FROM THE INDEPENDENT SCIENCE PANEL (1)
Dr. Sawsan Ali Magid Al-Sharifi
Minister of Agriculture
Government of Iraq
13th March 2005
Dear Dr Sawsan
First, we wish to express our good wishes to you and your colleagues in
the new Administration in Iraq, and to wish you a time of peace and
security as you rebuild your country after a long history of difficult
and indeed tragic events.
We appreciate that following your Election and the establishment of a
popular Government, you have many urgent priorities to deal with across
the board, not least within your Agriculture portfolio. However, we
respectfully urge you to address one particular issue which is liable
to cause great harm to your farming community, to your environment, and
indeed to the national integrity of your country. This issue is
causing great concern throughout the world, particularly among groups
which have interests in farmers' rights, biosafety and biosecurity.
We refer to Order 81 which was put in place by Administrator Paul
Bremer for the CPA on 26th April 2004. This Order, which we understand
to have been written almost entirely by the American "advisers" to the
CPA, will (in the eyes of many aid organization) do grave damage to
the social, economic and political wellbeing of Iraq; and others may
well make representations with these matters in mind. So that you may
gauge the strength of feeling across the world, please enter "Iraq" +
"Order 81" into a Google search; you will find that there are 7,530
entries.
As concerned scientists with a breadth of expertise in agricultural
risk assessment, we wish to make a number of points relating to the
scientific impacts of the Order, and to highlight the damage which it
will do to Iraqs agricultural future.
1. GENETICALLY MODIFIED (GM) CROPS.
The Order promotes the view that
GM varieties are really no different from "new" varieties developed
through conventional breeding programmes. This view is scientificallty
indefensible, and the many unique health and environmental hazards
associated with GM crops and foods are now well documented in the
scientific literature, particularly within Europe (2). For this reason
the EU has put in place a series of measures designed to safeguard the
environment and the wellbeing of the public from contamination by
genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
2. PATENTING.
Although the Order is supposed to deal with plant
variety protection (PVP) it goes a great deal further than that, and it
paves the way for the patenting of life forms in line with the thinking
of the American Administration. You will be aware that this raises
profound ethical concerns, and that there are many governments and
religious groups throughout the world who are implacably opposed to the
"patenting" of crop varieties which can be promoted as "new" but which
are based upon centuries of careful breeding and adaptation by
generations of farmers. Iraq and the Fertile Crescent of course have a
special place in the history of agriculture as the "nurseries" of many
cereal varieties, and in our view it would be a tragedy if the genetic
diversity of your seedbanks was to be controlled or compromised by
private entities including the transnational biotechnology
corporations. These corporations will portray this as "progress", but
it will be nothing of the sort.
3. BIODIVERSITY.
This is not specifically addressed in Order 81, but
the implementation of the Order will have at least two negative
effects. The number of cultivated crop varieties will be reduced as
"common knowledge" varieties are squeezed out and as "high-quality" or
new registered varieties are brought in by the large seed merchants.
Those merchants have a long history of buying up small seed suppliers
and their catalogues, and systematically reducing the number of
varieties on sale. This, in our judgement, is what will happen in Iraq
also. Secondly, biodiversity will be negatively affected by the use of
agrichemicals and by GM contamination through out-crossing from, for
example, GM wheat to wild relatives. It is now well known that such
out-crossing is completely predictable, and that the co-existence of GM
crops and non-GM crops and related landraces is impossible. This is of
particular concern for centres of crop origin and diversity, such as
Iraq and Mexico.
4. SEED SAVING.
This is to do with farm management rather than
science, but we feel very strongly about it since it is related closely
to the points made above. The saving and re-use of seeds is a key
practice in the maintenance of biodiversity and also demonstrates to
the world the intellectual property rights of farming families who have
bred and improved "common knowledge" varieties over many generations.
We consider that the patrimony of your country is at stake here, and
that your attitude to Order 81 will affect the lives of Iraqi people
for generations to come. The Order does not in itself prohibit the
practice of seed saving, but in the present context of shortages of
capital and farm labour, ARDI assistance, and agricultural
reconstruction programmes, we are concerned that -- in the absence of
clear Government guidance -- thousands of farmers may simply be sucked
into a high-input cash-crop economy based upon the use of registered
seed varieties and associated agrichemicals.
Finally, we should like to point out that the preamble to Order 81 is
cynical and opportunistic. Its provisions are justified as "necessary
to improve the economic condition of the people of Iraq", as desirable
for "sustainable economic growth" and as enabling Iraq to become "a
full member of the international trading system known as the WTO." We
do not accept any of these justifications. In our view the adoption
of Order 81 will do great damage to the economic fortunes of the Iraqi
people, will damage sustainable economic growth, and inhibit full
participation in international trade. To mention but one negative
effect, if GM crops are grown within your country you will find it
impossible to control GM contamination levels and will almost certainly
lose large potential markets within the EU and in many other countries.
We urge you to revoke Order 81, and to replace it with other laws which
are more sensitive to the needs of Iraqi farmers, to environmental
concerns, and to health and safety issues. We invite you to look at
the following paper which addresses some of the social, economic and
political concerns of those who have examined the wording of Order 81:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMiraq.php
In the report entitled "The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World"
(136pp) we summarize the unique dangers associated with GM crops and
foods. Please take time to examine this summary:
https://www.indsp.org/ISPreportSummary.php
Thank you very much for your consideration. If you wish to raise any
points relating to the contents of this letter, please do not hesitate
to come back to us. We are sure that we will be able to help you with
specific scientific advice.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely.
Dr Brian John,
On behalf of the members of the Independent Science Panel
References
(1) ISP is a panel of scientists from many disciplines, committed to
the promotion of science for the public good. For a statement of key
objectives, please see the following:
https://www.indsp.org/statement.php
For a list of members and biographies, please see the following:
https://www.indsp.org/ISPMembers.php
(2) See, for example, Freese, W & Schubert, D. 2004. "Safety Testing
and Regulation of Genetically Engineered Foods", Biotechnology and
Genetic Engineering Reviews, 21: 299-324; Blandford, S. "Argentina's
Bitter Harvest", New Scientist, 17th April, 2004; Open Letter from
World Scientists to All Governments Concerning Genetically Modified
Organisms (GMOs)
(745 signatures to date) http://www.i-sis.org.uk/list.php
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