Agriculture and Genetically Modified Foods Panel

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Contents 1 Panel Notes 2 Panel Description 3 Speakers 4 Resources & Links

Panel Notes

Panel Description

Agriculture, which traditionally has been regarded as a complex area of economic, cultural and political activity, is changing rapidly. Agricultural innovation, which for most of the Twentieth Century has been promoted and funded by governments through state-sponsored research and development, comprehensive subsidies and protectionist IPR regimes, is now increasingly left to market forces and to the private sector. Genetically Modified Crops (GMCs), the latest advance in agricultural technology, are at the heart of this transition. While in the eyes of proponents GMCs hold great potential for addressing the food (in)security problem, as well as nutritional deficiencies and environmental impacts, the opponents push back and see mainly hazards that necessitate a cautionary approach. In the end both the use and regulation of GMCs remains highly controversial. To complicate things more, a nexus of international treaties and agreements governs GMCs. As nations struggle to address GMC-related issues within their own particular economic, social and political contexts, they are increasingly constrained by norms and regulations established in international fora (e.g. the WTO/TRIPS, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the new 'International Seed Treaty' amongst others). This panel will attempt to understand strategies employed by states and interest-groups concerned with the regulation of GMCs and how they are related to the transformations in the agricultural sector. Special focus will be given to the tensions that arise between domestic and international regulatory environments, and between private and public agricultural innovation.

Questions before this panel may include: - Can the precautionary principle established in the CBD be reconciled with the free-trade principles established and enforced by the WTO? - What degree of weight should public health and environmental concerns be given in WTO dispute resolution processes concerning GMCs? - Does the right to informed consumer choice exist in international law? - Is labeling the best way to ensure this right? - Is effective labeling even possible? - Is labeling a national security issue? - To what degree should consumer and farmer's rights be considered in WTO dispute resolution processes concerning GMCs? - How much influence do consumer/farmer/environmental groups have on domestic and international policy regarding GMCs? - How much influence do large agro-industrial companies have? - How can innovation and the distribution of the benefits of GMCs be maximized, while still safe-guarding cultural, political and environmental concerns? - Who is liable for unintentional spread of GMCs? Under what legal principle? - What duties do ag-biotech companies have to the public? To farmers?

Speakers

Speakers: Robert Paarlberg, Elenita Dano, Richard Jefferson, Jeremy deBeer, Johanna Gibson

Moderator: Robert Evenson

Resources & Links

Patenting Lives

BiOS

Jeremy deBeer

Robert Paarlberg

Third World Network