The Vatican did not endorse an
11-page final statement in favor of easing restrictions on and allowing
more widespread use of genetically modified crops, especially in poorer
nations, said a Vatican official.
"The statement is not a statement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
because the Pontifical Academy of Sciences as such -- 80 members --
wasn't consulted about it and will not be consulted about it," Bishop
Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, the academy's chancellor said.
The statement, which was recently made public by a private
science-publishing company in the Netherlands, also "has no value as the
magisterium of the church," he said in an e-mail response to questions
Dec. 1.
Later the same day, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican
spokesman, issued a similar communique, adding that the pro-GM statement
"cannot be considered an official position of the Holy See."
Some news agencies had mistakenly reported that the statement
represented the Vatican's endorsement of easing regulations on and
promoting the use of genetically modified food crops.
The Pontifical Academy of Science's headquarters hosted a study week in
May 2009 on "Transgenic Plants for Food Security in the Context of
Development."
The final statement summarized the week's proceedings and recommended
that genetic engineering techniques be freed from "excessive,
unscientific regulation" so that modern and predictable GM technologies
could be used to enhance nutrition and food production everywhere.
It called for greater cooperation among private corporations,
governments and nonprofit organizations with the aim of increasing
funding from governments and charities so that GM crops could be
"cost-free" for poorer regions.
It also encouraged more widespread use of sustainable and sound agricultural practices to help improve the lives of the poor.
The statement said its conclusions were "drafted and endorsed by all
participants of the study week," which included 33 outside experts and
only seven academy members, including the academy's chancellor, Bishop
Sanchez.
Bishop Sanchez told CNS that the final statement was signed by all of
the participants and "therefore it is a statement that has the authority
and value of the participants."
Most of the 40 participants were longtime supporters of using modified
crops for boosting food production and creating new sources of energy
from nonfood crops.
A number of participants have invented genetically modified foodstuffs
or work for companies that sell genetically modified seeds.
There also were at least four speakers who have ties to the U.S.
agribusiness giant Monsanto, which created a synthetic bovine growth
hormone to boost cow milk production as well as insect- and
herbicide-resistant seeds.
Bishop George Nkuo of Kumbo, Cameroon, attended the closed-door study
week with the idea that he would talk about a warning by African bishops
against claims that genetically modified crops would solve Africa's
food crises.
A working document for the Synod of Bishops for Africa released two
months before the meeting in 2009 said that using modified crops risks
"ruining small landholders, abolishing traditional methods of seeding
and making farmers dependent on the production companies" selling their
genetically modified seeds.
Those in charge of organizing and inviting speakers for the study week
were academy members Ingo Potrykus, who invented a genetic strain of
rice that is rich in beta carotene; Werner Arber, a 1978 Nobel Prize
winner in medicine; and Peter Raven, retired president of the Missouri
Botanical Garden, which is home to the Monsanto Center and its offices,
laboratories and millions of plant specimens.
"Finally, for the moment, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences is not
planning another meeting on this topic," Bishop Sanchez wrote to CNS.
The academy hosted talks in 2000 and 2004 on whether genetic
modification should play a role in promoting food security. After
co-hosting the 2004 meeting on modified foods with the U.S. Embassy to
the Vatican, the academy showed its support for the potential of
modified foods when it released a statement -- based on the conference
discussions -- that praised the important contributions such foods could
make in fighting hunger.
However, the Vatican has never taken a formal position supporting or opposing genetically modified foods.
Pope Benedict XVI has denounced the continued scandal of hunger in the
world, saying its root causes have more to do with problems of
distribution and sharing than with there not being enough food in the
world.
The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said earlier this year that
it was not a coincidence that in 2009 the use of genetically modified
food crops grew by 13 percent in developing countries and that GM crops
covered almost half of the world's total arable land. And yet "the
number of hungry people in the world has for the first time reached 1
billion people," the paper said.
SIC: CNS/INT'L
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