Ammann: Birdging the Gap between Science and Politics by Leonarda Baur

GM-crops: How to construct successfully bridges between Science and Politics â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a difficult task Prof. Klaus Ammann, University of Bern, Switzerland

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/leonardo_da_vinci.html#ixzz1g8w6PNQO http://www.desicolours.com/leonardo-da-vinci-quotes-1280x1024-wallpapers/19/03/2011

Although nature commences with reason and ends in experience it is necessary for us to do the opposite, that is to commence with experience and from this to proceed to investigate the reason.

Free Fidenato Activists March 30, 2014, Friuli-Veneto-Giulia They destroyed the wrong fields!! See www.salmone.org

Free Fidenato Activists March 30, 2014, Friuli-Veneto-Giulia They destroyed the wrong fields!!

See www.salmone.org

Destruction of 30 years of field research in Italy Prof. Eddo Ruggini Università di Tusca http://www.freshplaza.it/news_detail.asp?id=48131

“It can be seen as a demolition of a scientific cultural monument, an act of legal vandalism” says Klaus Ammann University of Bern.“

Meldolesi, A. (2012) Destruction of transgenic olive field trial dubbed 'vandalism'. Nat Biotech, 30, 8, pp 736-736 Milan, 16 - 17 November 2012

http://www.ask-force.org/web/Fundamentalists/Meldolesi-Destruction-Transgenic-Olive-Field-Italy-2012.pdf

Tractor transformed into a tank, seized Wednesday April 2, 2014 from separatists from Casale di Scodososia, Venezia, Italy Denver Nicks (20140402), Italian Police: Venetian â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Terroristsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Planned Assault In Homemade Tank, in: TIME, pp. Time Magazines Europe Ltd (TMEL), http://time.com/47220/italyvenice-separatist-tank/ AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/Fundamentalists/DenverVenetian-Terrorists-Assault-Tank-TIME-20140404.pdf

Gómez-Galera, S., Twyman, R.M., Sparrow, P.A.C., Van Droogenbroeck, B., Custers, R., Capell, T., & Christou, P. (2012) Field trials and tribulations—making sense of the regulations for experimental field trials of transgenic crops in Europe. Plant Biotechnology Journal, 10, 5, pp 511-523 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7652.2012.00681.x AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/IP/Gomez-Galera-Field-Trials-Tribulatioins-2012.pdf

Forgot what we are protesting We are programmed in millions of years of evolution to be alarmed and act accordingly What helps: Constant framing And moral selflicensing

http://www.nearlygood.com/

Merritt, A.C., Effron, D.A., & Monin, B. (2010) Moral Self-Licensing: When Being Good Frees Us to Be Bad. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 5, pp 344-357 http://www.askforce.org/web/Fundamentalists/MerrittMoral-Self-Licensing-2010.pdf

They have lost the reasons De Kervasdoue Jean (2014), Ils ont perdu la raison (French Edition) edn. Robert Laffont (January 23, 2014), IS: ASIN: B00HWJHCMQ. pp. 225, http://www.amazon.com/Ils-perduraison-French-Editionebook/dp/B00HWJHCMQ/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1? ie=UTF8&qid=1396620882&sr=8-1fkmr1&keywords=Kervasdou%C3%A9+%E2%8 0%9CIls+ont+perdu+la+raison

A list of reasons and behavior for the anxiety of the population on GMOs 1. Moral self licensing, defence of the motherland 2. Power of protest and industrial corporates, conspiracy theories: Seed companies and revolving doors 3. Framing processes, including the Genomic Misconception 4. Tribal moral: Evolution strikes back: Survival instinct. 5. Science of Fear: Evil always fascinates, Goodness rarely entertains 6. Semiotic views about Nature: Leonardo da Vinci 7. Science, Ethics and Religion: Halal, Sharia, Vatican, Kosher Food, Amish Farmers 7. Professional discourse of the second Generation 8. Need for New World Visions

Urban Myth Genetic Engineering is fundamentally different from Natural Mutation Wrong: Natural Mutation and Transgenesis are identical on the molecular level Ammann, K. (20120706) Genomic Misconception: A fresh look at the biosafety of transgenic and conventional crops, a plea for a process agnostic regulation New Biotechnology, in press, pp 32 http://www.ask-force.org/web/NewBiotech/Genomic-Misconception-20120706-names-def.pdf

Radiation site for mutation breeding, Co-60 radioactivity source of 89 TBq in the center, Radius of 100m. Was muss man sich darunter vorstellen?

