THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE
Dear Friends and Colleagues
Assessing sustainability of GM crops and socioeconomic considerations
Genetically modified (GM) crops are associated with inherent uncertainties which makes it difficult, if not impossible, to predict potential future impacts of cultivating these crops. There is limited experience in how to deal with sustainability and socio-economic issues in actual decision-making processes of GM crops. Stakeholder engagement and deliberation have a long tradition in environmental decision-making and have been proposed as one approach to deal more appropriately with the uncertainties associated with GM crops and to promote sustainable solutions.
A study in Norway organized two workshops with 16 Norwegian stakeholders involved in potato production and in agriculture in general. The workshop participants were asked to identify relevant issues to consider when assessing the contribution that late blight resistant (LBR) GM potatoes could make towards more sustainable potato production in the country. Sustainable development was defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
The stakeholders identified several conditions that an LBR GM potato ought to satisfy in order to contribute to sustainable development. These conditions concerned environmental and health safety aspects of cultivating LBR GM potato, potential for fungicide reductions, durability of the LBR GM potato plant’s resistance, farmers’ profitability and consumer acceptance. The workshop discussions revealed opposing views on what a sustainability assessment should entail. The researchers recommend that these views be further examined through various forms of public involvement so that the full range of perspectives on sustainability is exposed and ideally taken into account in future decision-making processes.
This study underscores the important need for engaging stakeholders and having a broader framing for the assessment of GMOs, and of the use of problem formulation and options assessment as a tool to do so.
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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STAKEHOLDER VIEWS ON ISSUES TO CONSIDER WHEN ASSESSING THE SUSTAINABILITY OF GENETICALLY MODIFIED POTATO
Frøydis T. Gillund, Anne I. Myhr, Audrun Utskarpen & Angelika Hilbeck
International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, Volume 14, Issue 3, pages 357-376 (2016). DOI:10.1080/14735903.2016.1140013
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14735903.2016.1140013?journalCode=tags20#.Vysa6IR97cc
The importance of assessing socio-economic and sustainability aspects of genetically modified (GM) crops is increasingly recognized by policy-makers, both within the EU and internationally. Nevertheless, experience has shown that it is challenging to assess and implement these aspects in actual decision-making processes. This paper argues that stakeholder engagement may provide valuable insights when developing frameworks for sustainability assessment of GM crops. We organized two stakeholder workshops with the aim to gather perspectives on the sustainability of cultivating late blight resistant (LBR) GM potato in Norway. Sixteen Norwegian stakeholders involved in potato production and in agriculture in general took part in the workshops. Here, we present and discuss the outcomes of this participatory approach. The stakeholders identified several conditions that an LBR GM potato ought to satisfy in order to contribute to sustainable development. These conditions concerned environmental and health safety aspects of cultivating LBR GM potato, potential for fungicide reductions, durability of the LBR GM potato plant’s resistance, farmers’ profitability and consumer acceptance. In addition, the stakeholders considered issues such as maintenance of a diversity of potato cultivars, transparency during product development and risk assessment processes, ownership and control and opportunity for independent risk research as important considerations in a sustainability assessment. While focusing on a specific application of agricultural biotechnology, we believe that these findings are useful contributions to the ongoing efforts to develop frameworks and guidelines for assessing sustainability and socio-economic considerations of GM crops in general.