Questo è l'ultimo documento di un gruppo di Scienziati che ha deciso di contribuire a divulgare un po' di verità sugli OGM. Si tratta di una ricerca ricchissima di informazioni, che analizza il problema sotto tutti gli aspetti, che sarà sicuramente fonte di citazioni per un po' di tempo.

Purtroppo per ora è solo in inglese. Speriamo che quanto prima qualcuno si accolli l'onere di fare una traduzione scientificamente corretta in italiano. 

Drafted by
Mae-Wan Ho and Lim Li Ching

with contributions from
Joe Cummins, Malcolm Hooper, Miguel Altieri, Peter Rosset, Arpad Pusztai, Stanley Ewen, Michel Pimbert, Peter Saunders, Edward Goldsmith, David Quist, Eva Novotny and others on the Panel

10 May 2003, London

Componenti del "Independent Science Panel on GM"

List of Members

• Prof. Miguel Altieri
  Professor of Agroecology, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  

• Dr. Michael Antoniou
  Senior Lecturer in Molecular Genetics, GKT School of Medicine, King’s College London
  

• Dr. Susan Bardocz
  Biochemist; formerly Rowett Research Institute, Scotland
  

• Prof. David Bellamy OBE
  Internationally renowned botanist, environmentalist, broadcaster, author and campaigner; recipient of numerous awards; President and Vice President of many conservation and environmental organizations
  

• Dr. Elizabeth Bravo V.
  Biologist, researcher and campaigner on biodiversity and GMO issues; co-founder of Acción Ecológica; part-time lecturer at Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Ecuador
  

• Prof. Joe Cummins
  Professor Emeritus of Genetics, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada
  

• Dr. Stanley Ewen
  Consultant Histopathologist at Grampian University Hospitals Trust; formerly Senior Lecturer in Pathology, University of Aberdeen; lead histopathologist for the Grampian arm of the Scottish Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Project
  

• Edward Goldsmith
  Recipient of the Right Livelihood and numerous awards, environmen-talist, scholar, author and Founding Editor of The Ecologist 96.
  

• Dr. Brian Goodwin
   Scholar in Residence, Schumacher College, England
  

• Dr. Mae-Wan Ho
  Co-founder and Director of the Institute of Science in Society; Editor of the magazine Science in Society; Science Advisor to the Third World Network and on the Roster of Experts for the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; Visiting Reader, Open University, UK and Visiting Professor of Organic Physics, Catania University, Sicily, Italy
  

• Prof. Malcolm Hooper
  Emeritus Professor at the University of Sunderland; previously, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sunderland Polytechnic; Chief Scientific Advisor to the Gulf War Veterans
  

• Dr. Vyvyan Howard
  Medically qualified toxico-pathologist, Developmental Toxico-Pathology Group, Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, The University of Liverpool; member of the UK Government’s Advisory Committee on Pesticides
  

• Dr. Brian John
  Geomorphologist and environmental scientist; Founder and long-time Chairman of the West Wales Eco Centre; one of the coordinating group of GM Free Cymru
  

• Prof. Marijan Jošt
  Professor of Plant Breeding and Seed Production, Agricultural College Krizevci, Croatia
  

• Lim Li Ching
  Researcher, Institute of Science in Society and Third World Network, deputy-editor of Science in Society magazine
  

• Dr. Eva Novotny
  Astronomer and campaigner on GM issues for Scientists for Global Responsibility, SGR 97.
  

• Prof. Bob Orskov OBE
  Head of the International Feed Resource Unit in Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen, Scotland; Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE; Fellow of the Polish Academy of Science
  

• Dr Michel Pimbert
  Agricultural ecologist and Principal Associate, International Institute for Environment and Development
  

• Dr. Arpad Pusztai
  Private consultant; formerly Senior Research Fellow at the Rowett Research Institute, Bucksburn, Aberdeen, Scotland.
  

• David Quist
  Microbial ecologist, Ecosystem Sciences Division, Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, USA
  

• Dr. Peter Rosset
  Agricultural ecologist and rural development specialist; Co-director of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First), Oakland, California, USA
  

• Prof. Peter Saunders
  Professor of Applied Mathematics at King's College, London
  

• Dr. Veljko Veljkovic
  AIDS virologist, Center for Multidisciplinary Research and Engineering, Institute of Nuclear Sciences VINCA, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
  

• Roberto Verzola
  Secretary-General, Philippine Greens; Member of the Board of Trustees, PABINHI (a sustainable agriculture network); Coordinator, SRI-Pilipinas (network of advocates for the System of Rice Intensification)
  

• Prof. Oscar B. Zamora
  Professor of Agronomy, Department of Agronomy, University of the Philippines Los Banos-College of Agriculture (UPLB-CA), College, Laguna, The Philippines
  

Statement of the Independent Science Panel
Launched 10 May 2003, London.

The Independent Science Panel (ISP) is a panel of scientists from many disciplines and committed to the following.

