The Red and Black

Issue date: 8/20/08 Section: Opinions

CHRIS CHIEGO

"UGA students proved once again that they don't deserve a seat at the grown-ups' table." So wrote local reporter Blake Aued after a few students spoke at a recent hearing on community reaction for the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility on South Milledge Avenue.

These students cited, as evidence of student opposition to the NBAF, a Facebook group that makes outrageously false claims, including the oft-repeated lie that the NBAF is a "Bio-Terror Lab" that will test "Anthrax, Smallpox … and Ebola."

Though many students may be uninformed about the NBAF, deliberately trying to mislead other students into opposing the NBAF through scare tactics and falsehoods is downright embarrassing.

Let's set the facts straight.

With a horse pasture on South Milledge Avenue, a finalist for the location of the NBAF, the Athens area and the students of the University are extremely close to gaining a nationally significant and economically beneficial research center on the cutting edge of agricultural science and national security.

Contrary to what some anti-NBAF people may claim, the NBAF will not be a biological weapons manufacturing lab.

It is designed to research diseases such as foot-and-mouth disease that infect livestock, and to design ways to prevent terrorists from using such diseases to cripple America's food supply.

The diseases that will be studied at the NBAF can be deadly to animals, but are mostly harmless to humans. In the extremely unlikely event a disease like foot-and-mouth did escape from the lab and cause an outbreak, there would be no zombies spouting blood running all over North Campus.

While there will be no "28 Days Later" scenario, there are a few legitimate environmental concerns regarding the NBAF, especially the increased water usage and sewage output from the facility.

University officials supporting the NBAF also could do a better job of relating exactly how the University might benefit from the nearby presence of the NBAF lab - will it be open to students for research, or will only a few senior professors ever get invited to visit?

But these concerns are ancillary to the primary impact of the NBAF, which will provide hundreds of temporary jobs in construction, dozens of well-paying permanent jobs to members of the local community and a coterie of well-educated and well-paid scientists and their families to help the local tax base.

Despite the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta containing dozens of deadly viruses and Fort Detrick near Washington D.C. hosting the most hazardous of hot agents, the citizens of those cities somehow seem to be surviving.

In Athens, the NBAF opposition has resorted to hissing and booing pro-NBAF speakers at recent feedback sessions and posting highly exaggerated claims on the Web.

This knee-jerk,"Not-in-My-Backyard" opposition could be a deciding factor when the DHS makes its final decision on where to build the NBAF unless the NBAF's proponents here in Athens make their voices heard.

If the students of this University want to help the Athens area and the University prosper long after we leave, they should offer strong support for the NBAF.

To those still not convinced of the benefits of the NBAF, I urge you to go online to http://www.uga.edu/nbaf/ and read the DHS environmental and economic impact reports.

Formulate your own opinion based on the facts, not based on fear. Written comments on the NBAF may be sent to nbafprogrammanager@dhs.gov up to Aug. 25, so while few students stood up at the NBAF forums, hopefully more will join together in supporting the opportunity of a lifetime for Athens and the University.

- Chris Chiego is a senior from Memphis majoring in international affairs and history.

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