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Independent science panel for a GM free sustainable world
(Saturday, May 10, 2003 -- CropChoicenews) -- From news release.
In a surprising move, dozens of prominent scientists have joined
forces to form an Independent Science Panel (ISP) on GM, to counteract
what they see to be a concerted campaign by the government and the scientific establishment in the UK to promote GM under the guise of 'sound' science.
"This amounts to open scientific rebellion, possibly unprecedented in history," says Mae-Wan Ho, Director of the Institute of Science in Society, who initiated the move, and confessed to having been taken aback, and delighted, by the positive response of the scientists contacted.
Many of the scientists have been feeling frustrated at the lack of
open public debate on a whole range of scientific and other issues. The
'discussion meetings' organised by the government are invariably stacked
with pro-GM scientists hyping the potential benefits of GM, and giving the
public bland assurances that "there is no evidence of harm".
It will all change now.
At a special launching conference on May 10 in London, the ISP
will
release their report, The Case for A GM Free Sustainable World, the
strongest, most complete dossier of evidence ever put together to support
their call for a ban on GM crops and widespread adoption of organic
sustainable agriculture. This is timed to kick off the GM national debate
in
the UK and to input into the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Meeting
in
Sacramento, California in June 2003. The report has already attracted
considerable international attention.
"We'll give them a case to answer," says Brian John,
geomorphologist
and environment scientist, who has been working closely with the GM Free
Cymru campaign. "Those of us who have looked into the science of GM crops
and foods from a community or consumer perspective have been appalled at
the
apparent abandonment of the precautionary principle and at the control
exerted over the scientific agenda by the biotechnology multinationals."
The Report will be sent to the president of the Philippines
together
with a letter in support of one of the ISP members, Roberto Verzola,
Secretary-General of the Philippine Greens, who has initiated a hunger
strike to protest his government's approval of Monsanto's Bt maize.
The Panel includes Britain's best-loved botanist, broadcaster,
writer and tireless campaigner for mother earth, David Bellamy OBE, who
will
lead the launch of the ISP.
Other speakers include Stanley Ewen, Consultant Histopathologist,
at
Grampian University Hospitals Trust; Malcolm Hooper, Emeritus Professor of
Chemical Medicine, University of Sunderland; Vyvyan Howard,
toxipathologist,
University of Liverpool; Arpad Pusztai, formerly senior scientist at
Rowett
Institute, Scotland, and Gundula Azeez, Policy Manager, Soil Association.
The conference will be chaired by Edward Goldsmith, founding
editor
of The Ecologist, and the world's foremost environmentalist and critic of
globalisation.
For further details contact Sam Burcher: sam@i-sis.org.uk
or ching@i-sis.org.uk
or
m.w.ho@i-sis.org.uk tel: 44 (0)20-7272-5636. | |
