The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hosted an Expert Consultation on “Genetically Modified Organisms in Crop Production and Their Effects on the Environment: Methodologies for Monitoring and the Way Ahead” from 18 to 20 January in Rome. The main objective of the consultation was to review the scientific basis for, and procedures to establish, effective post-release monitoring of genetically modified (GM) crops and develop guidelines to strengthen member countries’ capacities to design and carry out monitoring programmes. The consultation was a follow-up to the earlier FAO Expert Consultation on “Environmental Effects of Genetically Modified Crops”1 which had recommended that the environmental effects of GM crops be assessed on a case-by-case basis and emphasized the emerging need to monitor possible medium- to long-term environmental impacts through adequate practical methodologies.
The meeting was a three-day event organized by the Plant Production and Protection Division (AGP) of FAO’s Agriculture Department. It was co-sponsored by the FAO Inter-departmental Working Groups (IDWG) on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture and on Biotechnology in Food and Agriculture. Seventeen experts from around the world were invited to participate in their personal capacity, including representation from the scientific community, international research centres, private sector and the civil society. A background paper on monitoring was prepared and distributed to all participants2.
The consultation was inaugurated by Louise O. Fresco, Assistant Director General of FAO’s Agriculture Department. She welcomed the participants and emphasized the Organization’s commitment to providing tools to assist countries in making their own informed choices on the matter, as well as protect the productivity and ecological integrity of farming systems. She urged the experts to consider the importance of networks and partnerships for practicability and cost-effectiveness, and to provide access to necessary information and enable its dissemination, should nations introduce post-release monitoring to address both foreseen and unforeseen impacts of GM crop production. She felt confident that FAO would be better positioned to assist member countries in making appropriate choices in this area from the recommendations received from the broad range of expertise assembled in this meeting.
The Director of AGP, Mahmoud Solh, stressed the need for evaluating current monitoring methodologies and procedures, identifying the common elements and constraints so that the Organization can provide guidance for strengthening member countries’ capacities to establish effective monitoring of GM crops, as appropriate. He emphasized the facilitator role of FAO in the development of a follow-up mechanism for monitoring medium- to long-term environmental effects of GM crop cultivation involving United Nations agencies, Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centres and other international and national centres.
Peter Kenmore, Chairperson of the IDWG on Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture, introduced the Provisional Agenda which was adopted unanimously. He briefly described the process proposed for the consultation. The first section would be devoted to presentations on current monitoring procedures, country experiences, large-scale experiments on monitoring GM crops and management of monitoring programmes. This would be followed by the two thematic group discussions where the experts would analyze proposals from the perspective of (a) countries with well-established risk assessment procedures and scientific infrastructure, and (b) countries that have more limited capacities. He emphasized that the scope of the consultation was post-release monitoring and hoped that effective guidelines and recommendations would be developed through the deliberations.
Thereafter, the chairperson of the sessions invited the speakers to present their papers, followed by general discussions. On the final day, the meeting was closed with the adoption of the preliminary meeting report and with the draft recommendations. The Final Agenda and List of Participants are included in Annex 1 and Annex 2, respectively. A special note from the experts is presented in Annex 3. The background paper and handouts of the presentations by invited speakers will be available separately.
1Report of the FAO Expert Consultation on “Environmental Effects of Genetically Modified Crops”, 2003. http://www.fao.org/docrep/pdf/field/006/ad690e/ad690e00.pdf
2 FAO Expert Consultation background paper: Challenges to the design and implementation of effective monitoring for GM crop impacts: lessons from conventional agriculture, P. Jepson, 2005 (unpublished).
