The Independent Science Panel on GM Final Report
Dozens of prominent scientists from seven countries, spanning the
disciplines of agroecology, agronomy, biomathematics, botany, chemical
medicine, ecology, histopathology, microbial ecology, molecular genetics,
nutritional biochemistry, physiology, toxicology and virology, joined
forces to launch themselves as an Independent Science Panel on GM at a
public conference, attended by UK environment minister Michael Meacher and
200 other participants, in London on 10 May 2003.
The conference coincided with the publication of a draft report, The
Case for a GM-free Sustainable World, calling for a ban on GM crops to
make way for all forms of sustainable agriculture. This authoritative
report, billed as "the strongest, most complete dossier of evidence" ever
compiled on the problems and hazards of GM crops as well as the manifold
benefits of sustainable agriculture, is being finalised for release 15
June 2003.
Ahead of the release of the 120-page final report, the Independent
Science Panel is pleased to provide a four-page summary as its
contribution to the National GM Debate in the UK.
It is a challenge to the proponents of GM to answer the case
presented, rather than having to argue against the case for GM crops,
which has yet to be made.
Please circulate this document widely.
Members of the Independent Science Panel on GM
Prof. Miguel Altieri
Professor of Agroecology, University of
California, Berkeley, USA
Dr. Michael Antoniou
Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics,
GKT School of Medicine, King's College, London.
Dr. Susan Bardocz
Biochemist, formerly Rowett Research
Institute, Scotland
Prof. David Bellamy OBE
Internationally renowned botanist,
environmentalist, broadcaster, author and campaigner; recipient of number
awards; President & Vice President of many conservation and
environmental organisations.
Dr. Elizabeth Bravo V.
Biologist, researcher and campaigner
on biodiversity and GMO issues; co-founder of Accisn Ecolsgica; part-time
lecturer at Universidad Politicnica Salesiana, Ecuador.
Prof. Joe Cummins
Professor Emeritus of Genetics, University
of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
Dr. Stanley Ewen
Consultant Histopathologist at Grampian
University Hospitals Trust; formerly Senior Lecturer in Pathology,
University of Aberdeen; lead histopathologist for the Grampian arm of the
Scottish Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Project.
Edward Goldsmith
Recipient of the Right Livelihood and
numerous awards, environmentalist, scholar, author and Founding Editor of
The Ecologist.
Dr. Brian Goodwin
Scholar in Residence, Schumacher College,
England.
Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
Co-founder and Director of the Institute of
Science in Society; Editor of Science in Society; Science Advisor
to the Third World Network and on the Roster of Experts for the Cartagena
Protocol on Biosafety; Visiting Reader, Open University, UK and Visiting
Professor of Organic Physics, Catania University, Sicily, Italy.
Prof. Malcolm Hooper
Emeritus Professor at the University of
Sunderland; previously, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of
Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sunderland Polytechnic; Chief Scientific Advisor
to the Gulf War Veterans.
Dr. Vyvyan Howard
Medically qualified toxico-pathologist,
Developmental Toxico-Pathology Group, Department of Human Anatomy and Cell
Biology, The University of Liverpool; Member of the UK Government's
Advisory Committee on Pesticides.
Dr. Brian John
Geomorphologist and environmental scientist;
Founder and long-time Chairman of the West Wales Eco Centre; one of the
coordinating group of GM Free Cymru
Prof. Marijan Jot
Professor of Plant Breeding and Seed
Production, Agricultural College Kri evci, Croatia.
Lim Li Ching
Researcher, Institute of Science in Society and
Third World Network; deputy-editor of Science in Society.
Dr. Eva Novotny
Astronomer and campaigner on GM issues for
Scientists for Global Responsibility, SGR
Prof. Bob Orskov OBE
Head of the International Feed Resource
Unit in Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland; Fellow of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, FRSE; Fellow of the Polish Academy of Science.
Dr. Michel Pimbert
Agricultural ecologist and Principal
Associate, International Institute for Environment and Development.
Dr. Arpad Pusztai
Private consultant; formerly Senior
Research Fellow at the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland.
David Quist
Microbial ecologist, Ecosystem Science Division,
Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California,
Berkeley, USA.
