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Announcing Science in Society 20

press-release

 

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability

http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

===================================================

 

Announcing Science in Society 20, Autumn/Winter 2003

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Order your copy from the ISIS online store

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/onlinestore/magazines.php).

 

 

From the Editor

Science rules against GM

*************************

 

The GM debate ended with a resounding " no " to GM crops on the weight of

scientific evidence. Much of the damning evidence is detailed in the widely

circulated report, The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World, compiled by an

Independent Science Panel of 24 scientists from 7 countries. It has now received

ample corroboration from surprising sources.

 

The long awaited results of the UK Government’s three-year Farm Scale

Evaluations (FSEs), released October 16, showed two of the three GM crops were

harmful to wildlife. The third appeared to do better only because the

conventional crop was sprayed with a deadly pesticide atrazine that Europe had

banned a week earlier. These findings are highly significant, if only because

the FSEs were intentionally restricted in scope, and biased in methodology.

 

Most culpable, perhaps, is the failure to monitor the stability of the GM crops.

For years, I have challenged the scientific advisory committees on this issue,

only to be met with persistent denial and personal attacks.

 

Two laboratories in France have recently produced clear evidence that five out

of five commercially approved GM crops were unstable. This invalidates any

safety testing done on the GM crops, and raises continuing safety concerns as

the crops are grown in the field. It is indeed the process of genetic

modification itself that is unsafe.

 

In the light of all the evidence, the pro-GM scientists advising our governments

ought to be publicly humiliated at the very least, for having abused science and

public trust.

 

Instead of which, they are among the hundred or so who have the temerity to

write to Tony Blair blaming their defeat on " anti-GM groups " " hi-jacked

meetings " and on " misleading " reports in the press.

 

Interviewed on the BBC, one of them, Derek Burke said he wanted " arguments based

on evidence " instead of " opinion " . He should be reprimanding himself and his

cosignatories on that very point. And how dare he and Chris Leaver presume to

speak on behalf of the " scientific community " ? Many scientists do not share

their pro-GM stance, and molecular geneticists are but a minute minority of all

scientists.

 

If the scientific community is disaffected, as they claim, it is because

scientists like them are unashamedly pushing the corporate agenda, and

compromising all the traditional standards of good science.

 

The corporations are deserting biotech research as a financial dead-end.

Monsanto is decamping from Europe as losses mount and its downward slide in the

stock market continues.

 

More importantly, genetic modification has been discredited, and is a scientific

dead-end. It would be a sin for Tony Blair to allow GM crops to be grown in

Britain. It would be adding insult and injury to the scientific community and

the public by continuing to support this line of research at the expense of many

other infinitely more deserving, socially promising and financially rewarding

approaches.

 

GM crops bad for developing countries

******************************

 

If the effects of GM crops for Canada and the US are bad enough, they have the

potential to be far worse for developing countries. Third World governments

should be wary as the biotech giants, forced out of Europe, are aggressively

targeting their countries. Scientists in Argentina, the third largest grower of

GM crops, are just now discovering the devastating impacts of GM crops on the

health of their children and on their agricultural and natural biodiversity.

 

A detailed study on flagship projects of corporate giants in African countries,

meanwhile, has pronounced GM crops " irrelevant " for the continent. All the GM

projects showcased by the industry as huge successes for small-scale African

farmers in fact yield much less benefit than can be obtained with either

conventional breeding or agroecology-based techniques, and for just a tiny

fraction of the investment in research.

 

Environment trumping genes

*********************

 

Another sign that biotech research is going nowhere comes from Nobel Laureate

genome sequencer Sydney Brenner, who has recently called for a new appraisal of

public healthcare instead of going in the direction of the human genome banks

and personalised medicines. There are good reasons for Brenner and other

scientists to break rank with the pro-GM brigade.