Gamma Field for Radiation Breeding

89 TBq represents the 140-fold of all Radioactivity of material stored in the German permanent storage site of Morsleben insgesamt eingelagerten Radioaktivit채t. In this radiation field a human being would receive 3 deadly Sievers units of radiation after the exposure times given below

60 min

3,5 min

FRANKENSTEIN

Durum Wheat, Triticum durum: all major breeds have gone though massive and inprecise radiation breeding, but with Important success unnecessary fearmongering

For the major crops, there is no indigenous original center of landraces existing

Map of history of movement of crops around the globe

Defense of the Motherland... Dubock, A.C. (2009) Crop conundrum. Nutrition Reviews, 67, 1, pp 17-20 <Go to ISI>://WOS:000261881200002 AND http://www.botanischergarten.ch/Golden-Rice/Dubock-Crop-Conundrum-2009.pdf

New flood of electronic journals With superficial peer review systems, worse: Predator Journals Knigel and GMO-Skepti-Forum (20140402), A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science, in: GMOSkepti-Forum, pp. SKEPTIFORUM, http://www.skeptiforum.org/arough-guide-to-spotting-badscience/#comment-16 AND http://www.askforce.org/web/Regulation/KnigelRough-Guide-Bad-Science-Table20140402.pdf

Knigel and GMO-SkeptiForum (20140402), A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science, in: GMO-SkeptiForum, pp. SKEPTIFORUM, http://www.skeptiforum.org /a-rough-guide-to-spottingbad-science/#comment-16 AND http://www.askforce.org/web/Regulation/K nigel-Rough-Guide-BadScience-Table-20140402.pdf

Interpretation of results

Comparative safety assessment New GM crop composition data

Statistically different from comparator? No

• • • • Yes

Yes

As safe as conventional

Compare with variability in: Comparator Conventional crop varieties with HOSU Literature values Databases •

OECD, USDA, NARO WHO, NRC, ILSI

Within range? No

If difference is biologically relevant, then • a logical scientific justification must be presented involving safety data, or • new safety data must be generated B. Price, ILSI CCW 2012; P. Brune, IFBiC/OECD workshop 2013

Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development The participants represented the following scientific disciplines: Theology, Philosophy, Law, Social Sciences, Development, Economy, Evolution, Ecology, Plant Sciences, Agronomy, Biotechnology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Biosafety, Food safety, Regulation.

All participants agreed that there is no unusual risk from GMOs, that regulation must be changed, and hat there is a moral imperative to make the technology available, as efficiently as possible, to the poor in developing countries. Potrykus, I. & Ammann, K., eds. (2010) Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of Development, Statement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vol. 27, open source, pp 445-717, M. Taussig, New Biotechnology Elsevier, Amsterdam, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/issue/43660-2010-999729994-2699796 AND on Vatican Website <http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_academies/acdscien/2010/newbiotechnologynov2010.pdf> AND on Host ASK-FORCE: http://www.askforce.org/web/Vatican-PAS-Studyweek-Elsevier-publ-20101130/Potrykus-Ammann-Conference-Volume-Newbiotechnology-2010.pdf Press release http://www.askforce.org/web/Vatican-PAS-Studyweek-Elsevier-publ-20101130/Press-Release-PAS-Studyweek-20101127.pdf

Pontifical Academy of Science, Vatican Bishop Marcelo Sanchez â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sorondo, Secretary Prof. Dr. Werner Arber, President Nobel Laureate 1978

Amish farmers in biotech-debate: subsequent partial adoption of transgenic crops: 1999, see: http://www.ifpri.org/2020conference/PDF/summary_ammann.pdf

This was 2000, one year after ‚proof-of-concept‘. Everybody expected Golden Rice to be with the farmers by 2002. It will be there by 2014. The ‚protesters‘ were a problem, but not a major one. There was, and is, one outstanding problem: GMO-regulation.

TIME Magazine, July 31, 2000

The consequences withholding Golden Rice Rice as major staple of 2.4 billion Most of the science is done does not contain any provitamin A. properly, despite of 400 million rice-depending poor suffer from vitamin A-deficiency. VAD impairs vision, epithelial integrity,immune response, haemopoiesis,skelettal growth, etc.

It is the major cause for 500 000 blind children and two million death per year.

Greenpeace stating the contrary

Sommer, A. & Vyas, K.S. (2012) A global clinical view on vitamin A and carotenoids. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 96, 5, pp 1204S-1206S http://www.ask-force.org/web/Golden-Rice/Sommer-GlobalClinical-View-VA-2012.pdf

Tang, G., Hu, Y., Yin, S.-a., Wang, Y., Dallal, G.E., Grusak, M.A., & Russell, R.M. (2012) Beta-Carotene in Golden Rice is as good as beta-carotene in oil at providing vitamin A to children. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, pp http://www.ask-force.org/web/Golden-Rice/Tang-Golden-Riceas-good-as-oil-2012.pdf Tang, G., Qin, J., Dolnikowski, G.G., Russell, R.M., & Grusak, M.A. (2009) Golden Rice is an effective source of vitamin A. Am J Clin Nutr, 89, 6, pp 1776-1783 http://www.ask-force.org/web/Golden-Rice/Tang-Golden-RiceEffective-Source-2009.pdf