Dr. Peter Rosset
Agricultural ecologist and rural development
specialist; Co-director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy
(Food First), Oakland, California, USA.
Prof. Peter Saunders
Professor of Applied Mathematics at
King's College, London.
Dr. Veljko Veljkovic
AIDS virologist, Center for
Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering, Institute of Nuclear Sciences,
VINCA, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Roberto Verzola
Secretary-General, Philippine Greens, Member
of the Board of Trustees, PABINHI (a sustainable agriculture network),
Coordinator, SRI-Pilipinas (network of advocates for the System of Rice
Intensification).
Dr. Gregor Wolbring
Biochemist, University of Calgary,
Alberta, Canada; Adjunct Assistant Professor for bioethical issues,
University of Calgary; Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of Alberta;
Founder and Executive Director, International Center for Bioethics,
Culture and Disability; Founder and Coordinator, International Network on
Bioethics and Disability
Prof. Oscar B. Zamora
Professor of Agronomy, Department of
Agronomy, University of the Philippines Los Banos-College of Agriculture
(UPLB-CA), College, Laguna, The Philippines.
Independent Science Panel Report released 15 June
2003
The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World -- A Summary
Why GM-Free?
- GM crops failed to deliver promised benefits
- No increase in yields or significant reduction in herbicide and
pesticide use
- United States lost an estimated $12 billion over GM crops amid
worldwide rejection
- Massive crop failures of up to 100% reported in India
- High risk future for agbiotech: "Monsanto could be another
disaster waiting to happen for investors"
- GM crops posing escalating problems on the farm
- Transgenic lines unstable: "most cases of transgene inactivation
never reach the literature"
- Triple herbicide-tolerant volunteers and weeds emerged in North
America
- Glyphosate-tolerant weeds plague GM cotton and soya fields,
atrazine back in use
- Bt biopesticide traits threatening to create superweeds and
bt-resistant pests
- Extensive transgenic contamination unavoidable
- Extensive transgenic contamination found in maize landraces in
remote regions of Mexico
- 32 out of 33 commercial seed stocks found contaminated in Canada
- Pollen remains airborne for hours, and a 35 mile per hour wind
speed is unexceptional
- There can be no co-existence of GM and non-GM crops
- GM crops not safe
- GM crops have not been proven safe: regulation was fatally flawed
from the start
- The principle of 'substantial equivalence', vague and ill defined,
gave companies complete licence in claiming GM products 'substantially
equivalent' to non-GM, and hence 'safe'
- GM food raises serious safety concerns
- Despite the paucity of credible studies, existing findings raise
serious safety concerns
- 'Growth-factor-like' effects in the stomach and small intestine of
young rats were attributed to the transgenic process or the transgenic
construct, and may hence be general to all GM food
- Dangerous gene products are incorporated into food crops
- Bt proteins, incorporated into 25% of all GM crops worldwide, are
harmful to many non-target insects, and some are potent immunogens and
allergens for humans and other mammals
- Food crops are increasingly used to produce pharmaceuticals and
drugs, including cytokines known to suppress the immune system, or
linked to dementia, neurotoxicity and mood and cognitive side effects;
vaccines and viral sequences such as the 'spike' protein gene of the
pig coronavirus, in the same family as the SARS virus linked to the
current epidemic; and glycoprotein gene gp120 of the AIDS virus
that could interfere with the immune system and recombine with viruses
and bacteria to generate new and unpredictable pathogens.
- Terminator crops spread male sterility
- Crops engineered with 'suicide' genes for male sterility, promoted
as a means of preventing the spread of transgenes, actually spread
both male sterility and herbicide tolerance traits via
pollen.
- Broad-spectrum herbicides highly toxic to humans and other
species
- Glufosinate ammonium and glyphosate, used with herbicide tolerant
GM crops that currently account for 75% of all GM crops worldwide, are
both systemic metabolic poisons
- Glufosinate ammonium is linked to neurological, respiratory,
gastrointestinal and haematological toxicities, and birth defects in
humans and mammals; also toxic to butterflies and a number of
beneficial insects, to larvae of clams and oysters, Daphnia and
some freshwater fish, especially the rainbow trout; it inhibits
beneficial soil bacteria and fungi, especially those that fix
nitrogen.