 

Diet is found to affect genetic imprinting, a developing process in which genes

are marked to become silent, resulting in immediate and longer-term health

impacts on the unborn. The malnutrition of teenage mothers with too little to

spend on food is a potential time bomb for the already overstretched public

health service.

 

On the bright side, while inadequate diet can compromise the health of the

unborn and cause them to become obese as adults, appropriate dietary supplements

may reverse the damage. Obese mice given dietary supplements were found to give

birth to lean, healthy offspring.

 

Another unexpected burden on public health is coming from assisted reproductive

technologies such as in vitro fertilization, which are linked to a range of

birth defects, developmental abnormalities and ectopic pregnancies. Some of the

birth defects appear to be due to stresses experienced by manipulated germ cells

and embryos, and are similar to those resulting from poor diet.

 

The trend towards turning birth into a medical procedure is also compromising

the health of both mother and infant. It is significant that where measures have

been taken to reverse this trend, as in the Netherlands, practically all the

health indicators have improved.

 

Dutch precaution keeps Bt crops at bay

******************************

 

The Dutch have the reputation of being the most sensible among Europeans, and

their precautionary safety assessment of GM crops containing the biopesticide Bt

is exemplary. Questions are raised about the effects of Bt crops on the entire

food web, and special consideration is given to the much smaller size of fields

in the Netherlands compared to those in the United States.

 

The contrast between safety assessment in the United States and the Netherlands

is like night and day. And still, false reassurances are being handed out on the

lack of Bt-resistance evolving in insect pests.

 

Life of Gaia

*********

 

We continue to bring exciting new developments in the on-going paradigm change

in science. SiS review introduces the work of remarkable architect Chris

Alexander who spent a life-time in quest of beautiful architecture, and comes up

with the surprising finding that all nature is alive, even " empty space " itself.

 

This brings us to the star mini-series, Life of Gaia, dedicated to our planet

earth, who is indeed alive, so we may better appreciate how she lives and

sustains all creatures large and small, that we may learn to dance to the

complex rhythms of her life music without stopping her in her tracks.

 

 

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Contents

Order your copy from the ISIS online store

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/onlinestore/magazines.php).

 

From the Editor

 

Winning the GM Debate

 

GM Crops Harm Wildlife

 

Lead Us Not into GM

 

" Cynical & Dishonest Science " in GM Maize Trials

 

World Against GM

 

GM Crops Irrelevant for Africa

 

Argentina’s GM Woes

 

Dutch Precaution Keeps Bt Crops At Bay

 

The Fall & Fall of GM Giant Monsanto

 

Farmers Want Review of Publicly Funded Science

 

Life of Gaia

 

Back to the Future for Gaia

 

Abrupt Climate Change Happening

 

Why Gaia Needs Rainforests

 

How Iraq Benefits US Oil Companies

 

Soya Destroying Amazon

 

Global Warming & then the Big Freeze

 

Why the United States Needs the Amazon

 

Bush Vulnerable to Climate Change

 

More CO2 Could Mean Less Biodiversity & Worse

 

Biosafety Alerts

 

No Bt Resistance?

 

Transgenic Lines Proven Unstable

 

Transgenic Trees Spread Mercury Poisoning

 

ISP News

 

Independent Science Panel Rejects Conclusions of GM Science Review

 

Rethinking Health

 

Diet Trumping Genes

 

European Directive against Vitamins & Minerals

 

Nobel Geneticist Spurns Gene Drugs & DNA Biobanks

 

Reproductive Health

 

What’s Wrong with Assisted Reproductive Technologies?

 

Eating for Two – Badly

 

No Place for Birth

 

Patients are " Guinea Pigs " for New IVF Treatments

 

WTO Cancún Ministerial

 

Lest We Forget

 

Behind the Collapse of the Ministerial

 

SiS Review

 

Architect of Life

 

 

Order your copy from the ISIS online store

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/onlinestore/magazines.php).

 

 

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telephone: [44 20 8643 0681] [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20 7272 5636]

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

 

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