TECHNOLOGY FORESIGHT SUMMIT - Unido

Part two. Biotechnology Forum 71
The second speaker, Prof. Dénes Dudits (Hungary): “The Green Genome
Era: Central European Perspective” outlined the situation of agricultural
research, plant breeding and agricultural practice in the CEE countries, especially
in Hungary, after the collapse of the communist system. The disappearance
of unlimited markets for low-quality mass production on one side
and the unlimited possibility of seed imports from the west on the other,
completely changed the picture. Hungary now imports the seeds for most of
the main crops, except for wheat, where more than 90 per cent of planted
seeds are the products of Hungarian breeders. He then described the work
of a Wheat Consortium (consisting of eight research institutes and breeding
stations) with the aim of developing better disease-resistant (Fusarium, leafrust)
and drought-tolerant wheat cultivars, using gene technology and those
new molecular methods of genotyping (RFLP, AFLP, QTL, microsatellites) that
can accelerate and help classical breeding.
As Hungary (and most of the CEE countries) will join the EU, its policy
about GM plants should adapt to the EU (that is, it must be fairly restrictive)
but in the long run, GM-acceptance will certainly change (for the better),
therefore Hungary must be prepared for the widespread and sophisticated
use of GM-technology if she wants to exploit fully the comparative advantages
offered by the favourable climatic and soil conditions of the country.
The last speaker of the session, Prof. Andrzej Aniol (Poland): “The Legal
and Regulatory System of Biotechnology in Poland and its Relation to EU
Regulations” described the historical developments in Poland, leading to the
acceptance (in 2001) of the law on Genetically Modified Organisms. This law
is in complete accordance with all EU regulations and other relevant international
agreements (such as the Cartagena protocol and the Biodiversity
agreement). The law requires the establishment of a “GMOs Office” and a
“GMOs Commission” under the aegis of the Ministry of Environment (in coordination
with the Ministries of Health and Agriculture). The speaker concluded
the description of the regulatory system by pointing out that most of
the necessary components of the system already exist, except the reporting
and monitoring.
The law is criticized for being too restrictive but as Poland will join the
EU, and as the public attitudes in Poland in the last three years became more
hostile, this is considered to be necessary. The speaker expressed his hope
that in the long run public resistance towards GM-crops will diminish, especially
towards non-food crops. For the NIS, and non EU-accession CEE countries
the situation of GM-technology is much more favourable, because in
these countries agricultural productivity must be increased and the “green”
organizations are less powerful. These countries are advised not to accept too
restrictive GM-regulations.
In the dicussion one issue taken was that if the heavy agricultural subsidies
of the EU would be dismantled, as Prof. Van Montagu suggested, it would
not help at all the poorest developing countries, only the big producers
(Australia, Argentina, US, etc). Another issue stressed in the debate was that
the main problem with GM-crops is their environmental impact.