- Glyphosate is the most frequent cause of complaints and poisoning
in the UK, and disturbances to many body functions have been reported
after exposures at normal use levels; glyphosate exposure nearly
doubled the risk of late spontaneous abortion, and children born to
users of glyphosate had elevated neurobehavioral defects; glyphosate
retards development of the foetal skeleton in laboratory rats,
inhibits the synthesis of steroids, and is genotoxic in mammals, fish
and frogs; field dose exposure of earthworms caused at least 50
percent mortality and significant intestinal damage among surviving
worms; Roundup (Monsanto's formulation of glyphosate) caused cell
division dysfunction that may be linked to human cancers.
- Genetic engineering creates super-viruses
- The most insidious dangers of genetic engineering are inherent to
the process; it greatly enhances the scope and probability of
horizontal gene transfer and recombination, the main route to creating
viruses and bacteria that cause disease epidemics.
- Newer techniques, such as DNA shuffling, allow geneticists to
create in a matter of minutes in the laboratory millions of
recombinant viruses that have never existed in billions of years of
evolution
- Disease-causing viruses and bacteria and their genetic material
are the predominant materials and tools of genetic engineering, as
much as for the intentional creation of bio-weapons.
- Transgenic DNA in food taken up by bacteria in human gut
- Transgenic DNA from plants has been taken up by bacteria both in
the soil and in the gut of human volunteers; antibiotic resistance
marker genes can spread from transgenic food to pathogenic bacteria,
making infections very difficult to treat.
- Transgenic DNA and cancer
- Transgenic DNA known to survive digestion in the gut and to jump
into the genome of mammalian cells, raising the possibility for
triggering cancer
- Feeding GM products such as maize to animals may carry risks, not
just for the animals but also for human beings consuming the animal
products
- CaMV 35S promoter increases horizontal gene transfer
- Evidence suggests that transgenic constructs with the CaMV 35S
promoter could be especially unstable and prone to horizontal gene
transfer and recombination, with all the attendant hazards: gene
mutations due to random insertion, cancer, re-activation of dormant
viruses and generation of new viruses.
- A history of misrepresentation and suppression of scientific
evidence
- There has been a history of misrepresentation and suppression of
scientific evidence, especially on horizontal gene transfer. Key
experiments failed to be performed, or were performed badly and then
misrepresented. Many experiments were not followed up, including
investigations on whether the CaMV 35S promoter is responsible for the
'growth-factor-like' effects observed in young rats fed GM potatoes.
GM crops have failed to deliver the promised
benefits and are posing escalating problems on the farm. Transgenic
contamination is now widely acknowledged to be unavoidable, and hence
there can be no co-existence of GM and non-GM agriculture. Most important
of all, GM crops have not been proven safe. On the contrary, sufficient
evidence has emerged to raise serious safety concerns, that if ignored
could result in irreversible damage to health and the environment. GM
crops should therefore be firmly rejected now.
Why Sustainable Agriculture?
- Higher productivity and yields especially in the Third World
- 8.98 million farmers adopted sustainable agriculture practices on
28.92 million hectares in Asia, Latin America and Africa; reliable
data from 89 projects show higher productivity and yields: 50-100%
increase in yield for rainfed crops, and 5-10% for irrigated crops;
top successes include Burkina Faso, which turned a cereal deficit of
644 kg per year to an annual surplus of 153 kg, Ethiopia, where 12 500
households enjoyed 60% increase in crop yields, and Honduras and
Guatemala, where 45 000 families increased yields from 400-600 kg/ha
to 2,000-2,500 kg/ha
- Long-term studies in industrialised countries show yields for
organic comparable to conventional agriculture, and often higher
- Better soils
- Sustainable agricultural practices reduce soil erosion, improve
soil physical structure and water-holding capacity, which are crucial
in averting crop failures during periods of drought
- Soil fertility maintained or increased by various sustainable
agriculture practices
- Biological activity higher in organic soils: more earthworms,
arthropods, mycorrhizal and other fungi, and micro-organisms, all
beneficial for nutrient recycling and suppression of disease
- Cleaner environment
- Little or no polluting chemical inputs with sustainable
agriculture
- Less nitrate and phosphorus leached to groundwater from organic
soils
- Better water infiltration rates in organic systems, therefore less
prone to erosion and less likely to contribute to water pollution from
surface runoff
- Reduced pesticides and no increase in pests
- Integrated pest management cut the number of pesticide sprays in
Vietnam from 3.4 to one per season, in Sri Lanka from 2.9 to 0.5 per
season, and in Indonesia from 2.9 to 1.1 per season
- No increase in crop losses due to pest damage resulted from
withdrawal of synthetic insecticides in Californian tomato production
- Pest control achievable without pesticides, reversing crop losses,
as for example, by using 'trap crops' to attract stem borer, a major
pest in East Africa
- Supporting biodiversity and using diversity
- Sustainable agriculture promotes agricultural biodiversity, which
is crucial for food security; organic farming can support much greater
biodiversity, benefiting species that have significantly declined
- Integrated farming systems in Cuba are 1.45 to 2.82 times more
productive than monocultures
- Thousands of Chinese rice farmers doubled yields and nearly
eliminated the most devastating disease simply by mixed planting of
two varieties
- Soil biodiversity enhanced by organic practices, bringing
beneficial effects such as recovery and rehabilitation of degraded
soils, improved soil structure and water infiltration.