Ingo Potrykus and Patrick Moore say this is a crime against humanity because they [Greenpeace] are preventing the curing of people who are dying by the hundreds of thousands every year due to vitamin A deficiency. Moore, P. & Batra, K. (20120216) Greenpeace Founder: Biotech Opposition is Crime Against Humanity. In Biotech Now, Farmer Gene. Bio http://www.ask-force.org/web/Golden-Rice/Moore-Golden-Rice-Crime-20120216.pdf

Genepeace, Not Greenpeace

We still have a lot to learn in Biology

Ni, P., R. C. Vaughan, B. Tragesser, H. Hoover and C. C. Kao (2014), The Plant Host Can Affect the Encapsidation of Brome Mosaic Virus (BMV) RNA: BMV Virions Are Surprisingly Heterogeneous, Journal of Molecular Biology, 426, 5, pp. 1061-1076, http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022283613005767 AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/Genomics/Ni-Plant-Host-Influences-Encapsidation-2014.pdf

Sustainability is often abused by fundamentalists as a conservative argument But actually the original definition of the Brundtland Report from Stockholm is full of dynamic arguments, a plea for development and new technologies

30. Yet

in the end, sustainable development is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change

in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development, and institutional change are made consistent with future as well as present needs. We do not pretend that the process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices have to be made. Thus, in the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will. Brundtland Gro Harlem NGO Committee on Education (198703 and 20080420), Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future Transmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Co-operation: Environment, No. pp. 318 orig. and 223, Oslo, Norway, http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-acr.htm AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/Sustainability/Brundtland-Report-Original-19870804.pdf AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/Sustainability/Brundtland-Our-Common-Future-1987-2008.pdf

A communications gap has kept environmental, population, and development assistance groups apart for too long, preventing us from being aware of our common interest and realizing our combined power. Fortunately, the gap is closing.

We now know that what unites us is vastly more important than what divides us. We recognize that poverty, environmental degradation, and population growth are inextricably related and that none of these fundamental problems can be successfully addressed in isolation. We will succeed or fail together. Arriving at a commonly accepted definition of 'sustainable developmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC; remains a challenge for all the actors in the development process. Brundtland Gro Harlem NGO Committee on Education (198703 and 20080420), Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common FutureTransmitted to the General Assembly as an Annex to document A/42/427 - Development and International Co-operation: Environment, No. pp. 318 orig. and 223, Oslo, Norway, http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-acr.htm AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/Sustainability/Brundtland-Report-Original-19870804.pdf AND http://www.ask-force.org/web/Sustainability/Brundtland-Our-Common-Future-1987-2008.pdf

All counter parties need to reshuffle their attitude by entering a more serious, professional discourse process of the second generation

1. respecting different kinds of knowledge scientific knowledge deontic knowledge traditional knowledge structural knowledge Instrumental knowledge

All counter parties need to go through the difficult process of discourse group building (including zero hypothesis)

2. Zero Hypothesis:

limit the periphery of the debate, allow for open end, active listening and realistic time lines. Allow as many counter parties (with a genuine interest) as the debate needs, but exclude fundamentalists only interested in preaching, and there should only people participate which are part of the problem Ammann Klaus (20131128), Draft: Systems Approach Second Generation for a debate on the future of Agriculture. Rules for a successful Discourse and long term iterative Planning-Design, in: ASK-FORCE 17, K. Ammann. AF-17, pp. 21, ASK-FORCE, Neuch창tel, http://www.ask-force.org/web/AF-17-Systems-Approach/Ammann-Systems-Approach-AF-17-20131128.pdf

If we couple universal education with the eradication of poverty and more, increasing afďŹ&#x201A;uence, we will, I believe, be doing the most promising thing as far as moral enhancement goes. Harris, J. (2013), MORAL PROGRESS AND MORAL ENHANCEMENT, Bioethics, 27, 5, pp. 285-290, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8519.2012.01965.x AND http://www.askforce.org/web/Ethics/Harris-Moral-Progress-Moral-Enhancement-2012.pdf

What do we need as visionaries: Progress or Development? This is my question today, as I deal with the topic of Bio-Visionaries here in the Library of Alexandria. I ask this question because I am convinced that we need to build a new culture of questioning. We need a culture orienting itself by authentic questions. If we cannot befriend these choice-questions with science, it will disengage from the questioners and will not be human science anymore. Thus we need a new humility of thinking – as it has been wonderfully defined by the

Dr. phil. Biljana Papazov Ammann Neuchâtel, Switzerland Biovision, Alexandria 2010

“The question is the devoutness of thinking.”

Yashina, S., S. Gubin, S. Maksimovich, A. Yashina, E. Gakhova and D. Gilichinsky (2012), Regeneration of whole fertile plants from 30,000-y-old fruit tissue buried in Siberian permafrost Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109, 10, pp. 40084013, http://www.pnas.org/content/109/10/4008.abstra ct AND http://www.askforce.org/web/Evolution/Yashina-Regenerationwhole-plant-Silene-Stenophylla-2012.pdf

30â&#x20AC;&#x2122;000 years old seeds of a Silene regenerated, from a Siberian permafrost cave