World Bank panel to review GE, other technologies

JOHANNESBURG - Genetic engineering (GE) and other controversial farming techniques will face an international scientific jury to see if they are safe under an initiative unveiled by the World Bank on Thursday.

The bank intends to create an international panel to review the science on issues like GE crops, irrigation and organics, to help governments decide which technologies to use and which to avoid.

The project's launch, on the sidelines of the Johannesburg Earth Summit, took place during fierce debate in southern Africa about the safety of GE food.

Zambia, where 2.4 million people face starvation, has refused genetically engineered food aid from the United States because it fears the food may harm its people or environment.

"There are millions of people at threat from famine, but there's a debate about safety.... This shows why we need an assessment," said Robert Watson, the bank's chief scientist, who will lead the project.

The project is aimed at finding the right technologies to enable the world to satisfy an estimated doubling of food demand expected within 50 years, the bank said.

In genetic engineering, scientists splice in genes from other species to make plants or animals more productive or resistant to pests. Opponents fear possible risks to human health or the environment.

The choice of Watson as one of the co-chairmen will itself raise some eyebrows in the business world.

Until May, he was head of the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which conducted a similar review of scientific evidence for global warming. The findings moved governments to create the pollution-busting Kyoto protocol.

He was replaced as IPCC head after the US government withdrew its support.

The assessment will happen in two phases, Watson said.

First, the bank would seek the views of politicians, farmers, industry and others to gain their backing for the assessment. Then the review of scientific literature would begin.

The report would be ready by about 2005, he said, and would offer a "descriptive rather than prescriptive" assessment of farm technologies. It would not recommend bans.

"The point is to have really good information so each community can analyse what the risks are so they can take a certain decision," Watson told a news briefing.

Anti-GE campaigners Friends of the Earth (FOE) gave the project a cautious welcome but said governments should institute a moratorium on GE crops until the final report is released.

"By the time this review is finished, the choice of many farmers and consumers around the world will already be removed, as GE crops continue to contaminate our environment, conventional crops and food," the FOE's Adrian Bebb said in a statement.

- REUTERS

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