload at the pre-ordained meeting spot: behind a group of trees and bushes at the top of a hill overlooking the jogging path.

At 7:30, just as the IFT runners passed Mac and Genes and started down the lakeshore path, the giant mass of naked and totally organic THONG runners swooped down the hill from their hiding place and ran, joyously whooping and hollering, en masse right into the middle of the IFT jogging contingent, spurring an almost complete stunned silent stop to the race.  The runners managed to recover their wits, and not knowing what else to do, started jogging again.  THONG members ran alongside and followed on roller blades, chatting about the various and sundry problems of Biotech to the still dazed and jogging industry reps.

By the end of the race, IFT participants, Kraft executives and the occasional jogger had to run through a contingent of naked THONG runners who lined the halfway mark, along with Genewise volunteers who held signs saying "Kft, stop feeding GE to our kids” and a member of the Radical Cheerleaders and THONG who lead the rest of the group in regaling the runners with pertinent warnings about ingesting Kraft foods.

The cops cruised up to say a bemused hello, but no arrests were made and the gloriously painted T.H.O.N.G. runners, as well as Mac and Genes completely stole the show.

— Brian Murray