Halt GM crops - International review of farming announced29 August 2002
Friends of the Earth has called for an international moratorium on the growing of GM crops following the announcement at the Jo'burg Earth Summit of a World Bank-funded initiative to review the use of GM foods and farming.
The process, announced by the World Bank at a press conference in Johannesburg, is chaired by Robert Watson, former chair of the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change and Chief Scientific Advisor
to the World Bank, and aims to include views from all sides on the impacts of agricultural science. It is scheduled to meet in Dublin in November.
The process will be responsible for looking at the impacts of GMOs as well as other agricultural science over the next three years.
Friends of the Earth cautiously welcomed the review, but sounded a note of caution over the independence of the review, given the involvement of the World Bank. The issue of GM food and farming is different to climate change, and it is questionable whether a top-down review of this controversial science is appropriate. The group warned that the review could play into the hands of the US and biotech
industry rather than ordinary people, who should be making the decisions about how they farm and what food they eat. The first meeting will be crucial in ensuring that any process includes all stakeholders and covers all relevant issues.
"By the time this review is finished the choice of many farmers and consumers around the world will already be removed as GM crops continue to contaminate our environment, conventional crops and food. A moratorium should be immediately implemented," said Friends of the Earth GM Campaigner Adrian Bebb.
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