“Dick Rowland Image”
”Shoots (News, Views and Quotes)”
Editor’s Note: Local Biotech Focus. Below is a new, local email
publication that has just been started by Rick Klemm. Sign up at
mailto:hartshi@aloha.com if it interests you. We will be using some of it from
time to time.
– Anti-biotech activists have worked hard to scare the Philippines into
banning biotech crops like Bt corn (genetically manipulated for insect
resistance). But, the Philippine government has continued to support
agricultural biotechnology.
Recently, an international declaration, “Sound Science – Not Silence,”
was sent to the Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on behalf
of more than 200 scientists from around the world. (The declaration is
posted at
https://www.agbioworld.org/biotech_info/articles/soundscience.html. )
The “Sound Science – Not Silence” declaration, signed by more than 200
scientists from around the world, details scientific facts about
positive environmental, economic and health impacts of agricultural
biotechnology, especially that of insect-resistant corn which recently
received full planting approval in the Philippines in December 2002.
The declaration states “The reality is that crops developed through
plant biotechnology are among the most well-tested, well-characterized,
and well-regulated food and fiber products ever developed. This is the
overwhelming consensus of the international scientific community,
including the Royal Society, National Academy of Sciences, the World
Health Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, the European Commission, the French Academy of Medicine, and
the American Medical Association.”
In addition, more than 3500 scientists from 60 countries, including 20
Nobel laureates, have signed an earlier, broader AgBioWorld Foundation
petition in support of agricultural biotechnology. (Details are at
www.agbioworld.org.)
Next time: What is biotechnology anyhow?
– Carolina Journal Exclusive – The Problem of Rape Statistics
By Jon Sanders
RALEIGH