StatementThe Section for Agriculture takes a stand to the petition and to the German Open Letter of the Union of the German Academies of Science to the German constitution of the GM-laws
The debate about the constitution of the German GM-laws to the regulation of the co-existence has been accompanied by many science organisations with public statements of opinion.
The petition appearing at the beginning of September, and the accompanying Open Letter of the Union of the German Academies of the Science, as well as the earlier attitudes taken by the DFG and the Leopoldina to the German GM-laws require a clear counter-statement of opinion because
– they are a contradiction in themselves, since they negate the possibility of risk in growing GM-crops dismissing it as irrational, yet at the same time in their position towards insurance policies they make it clear that they see impossibly high financial risks in the crossing of strains. The laws are undemocratic because they implicitly demand that the groups of people who refuse GM-crops carry the immense risk of the GVO against their expressed will.
– they damage the role of science, by clearly merging their judgement with non-scientific, private financial interests.
– they damage research by playing down its meaning, and without doubt link to the conditions of a broad industrial use with high ecological and economic risks.
– they disregard the role which other branches of science have to play in the discourse of society by representing only the perspectives of biotechnology as the big science associations.
– with this many questions become clear, which in future have to be put on the role of society and the autonomy of the sciences.
Petition in german language |
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