Facing a tough sell in Western Europe, the biotech industry is heading east, hoping the former Communist bloc will prove to be fertile ground for their products. Conditions here are ripe. Little legislation is on the books regulating genetically modified foods, and people in Eastern European have little time for the debate. Many are more concerned about where their next meal is coming from, not whether it has been tinkered with genetically.

To crack the East European market, the U.S. biotech lobby has enlisted a formidable ally: the U.S. government. The Senate is now debating legislation which would allocate as much as $36 million to promote U.S. agribusiness in Eastern Europe. A rider sponsored by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), is buried in an appropriations bill and would target $30 million for "plant biotechnology research and development." Sen. Jesse Helms (R-North Carolina) is also sponsoring a bill that would allocate $6 million to "educate government officials in developing countries regarding the use of biotechnology in the agricultural sector and the regulatory procedures used by the United States." An aide to Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) told In These Times it is likely both measures will pass.

Meanwhile, biotech firms are busy lobbying Eastern European officials to craft toothless safety regulations and boost public support. One well-heeled group, Citizens Network Agribusiness Alliance--a recipient of federal funds whose members include Monsanto, Pioneer and Novartis, among others--acted as a consultant for a proposed Ukrainian law that environmentalists say would protect business interests over public health.

Ukraine is not a new market for the biotech industry. Monsanto began conducting tests on genetically modified potatoes there in 1997. But the government's health and environmental ministries complained they were never informed about the tests, and Monsanto was forced to destroy 3,000 tons of potatoes. "Foreign companies are exploiting Ukraine's poor economic situation and the absence of instruments of control," says Yuri Samoilenko, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament's environmental committee.

Like the lobby in Ukraine, another biotech group called Bio-trend has launched a publicity campaign in the Czech Republic to convince the public of the wonders of genetically modified foods. The group played a major role in producing the controversial documentary "The Fight Over Genes," which aired on Czech television earlier this year. The film painted biotechnology as the answer to the world's food problems, and demonized opponents at irresponsible Luddites. According to Vaclav Vasku of Greenpeace Czech Republic, Bio-trend also has received money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In addition, Vasku says, the USDA is funding grants for Czech government officials to travel to the United States and master the federal government's hands-off regulatory approach to biotechnology. Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy in Prague has hosted seminars on the benefits of bioengineering conducted by Monsanto representatives.

East European environmental groups are outraged that the region is being targeted by the biotech industry. "In the Ukraine, we already have to live with the legacy of Chernobyl," says Tamara Malkova of the Kiev-based environmental group Green Dossier. "In the past decade, we have also become the dumping ground for the nuclear industry. Now we face bioengineering, another hazardous technology unwanted in the West."

"In Russia, Monsanto's Roundup Ready soybeans are already being grown commercially," adds Olga Berlova, a member the Russian environmental group Socio-Ecological Union. "Yet even Russian officials are unable to get information from Monsanto [about the seeds' environmental effects]. The corporations are paying Russian institutes directly to do the trials, and completely bypassing the regulatory system."

Critics also fear that adopting lax legislation would put them at odds with the much more stringent laws of the European Union, which East European nations are eager to join. "We need to apply caution," says Veronika Mora, a member of the Hungarian environmental group ETK, "in order to harmonize our regulations with those of the EU."

Hungary has the strongest regulatory and civil oversight for the biotech industry. The country's Genetech Committee, which approves the sale of genetically modified foods, includes environmentalists and representatives from consumer groups. But poorer countries are more willing to freely accept genetically modified crops. Bulgaria is already caught between U.S. seed producers, like Monsanto and Pioneer, who are offering farmers genetically engineered corn at attractive prices. But West European importers, like Belgium's Amylum and the British grain trader Glencore, are rejecting genetically modified foods, given the public backlash.

"What we are seeing in Eastern Europe is the Wild West, in the form of these biotech firms, meeting the Wild East," laments Iza Kruszewska, a London-based anti-biotech activist. "It's the worst of both worlds. It's exploiting a lack of public awareness and fragile democracies."