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DEVELOPMENT: Biotech for the Poor, Too – Forum

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Mar 9 2004 (IPS) - Scientists and government representatives have called for democratising biotechnology and ensuring that its benefits also reach poor countries, but they agreed during a meeting in Chile that, as always, there is a great divide between good intentions and reality.

More than a thousand people from 79 countries took part in panel discussions on a broad range of biotech topics: from the use of bacteria and microbes for cleaner mining operations, to the development of vaccines – passing through the recurrent debates on intellectual property and trade.

The first Global Biotechnology Forum, held in the coastal city of Concepción (500 km south of Santiago), was considered a success by participants, though non-governmental consumer and environmental groups criticised the event for failing to include a greater civil society presence.

The main objective was to assess public policies to ensure that scientific knowledge and its material benefits are available to all, according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Chilean government, the organisers of the three-day event that ended this weekend.

The event’s final statement underscored that the goal was "to examine the potential offered by biotechnology in all its facets for the creation of wealth and the improvement of the quality of life of people in the developing countries and countries with economies in transition."

Among the participants in the Forum were Chinese scientist Huanming Yang, who led genetic research on SARS (severe acute respiratory disorder) and is credited with deciphering the rice genome, and Klaus Ammann, Swiss botanist and expert in medicinal plants.

In parallel to the Global Biotechnology Forum, a meeting of judges also took place in Concepción. Their main concern was to develop science training for magistrates, an urgent matter when considering that genetic material is gaining legitimacy as evidence in criminal cases.

Franklin Zweig, president of the Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts, organiser of the meeting that drew a hundred judges from around the world, announced that from now until 2009 the institute plans to train 120 "scientist judges" in Latin America and the Caribbean.

At the main Forum, the issue of genetically modified food was a source of discord, both in the analysis of its use in the fight against hunger and in the debate about the right of consumers to be duly informed.

Gustavo Gordillo, Latin American regional representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), suggested that nations should use the potential of science and technology to augment their agricultural production and to improve people’s access to food.

"It is vital that developing countries aren’t left behind," he said, in reference to the growing technological divide separating the South from the industrialised North.

The FAO supports the use of biotechnology in agriculture, including genetically modified products, but is clear that "biotechnology is much more than genetic engineering," stressed Gordillo.

In general, the Forum environment was one of acceptance of transgenic foods – those produced using genetic manipulation, particularly the introduction of genes from one species of plant or animal into another.

Eduardo Bitran, of Fundación Chile, which promotes technological development and transfer, lamented that although his country produces transgenic seeds they cannot be planted because of government bans. This means the seeds are exported, but return to Chile as imports of finished products, he said.

The Latin American director of Consumers International (CI), José Vargas, said that appropriate public policies are not in place to protect the population from the potentially harmful effects of transgenics, whether on human health or the environment.

However, Albert Basson, of UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), argued that "before releasing transgenic seeds for planting, there is a great deal of laboratory work done to avoid negative consequences."

But Vargas argued that this does not occur in developing countries, where regulations are not as strict or are non-existent, and he pointed out that the transnationals specialised in transgenics, particularly the U.S.-based seed and agrichemical giant Monsanto, focus their technology on production, impeding independent scientific assessment.

The CI regional director also challenged the notion that transgenics are necessary to eliminate world hunger – 840 million people around the globe are undernourished -, arguing that the current volume of global food production is enough to feed everyone, but is inequitably distributed.

The London-based CI, the world’s largest consumers association, with offices in 115 countries, was the only civil society organisation present for the Global Biotechnology Forum, CI sources told IPS.

Juan Carlos Cuchacovich, coordinator of the Chilean transgenics campaign for the environmental watchdog Greenpeace, said his organisation was not invited. The Forum was not an exchange of ideas, but rather a series of presentations that give the impression that "everyone thinks the same way" about biotechnology, complained the activist.

But beyond these complaints, from the opening address by Chilean President Ricardo Lagos to its closing ceremonies, the Forum underscored the need to revitalise and reorient international aid in support of developing biotechnology in the poorest countries..

Carlos Magariños, UNIDO director general, said that "a global society needs global public goods."

Based on that premise, and with the aim of achieving effective democratisation of biotechnology, these "public goods" to be shared and developed are knowledge, information and efficient markets, said the UN official.