TECHNOLOGY FORESIGHT SUMMIT - Unido

70 Technology Foresight Summit
hazards or accidents involving GMO or its products must be reported to the
Ministry of Environment. According to the GMO Act, public participation in
decision-making on matters involving GMO is conducted by participation of
two members representing NGO organizations in the GMO Commission with
full access to all information.
The predominant opinion among biotech industry and research community
is that EU regulations and also Poland domestic regulations on GMO utilization
are very restrictive, based on unproved assumptions and voluntarily
use of precautionary principle. In effect these factors severely hamper technological
progress in Europe with serious consequences for the future. Despite
some small signs that the acceptance of modern biotechnology in Europe is
slowly increasing there is little hope for a real breakthrough in the near future.
All elements of National Biosafety Framework elaborated in Poland, the
biosafety policy, regulations and decision-making mechanisms are already
implemented incorporating the essential provisions of EU respective regulations
as well as the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on
Biological Diversity. Similar situation is found in other countries of the CEE
region, which are going to be member states of EU, especially in eight socalled
accession countries.
The Environmental Protection Act was amended in July 1997 and was followed
by the new act “On Genetically Modified Organisms” which entered into
force on 26 October 2001. Future trends in Poland will be highly dependent
on tendencies in the EU but in NIS countries the development might be different
and a more liberal approach to utilization of gene technologies in agriculture
and industry will be taken.
Comments on the presentations and debate
Prof. Marc Van Montagu (Belgium): “Plant Biotechnology for Developing
Countries. What Is Needed and What Can Be Done?”, one of the pioneers of
this field, started with an overview of the achievements of plant biotechnology,
what are the main GM crops already in production, what developments
are in the pipeline, and what are the foreseeable possibilities in the
future. Based on his personal experience he emphasized the significance of
GM crops especially for the third world. This is a contentious issue because
the opponents of GM-technology frequently say that GM crops offer no
advantage for the developing countries, they benefit only the multinational
companies that develop and sell the seeds. The speaker expounded the view
that this should not be the case.
Developing countries must develop their own GM-varieties, according to
their specific needs (Mexico and China were cited as positive examples), train
their own specialists (in this, the developed countries can help a lot), and
help the farmers in the appropriate use of the technology. If the European
countries want to help the third world, they should stop heavily subsidizing
their agriculture instead of opposing GM-technology.