[UA] Plot idea: genetically engineered rice

[Matthew Rowan Norwood]

Wow. A story from the Times today (that's the New York 
Times -- I'm American, dammit!) was a _great_ plot hook. 
A scientist in Germany who had spent part of his 
childhood starving on the streets after his parents were 
killed in WWII develops a strain of rice that can solve 
the problem of Vitamin A deficiency in much of the 
developing world. But due to anti-"Frankenfood" 
protests, the plants are kept locked up.

Can you imagine the different groups who could come into 
play here? It's not exactly UA-specific -- it might work 
better in some other game -- but it's still awesome. You 
could have a group trying to smuggle a single seed out 
to grow a plant and start distributing seeds to poor 
farmers, out of fear that government regulations would 
keep it locked up forever; another group trying to 
destroy the plant, kill the scientist and destroy his 
notes in order to prevent the spread of genetically 
engineered crops; and a third group sent by a biotech 
firm to steal a seed for their own R&D program. The best 
part, of course, is that the first two groups can both 
be operating out of very real altruism: while this plant 
would _probably_ be a boon to millions in the third 
world, it is also being used as a tool by biotech firms 
who want world governments to open the door to 
unregulated bioengineering of crops, most of which would 
be beneficial only to agribusiness and would carry 
potential health risks like unexpected allergies, etc.

So what's the UA angle? It could be used as an intro for 
a team of freelance infiltration types, getting their 
feet wet before running into something occult. Either 
TNI or the TOSG might be interested in where this thing 
goes -- I'm not sure which side TOSG would take, 
actually.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/21/science/21RICE.html

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