1. Promoting science for the public good, independent of commercial and other special interests, or of government control
   We firmly believe that science should be accountable to civil society, that it should be accessible to all, regardless of gender, age, race, religion or caste, and that all sectors of civil society should participate in making decisions on all issues related to science, from scientific research to policies regarding science and technologies.
   We believe that accurate scientific information should be promptly accessible to the public in unbiased and uncensored forms.
   

2. Maintaining the highest standards of integrity and impartiality in science
   We subscribe to the principles of honesty, openness and pluralism in the practice of science. There should be open peer review for published work, and respect and protection for those whose research challenges the conventional paradigm or majority opinion. Scientific disagreements must be openly and democratically debated.
   We are committed to upholding the highest standards of scientific research, and to ensuring that research funding is not skewed or dis-torted by commercial or political imperatives.
   

3. Developing sciences that can help make the world sustainable, equitable, peaceful and life-enhancing for all its inhabitants
   We respect the sanctity of human life, seek to minimise harm to any living creature, and protect the environment. We hold that science should contribute to the physical, social and spiritual well being of all in all soci-eties.
   We are committed to an ecological perspective that takes proper account of the complexity, diversity and interdependence of all nature.
   We subscribe to the precautionary principle: when there is reasonable suspicion of serious or irreversible damage, lack of scientific consensus must not be used to postpone preventative action.
   We reject scientific endeavours that serve aggressive military ends, promote commercial imperialism or damage social justice across the world.
   

The Genetic Modification Group of the ISP
The Genetic Modification (GM) Group of the ISP consists of scientists working in genetics, biosciences, toxicology and medicine, and other representatives of civil society who are concerned about the harmful consequences of genetic modifications of plants and animals and related technologies and their rapid commercialisation in agriculture and medicine without due process of public consultation and consent.

We find the following aspects especially regrettable and unacceptable:

1. Lack of critical public information on the science and technology of GM
   

2. Lack of public accountability in the GM science community
   

3. Lack of independent, disinterested scientific research into, and assessment of, the hazards of GM
   

4. Partisan attitude of regulatory and other public information bodies, which appear more intent on spreading corporate propaganda than providing crucial information
   

5. Pervasive commercial and political conflicts of interests in both research and development and regulation of GM
   

6. Suppression and vilification of scientists who try to convey research information to the public that is deemed to harm the industry
   

7. Persistent denial and dismissal of extensive scientific evidence on the hazards of GM to health and the environment by proponents and by supposedly disinterested advisory and regulatory bodies
   

8. Continuing claims of GM benefits by the biotech corporations, and repetitions of these claims by the scientific establishment, in the face of extensive evidence that GM has failed both in the field and in the laboratory.
   

9. Reluctance to recognize that the corporate funding of academic research in GM is already in decline, and that the biotechnology multinationals (and their shareholders) as well as investment consultants are now questioning the wisdom of the 'GM enterprise'
   

10. Attacks on, and summary dismissal of, extensive evidence pointing to the benefits of various sustainable agricultural approaches for health and the environment, as well as food security for farmers and the social well-being of local communities.
    

ISP-GM Group Review
We have undertaken an extensive review of evidence indicating that GM crops are neither needed nor wanted and that they have failed to deliver their promises; on the contrary, GM crops are presenting escalating problems for farmers and posing unacceptable risks to health and the environment.
At the same time, the success and manifold benefits of all forms of sustainable agriculture are no longer in doubt.
Consequently, we are demanding a ban on the commercial growing of all GM crops, and a comprehensive shift to agroecology, sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
A summary of the deliberations of the Independent Science Panel on GM is presented in, The Case for A GM-Free Sustainable World, Independent Science Panel, ISIS & TWN, 2003.

Indice dei contenuti e conclusioni

Contents
Preface i

Part 1: No Future for GM crops ii

1 Why Not GM Crops? 
2 Escalating Problems on the Farm

Part 2: GM Crops Not Safe

3 Science & Precaution 
4 Safety Tests on GM Foods 
5 Transgene Hazards
6 Terminator Crops Spread Male Sterility 
7 Herbicide Hazards 
8 Horizontal Gene Transfer 
9 The CaMV 35S Promoter 
10 Transgenic DNA More Likely to Spread 
11 Horizontal Transfer of Transgenic DNA 
12 Hazards of Horizontal Gene Transfer 
13 Conclusion to Parts 1 & 2 

Part 3: The Manifold Benefits of Sustainable Agriculture 

14 Why Sustainable Agriculture? 
15 Higher or Comparable Productivity & Yields 
16 Better Soils 
17 Cleaner Environment 
18 Reduced Pesticides & No Increase in Pests 
19 Supporting Biodiversity & Using Diversity 
20 Environmental & Economic Sustainability 
21 Ameliorating Climate Change 
22 Efficient, Profitable Production 
23 Improved Food Security & Benefits to Local Communities
24 Better Food Quality
25 Conclusion to Part 3 

References

Statement of the Independent Science Panel

List of Members of the ISP-GM