GMO-Approvals: Home match of industry

this was the subject of a lecture- and discussion evening at Wuppertal which happened Wednesday, Nov. 21st 2007, 19:30-22:00 h ("boerse", Wolkenburg 100).

In front of an audience of more than 90 people DI Werner Mueller (Global 2000, Vienna, AT) threw light on the practices of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Within a team of 10 organizations, attac Wuppertal had invited for this evening, 21 further organizations built a supporting team spread all over Germany. People joined from Wuppertal and the area as well as coming from as far as the Eifel and Kassel. Mueller compared the risk assessment by EFSA - which is the basis for GMO approvals by the EC commission - with a biased sporting event. Fundamental violations of existing laws and scientifically unreasonable arbitrariness have become the standard procedure by EFSA. During a lively discussion many and diverse questions and contributions promoted the issue.

Those who were present agreed that such violations of laws and unscientific approaches to allow GMOs to contaminate our world, food supply and wild flora must be stopped immediately. They further agreed that the way scientists are treated in public who oppose or critisize GMO and GE need all support and that their freedom of research, teaching and speech must remain granted by law.

Abstract of the lecture:
Mueller showed through the examples of DDT, Methylbromide and the rather modern pesticide Vinclozoline, three substances which are banned today, that scientists inevitably commit errors in risk assessment. As GMO and their respectiv synthetic genes cannot ever be retrieved back from the environment, any wrong assessment harms and affects irrevocably the environment and all future generations. The approval of GMO by EFSA is deeply violating all precautionary principle and common sense.
Then he listed 12 major legal and scientific shortcomings in the risk assessment of GMO undertaken by EFSA refering them to a sporting event:

NO assessment of long term risks (730 days test)	1 : 0  for the industry
NO assessment of impacts for future generations	2 : 0  for the industry
NO assessment of cumulative toxical impacts	3 : 0  for the industry
The juridical requirements of case to case analyses are not implemented.	4 : 0  for the industry
As part of the risk assessment uncertainties would have to be analyzed (which they are not)	5 : 0  for the industry
All significant results are being trivialized by EFSA	6 : 0  for the industry
In many cases EFSA directly adopts the trivialized conclusions of the applying companies	7 : 0  for the industry
No perennial studies of earthworms, woodlice, butterflies etc. are being conducted during the approval proces	8 : 0  for the industry
No tritrophical studies (impacts via the food chain) are being conducted	9 : 0  for the industry
Scientific objections of member states, as e. g. Austria or Italy, are being rejected by EFSA without explanation. ("No new scientific evidence")	10 : 0  for the industry
EFSA staff gets involved in advertising for the GM-industry	11 : 0  for the industry
In fact consumers actually have no chance of co-determining	12 : 0  for the industry

During the discussion Mueller stated that one of the hypotheses which are promoted by GMO advocates, namely that 98 % of the genome would be junk DNA, has been disproved by research project like "ENCODE". The risk assessment by EFSA does not take into account these new findings of the "ENCODE" project.

Furthermore he showed in which radical way scientists who are opposed against GMOs are being discriminated.

During the lecture a podcast and a film have been recorded. The powerpoint presentation (in German) is available at www.eco-risk.at , Mueller's personal homepage, and is available (in German) in several programms (e. g. .swf) at www.attac.de/wtal-agrar/vortrag-werner-mueller-2007.html .