Genetically Modified Foods Called Beneficial and Safe
Contact: Gregory Conko 301-775-1084
MONTREAL, QUEBEC January 22, 2000 - More than 600 scientists
from around the world signed a "Declaration in Support of Agricultural
Biotechnology," that was released today at a conference held to coincide
with UN negotiations on a Biosafety Protocol. "We in the scientific community
felt it necessary to counteract the baseless attacks so often being made
on biotechnology and genetically modified foods," said C.S. Prakash, a
biology professor at Tuskegee University in the United States, and organizer
of the declaration. "Biotechnology is a potent and valuable tool that
can help make foods more productive and nutritious," he added. "And, contrary
to anti-biotech activists, they can even advance environmental goals such
as biodiversity."
Farmers have been genetically modifying crop plants for
centuries with more traditional methods of hybridization and selection.
According to the Declaration, using biotechnology to modify plants today
does not pose any new or greater risks than those more traditional methods
posed. And because the newer genetic tools are more precise, they may
even be safer. "But their greater productivity allows farmers to grow
more food on less land with less synthetic pesticides and herbicides,
ultimately protecting wildlife and habitat," added Prakash.
Genetically Modified plants can also benefit local and
regional agriculture in the developing world, the key to addressing both
hunger and low income. "Anti-biotechnology activists accuse scientists
of "playing God" by genetically improving Crops, but it is those so-called
environmentalists who are really playing God, not with genes but with
the lives of poor and hungry people," said Prakash.
Dr. Prakash, who serves as Director of Tuskegee University's
Center for Plant Biotechnology Research, wrote the Declaration with the
help of several collegues, and began collecting signatures on January
19. "We were overwhelmed at how quickly the signatures began pouring in,"
said Prakash. "That so many scientists responded so quickly shows how
important this issue is to them and to the world." Signatures will continue
to be collected indefinitely, and the Declaration will be shared around
the world with policymakers, the news media, and the public.
Dr. Prakash established the AgBioWorld web site to support
the "Declaration of Scientists in Support of Agricultural Biotechnology."
Both the declaration text and the list of signatures, which will be updated
periodically, can be found on the AgBioWorld web site at www.AgBioWorld.org.
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AgBioWorld (www.AgBioWorld.org)
is sponsored and maintained by Professor C.S. Prakash, Director of the
Center for Plant Biotechnology Research at Tuskegee University. Information
requests can be sent to Professor Prakash at prakash@tuskegee.edu.
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