National Academy of Sciences
Tuesday, 11th July, 2000
Seven Academies of Science Urge Action to Promote Use of Biotech in
Alleviating World Hunger, Poverty
Seven academies of science from around the world, including five from
developing nations, issued a white paper today spelling out the promise of
agricultural biotechnology to alleviate hunger and poverty in the Third World.
The paper urges governments to base their decisions regarding biotechnology on
sound science, and strongly encourages private corporations and research
institutions to share their technology with scientists and farmers in
developing countries who desperately need it.
"It is essential that we improve food production and distribution in
order to feed and free from hunger a growing world population, while reducing
environmental impacts and providing productive employment in low-income
areas," the paper says. Key to moving forward is responsible research,
development, and implementation of genetic modification (GM) technology for
widespread agricultural use.
The white paper was prepared by a working group of members from the Royal
Society of London, the national academies of science of
"The obvious concern is that the recent backlash against GM technology
will completely overshadow all the promise that the technology offers,"
said Bruce Alberts, president of the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences and member of the working group. "Our group concluded
that the revolution in molecular biology provides the developing world with
some important new tools for feeding and caring for its people. It will be
critical to use the best science to make wise choices with respect to the
application of these technologies."
The working group pointed out the need for concerted, organized efforts on
a global scale to quickly identify potential health and environmental risks
from GM crops. To that end, "public health regulatory systems need to be
put in place in every country to identify and monitor any potential adverse
human health effects of transgenic plants, as for any other new variety,"
it said. Likewise, environmental concerns must be addressed systematically and
assessed against the agricultural technologies currently in use that cause
environmental problems, such as pesticides.
Procedures that most nations already have in place to approve the use of
new crop plants could serve as the model for a more formal risk-assessment
process. This process would be used to investigate the potential environmental
impact of new varieties, including those that have been developed using GM
techniques, the working group said.
GM Technology and World Agriculture
Most GM technology has not been developed with
But much of the funding for agricultural research in general - and GM
technology in particular - has shifted from the public sector to private
corporations in recent years, with an eye toward creating profitable products.
At the same time, public and noncommercial research efforts have waned, a trend
"that needs to be reversed," the working group said. Public-sector
funding for GM research is critical for meeting specific needs - those of
small-scale farmers, for instance -- where profits for big agricultural
corporations are unlikely to be forthcoming. Governments, international
organizations, and aid agencies should encourage plant genomics research as an
important area for public funding, and the results of such research should be
placed in the public domain. "Care should be taken that research is not
inhibited by over-protective intellectual property regimes," the paper
says.
In fact, when it comes to the needs of
A roster of the working group follows.
The white paper, Transgenic Plants and World Agriculture, is posted on the
National Academy Press Web site at <http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic>http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic
Working Group on Transgenic Plants and World Agriculture
Brazilian Academy of Sciences:
Ernesto Paterniani
Fernando Perez
Fernando Reinach
Jose Galizia Tundisi
Chinese Academy of Sciences:
Rongxiang Fang
Zhihong Xu
Qian Yingqian
Indian National Academy of Sciences
R.P. Sharma
S.K. Sopory
Mexican Academy of Sciences
Jorge Larson
Jorge Nieto Sotelo
Jose Sarukhan
Royal Society of London
Michael Gale
Brian Heap
Sir Aaron Klug
Michael Lipton
Third World Academy of Sciences
Muhammed Akhtar
U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Bruce Alberts
R. James Cook
Alex McCalla
F. Sherwood Rowland
Luis Sequiera
Working Group Staff
Rebecca Bowden - Royal Society of London
John Campbell - U.S. National Academy of Sciences
Copyright 2000 <http://www4.nationalacademies.org/>National
Academy of Sciences All Rights Reserved
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/>http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/index.html>
[]
<http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/>
Royal Society of London
<http://www.nationalacademies.org/nas/>
U.S. National Academy of Sciences
<http://www.abc.org.br/>
Brazilian Academy of Sciences
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Indian National Science Academy
<http://www.amc.unam.mx/>
Mexican Academy of Sciences
<http://www.ictp.trieste.it/%7Etwas/>
Third World Academy of Sciences
CONTENTS
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/notice.html>Title
Page and Notice i
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/preface.html>Preface
iii
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/summary.html>Summary
1
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/need.html>The
Need for GM Technology in Agriculture 3
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/examples.html>Examples
of GM Technology That Would Benefit World Agriculture 7
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/safety.html>Transgenic
Plants and Human Health and Safety 15
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/environment.html>Transgenic
Plants and the Environment 19
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/funds.html>Funds
for Research on Transgenic Crops--The Balance Between Public and Private Sector
23
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/capacity.html>Capacity
Building 27
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/intel_prop.html>Intellectual
Property 29
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/references.html>References
35
<http://books.nap.edu/html/transgenic/membership.html>Membership
of Working Group and Methodology 39
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