- Environmentally and economically sustainable
- Research on apple production systems ranked the organic system
first in environmental and economic sustainability, the integrated
system second and the conventional system last; organic apples were
most profitable due to price premiums, quicker investment return, and
fast recovery of costs
- A Europe-wide study showed that organic farming performs better
than conventional farming in the majority of environmental indicators
- A review by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
(FAO) concluded that well-managed organic agriculture leads to more
favourable conditions at all environmental levels
- Ameliorating climate change by reducing direct & indirect
energy use
- Organic agriculture uses energy much more efficiently and greatly
reduces CO2 emissions compared with conventional
agriculture, both with respect to direct energy consumption in fuel
and oil and indirect consumption in synthetic fertilizers and
pesticides
- Sustainable agriculture restores soil organic matter content,
increasing carbon sequestration below ground, thereby recovering an
important carbon sink
- Organic agriculture is likely to emit less nitrous dioxide
(N2O), another important greenhouse gas and also a cause of
stratospheric ozone depletion
- Efficient, profitable production
- Any yield reduction in organic agriculture more than offset by
ecological and efficiency gains
- Smaller farms produce far more per unit area than larger farms
characteristic of conventional farming
- Production costs for organic farming are often lower than
conventional farming, bringing equivalent or higher net returns even
without organic price premiums; when price premiums are factored in,
organic systems are almost always more profitable
- Improved food security and benefits to local communities
- A review of sustainable agriculture projects showed that average
food production per household increased by 1.71 tonnes per year (up
73%) for 4.42 million farmers on 3.58 million hectares, bringing food
security and health benefits to local communities
- Increasing productivity increases food supplies and raises
incomes, thereby reducing poverty, increasing access to food, reducing
malnutrition and improving health and livelihoods
- Sustainable agricultural approaches draw extensively on
traditional and indigenous knowledge, and place emphasis on the
farmers' experience and innovation, thereby improving their status and
autonomy, enhancing social and cultural relations within local
communities
- For every £1 spent at an organic box scheme from Cusgarne Organics
(UK), £2.59 is generated for the local economy; but for every £1 spent
at a supermarket, only £1.40 is generated for the local economy
- Better food quality for health
- Organic food is safer, as organic farming prohibits pesticide use,
so harmful chemical residues are rarely found
- Organic production bans the use of artificial food additives, such
as hydrogenated fats, phosphoric acid, aspartame and monosodium
glutamate, which have been linked to health problems as diverse as
heart disease, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity
- Studies have shown that on average, organic food has higher
vitamin C, higher mineral levels and higher plant phenolics -- plant
compounds that can fight cancer and heart disease, and combat
age-related neurological dysfunctions -- and significantly less
nitrates, a toxic compound.
Sustainable agricultural
practices have proven beneficial in all aspects relevant to health and the
environment. In addition, they bring food security and social and cultural
well being to local communities everywhere. There is an urgent need for a
comprehensive global shift to all forms of sustainable
agriculture. |
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