THIRD WORLD NETWORK BIOSAFETY INFORMATION SERVICE
Dear friends and colleagues,
Re: Framework for a systematic environmental impact assessment of GMOs
A recently published paper in the journal BioRisk sets out a framework for a European network for a systematic environmental impact assessment of GMOs. This framework is proposed following criticism of the existing biosafety regulatory system in the European Union (EU). The shortcomings are partly related to lack of independent biosafety research and to prevailing simplistic and sometimes misleading research approaches, which generally undervalue the complex network of interactions governing ecosystem functions.
The overall goal of the proposed framework is to design and apply harmonized procedures for detecting and analysing GM crop effects across the variability of European agricultural environments and socio-economic contexts. A further key goal is to make the EU regulatory framework as well as the appraisal of GM crop introduction proposals more scientifically, socially and technically robust.
The proposed framework simultaneously targets the following core issues:
• Harmonized and whenever possible standardized key indicators and sampling methods to quantify possible impacts. This leads to reliable and comparable data within representative testing sites across Europe and can be used as a scientific basis for a realistically differentiated EU-wide environmental risk assessment (ERA).
• A representation of the variability of agro-ecosystems and its biological and socio-economic components into which GM crops are proposed for introduction.
• Design of statistically robust representative field tests on the European scale, and protocols for data analysis as a basis for the ERA and post-market environmental monitoring (PMEM) studies. The challenge here is not so much to ensure the detection of adverse effects in agricultural systems, but to discriminate measured effects with regard to cause-effect relationships, for instance potential impact of GM cropping on other agricultural practices, taking into account also the dynamics of agricultural and environmental changes.
• Stakeholder involvement for i) communication of field test regions and sites; ii) feedback from the relevant local actors, such as the farming communities and bee keepers among others, on the design of comparisons (including identification of salient indicators) between GM cropping and non-GM cropping systems; iii) a sound basis for socio-economic assessments and monitoring of conflicts; and iv) effective dissemination of methods, procedures and approaches to the administration and decision makers, and other stakeholders and users.
• Public and scientific validation on development, application and improvement of ERA procedures and protocols through enhanced stakeholder involvement and transparency.
The abstract of the paper is reproduced below. The full paper is available at: http://www.pensoft.net/journals/biorisk/article/1969/abstract/a-framework-for-a-european-network-for-a-systematic-environmental-impact-assessment-of-genetically-modified-organisms-gm
With best wishes,
Third World Network
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10400 Penang
Malaysia
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BioRisk 7 (2012) : 73-97
A framework for a European network for a systematic environmental impact assessment of genetically modified organisms (GMO)
Frieder Graef, Joerg Roembke, Rosa Binimelis, Anne I. Myhr, Angelika Hilbeck, Broder Breckling, Tommy Dalgaard, Ulrich Stachow, Georgina V. Catacora, Thomas Bøhn, David Quist, Béla Darvas, Gert Dudel, Bernadette Oehen, Hartmut Meyer, Klaus Henle, Brian Wynne, Marc Metzger, Silvio Knäbe, Josef Settele, András Székács, Angelika Wurbs, Jeannette Bernard, Donal Murphy-Bokern, Marcello Buiatti, Manuela Giovannetti, Marko Debeljak, Erling Andersen, Andreas Paetz, Saso Dzeroski, Beatrix Tappeser, Cornelis A.M. van Gestel, Werner Wosniok, Gilles-Eric Séralini, Iulie Aslaksen, Roland Pesch, Stanislav Maly, Armin Werner
doi: 10.3897/biorisk.7.1969
Published: 17.10.2012
Abstract
The assessment of the impacts of growing genetically modified (GM) crops remains a major political and scientific challenge in Europe. Concerns have been raised by the evidence of adverse and unexpected environmental effects and differing opinions on the outcomes of environmental risk assessments (ERA). The current regulatory system is hampered by insufficiently developed methods for GM crop safety testing and introduction studies. Improvement to the regulatory system needs to address the lack of well designed GM crop monitoring frameworks, professional and financial conflicts of interest within the ERA research and testing community, weaknesses in consideration of stakeholder interests and specific regional conditions, and the lack of comprehensive assessments that address the environmental and socio-economic risk assessment interface. To address these challenges, we propose a European Network for systematic GMO impact assessment (ENSyGMO) with the aim directly to enhance ERA and post-market environmental monitoring (PMEM) of GM crops, to harmonize and ultimately secure the long-term socio-political impact of the ERA process and the PMEM in the EU. These goals would be achieved with a multi-dimensional and multi-sector approach to GM crop impact assessment, targeting the variability and complexity of the EU agro-environment and the relationship with relevant socio-economic factors. Specifically, we propose to develop and apply methodologies for both indicator and field site selection for GM crop ERA and PMEM, embedded in an EU-wide typology of agro-environments. These methodologies should be applied in a pan-European field testing network using GM crops. The design of the field experiments and the sampling methodology at these field sites should follow specific hypotheses on GM crop effects and use state-of-the art sampling, statistics and modelling approaches. To address public concerns and create confidence in the ENSyGMO results, actors with relevant specialist knowledge from various sectors should be involved.