"Hamish Macbeth" wrote in message
...

"Gordon Couger" wrote in message
...
Wiht no evidence just another trade barrier for which the EU paying a
fine.

I wonder what happens if the US decides to press the case of GM crops
with
the WTO?


Does the WTO have any mandate for goods banned in an area?

This would suggest that American gun manufacturers could complain that
Britain is curbing their trade by blocking imports.

Ig GM crops are banned from all sources I don't see that WTO has any
authority.

The US postition is there is no differnce in GM crops and anyohter crop. We
don't treat them any differntly after they are approved and there is no
evidence that there is any danger more danger from them than any other food.
In fact are cases that conventional breeding has produced food that was
harmful to people that has been marketed that the approval process that GM
crops go through would have caught.

The Italian Environment Ministers speech follows

Gordon.


Are genetically modified organisms a threat to health and the
ecosystem, or a solution to combat hunger in the world and to protect the
environment?

Scientists and experts in bioethics addressed that question in a
debate organized last week by the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum in
collaboration with the Italian Ministry of the Environment.

Given the question "GMO: Frankenstein's food or defeat of hunger?,"
Corrado Clini, director general of the Italian Ministry of the Environment,
answered that the "new vegetable technologies represent a great opportunity
for the protection of the environment and the growth of food resources."

Biotechnologies are a key tool to combat the lack of food in many
developing countries, Clini said. Moreover, "in the cultivation of
transgenic maize, soybean and cotton the need for pesticides is drastically
reduced, while productivity increases in marginal soils."

In his address, Clini mentioned the prospect of the production of
edible vaccines that could be used to combat widespread diseases in
developing countries.

"Despite this," he said, "there is widespread concern in Europe over
the consumption of transgenic foods. In particular, among consumers the
equation 'GMO equals risk' has been widely disseminated."

Clini continued: "However, in 2001, research carried out by the
European Commission, which involved over 400 public bodies for 15 years,
came to the conclusion that there are no evident effects on health from
biotech products, while negative effects can be found deriving from the use
of pesticides and incorrect agricultural practices in traditional
agriculture."

Now, the European Union has a marginal role in research and
experimentation of new vegetable biotechnologies. In 2001, the production of
biotech plants in Europe represented 0.03% of the world production. The same
year, 44 experimentations in the field were authorized in Europe, as
compared to 256 in 1997.

The point at which biotechnological research has arrived was the focus
of an address by Milan University professor Francesco Sala. "With the
integration of one or a few genes," Sala said, "resistance can be conferred
to the principal parasites of cultivated plants, just as it is possible to
offer resistance to drought, salinity and cold."

It is also possible "to produce plants with high nutritive value --
more vitamins, proteins, antioxidants -- plants that synthesize vaccines
against infectious diseases and tumors -- cholera, hepatitis, AIDS,
melanoma -- new fuels and new plastics," the professor added.

The applications are innumerable in the protection of the environment.
It is possible to develop "plants that purify the soils of industrial
contamination -- lead, mercury and chrome, for example," Sala added.

Nor can one forget "the considerable increase of productivity foreseen
with the use of the new plants," something that, according to Sala, will
make it possible "to reduce the need to cut down forests in poor countries
to produce more food and materials for human use. Rich countries will also
be able to restore to nature -- and, therefore, to biodiversity -- part of
the land currently devoted to agriculture."

Given the opposition to biotechnology in Europe, Sala recalled the
research carried out by the European Community on the safety of genetically
modified plants.

"The official conclusion states: 'The risks for man and for the
environment derived from the use of these plants are not greater than those
we have always accepted in traditional agricultural products. What is more,
given that they are controlled, products derived from genetically modified
plants often present fewer risks and greater benefits,'" Sala quoted.

For her part, Nathalie Louise Moll, responsible for Assobiotech's
institutional relations, referred to a demonstration by 1,000 African
farmers who called for "freedom of choice" in this field, during the summit
on development last August in Johannesburg.

The African farmers were claiming the dignity of being protagonists of
their own future, she said.

"I spoke with one of these farmers, who told me: 'I would like to come
home in the afternoons and say to my wife: Look, this is the fruit of my
work,'" Moll recalled. "African farmers want GMOs."



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