GMW: Bullsh*t over Africa

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GMW: Bullsh*t over Africa

" GM WATCH " <info

Sat, 2 Sep 2006 17:39:41 +0100

 

 

 

 

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http://www.gmwatch.org

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1.Bullsh*t over Africa - GM Watch commentary

2.Can science feed Africa? - BA Festival of Science

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1.Bullsh*t over Africa

 

'Can science feed Africa?' is one of the big events at the British

Association's Festival of Science this summer. But looking at the

contributors to next Tuesday's event, you may think Africa deserves

better than

this.

 

The speakers include Prof David Baulcombe of the Sainbury Laboratory of

the John Innes Centre, who'll be helping his audience, " Discover the

technology that promotes environmental sustainability and the development

of rural economies. "

 

It was Prof Baulcombe who was the inspiration for our character 'Prof

Bullsh*t'. This was after Baulcombe mislead another meeting with a

series of wildly inaccurate claims about the scientific research on

GM. (see

'Prof Bullsh*t & Associates')

http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/pb.htm

 

Baulcombe's misinformation included a claim that US government research

had shown that Bt crops brought " enormous environmental benefits " ,

including " an increase in the diversity of insect life, ... a

corresponding

increase in the diversity of small mammal life and a corresponding

increase in the diversity of birds of prey in those areas of the United

States [where Bt crops were grown]. " (False reports...)

http://members.tripod.com/~ngin/false.htm

 

All of this turned out to be a complete fiction. What Baulcombe

presented as official US research due " to be released shortly " has

subsequently been shown to have never even existed! Recently published US

research, on the other hand, shows Bt cotton produces no benefits in

terms of

biodiversity - the exact opposite of what Baulcombe claimed. (New

studies highlight the failures of GM cotton - podcast and transcript)

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6904

 

Chairing the panel discussion that rounds off 'Can science feed

Africa?', will be Dr Ian Gibson MP, another highly controversial

promoter of

GM crops who has been exposed in his local newpaper " as a parrot in the

House of Commons. " This came after a speech that the MP made on GM

crops was shown to be an almost word for word regurgitation of an article

" written by pro-GM campaigner Derek Burke - a former employer of Dr

Gibson's as vice chancellor of the UEA [university of East Anglia]. " (The

incestuous world of the GM lobbyist)

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=6881

 

Kicking off 'Can science feed Africa?' will be former Rockefeller

president Gordon Conway, who's now Chief Scientist at the UK government's

GM-promoting Department for International Development (DFID).

 

Conway's talk is titled " a doubly green revolution for Africa " - a

title all too obviously intended to pre-empt criticism of the Green

Revolution as bad for both the environment and small farmers, by

suggesting

that the biotech revolution will be much more sensitive to environmental

concerns.

 

Conway's promotion of biotech, however, while far more subtle, appears

to be no more soundly based than that of Baulcombe or Gibson.

Interviewed in The Guardian newspaper, Conway claimed:

 

" We support biotechnology in general, but you need to make a

distinction between that and genetic modification, which is just one

application

of biotechnology. A good example of what we support are the new

varieties of rice and bananas in Africa, which are produced from tissue

culture. Both crops are spreading rapidly and producing results. GM

probably

will deliver results but it'll take time. " '

 

But, although tissue culture is a largely uncontroversial biotech

technique, there is no peer reviewed published evidence that the biotech

banana projects in question have produced the kind of positive results

Conway suggests. The projects have, though, been massively hyped as a big

success story by the Monsanto-trained scientist Florence Wambugu and by

the Chairman of Dupont, the company which backs the projects and which,

like Wambugu and Conway, sees them as a sideways means of promoting GM

as part of a wider biotech revolution.

 

The claims that the projects are " producing results " lack empirical

evidence to support them. According to a careful analysis by James

Smith -

an African Studies specialist at the University of Edinburgh, the

results of the tissue culture biotechnology project appear to have

actually

been " very mixed " and to have given rise to considerable disappointment

amongst farmers. (Biotech's deceptive fiction)

http://www.gmwatch.org/archive2.asp?arcid=5823

 

So if that's " a good example of what we support " - to quote Conway - it

leaves one wondering exactly where the man brought in to make sure the

work of DFID was more science based, gets his " science " from!

 

Meanwhile, this " doubly green " revolutionary's Department has just come

in for a pasting from the House of Commons Environmental Audit

Committee (EAC). In a hard-hitting report the Committee is highly

critical of

DFID's green credentials: " DFID has failed to meet the challenge...of

taking a clear and coherent approach to the environment in development

and poverty reduction. " The EAC also found DFID suffered from a lack of

proper integration of the environment into agricultural policy. (full

EAC report)

http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/environmental_audit_comm

ittee/eac_26_07_06.cfm

 

Given the track record of some of the contributors to next Tuesday's

event, a more appropriate title for it might have been, 'Can lobbyists

fool Africa?'

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2.Can science feed Africa?

TUESDAY 5 SEPTEMBER

 

Does the application of science to agriculture hold the key to

eliminating poverty in Africa?

 

A series of speakers will examine this question from different

perspectives, describing the mechanisms by which agricultural science

can help

achieve this goal and what can be done to promote them, but also

investigating the factors that make it difficult, if not impossible, for

science and technology to make a significant impact on their own.

 

09.30

Presidential Address: a doubly green revolution for Africa

 

Many millions of Africans suffer from chronic hunger. This is a problem

that is soluble; technologies exist or are in the pipeline that can

greatly increase production and protect crops from pests, diseases and

drought. The challenge is to ensure that these technologies are

sustainable and benefit the poor.

 

Sir Gordon Conway

Chief Scientist, UK Department for International

Development

 

14.35

Genetic approaches to crop improvement

Different genetic approaches, including genetic manipulation, can be

used for crop improvement in

Africa. Discover the technology that promotes environmental

sustainability and the development

of rural economies.

 

Professor David Baulcombe

The Sainsbury Laboratory, University of East Anglia

 

15.10

Continental divides: green revolution technology and grain cultures in

Africa and Asia

Why did the Green Revolution by-pass Sub-Saharan Africa in the 1970s,

at the time when Asian

agriculture was being transformed? Exploring some of the demographic

and cultural differences

between Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, find out how the momentum for

technological improvement in

peasant smallholder agriculture has altered over the last 40 years, and

discuss some possible implications for African agriculture in the

future.

 

Dr Deborah Fahy Bryceson

African Studies Centre, University of Oxford

 

16.15

Panel discussion

Chair, Ian Gibson MP

Member of Parliament (Norwich North)

 

Time: 09.30 – 12.30 and 14.00 – 17.15

Location: [uNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA, NORWICH, UK] EFRY 01.05

Cost: GBP5.00** [to book see below for phone number and website for

online booking]

Organised by: The BA General Section Presidential Session and

University of East Anglia School of Development Studies

....

For full details of this event and others in the Festival of Science:

http://www.the-ba.net/NR/rdonlyres/0402A9B9-AA79-4838-B5D0-DDFF9BC862BE/0/Festiv\

al2006programme.pdf

More

info on the BA's website: www.the-ba.net

Tel: 0870 770 7101

 

 

 

 

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