Vatican conference on GM crops criticised by Africa-based priests

Organisers of an international Vatican seminar on genetically modified foods came under fire on Apri 10, when two priests based in Africa said it should have included more Church members critical of the crops. The seminar, attended by experts from the US, Europe, Asia and Africa, was meant to help the Vatican decide whether genetically modified organisms will get its backing, a decision that could affect the views of millions of Catholics.

Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Vatican's Council for Justice and Peace said the seminar had shown GMOs "should not be abandoned, even if they still need a lot of cures".

Earlier, two Jesuit priests questioned the make-up of the seminar. "We are concerned that several voices of Church leaders around the world are not represented on these panels," they said. They said the assertion that GMO crops would lessen the problem of world hunger through increased productivity "is open to direct challenge."

The priests were Roland Lesseps, senior scientist at the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre in Lusaka, Zambia, and Peter Henriot, director of Lusaka's Jesuit Centre of Theological Reflection. Both Americans have worked in Africa for years. They pointed to recent statements by Church leaders in the Philippines, Brazil and South Africa, which they said had expressed "deep concerns based on practical experiences" and were not reflected at the seminar.

The two priests said the current design of commercially promoted GMOs was based on an industrial model of agriculture that favours large farms at the expense of family farms. They said it would "introduce a serious dependency of small-scale and mostly poor farmers on large multinational corporations for seeds and complementary necessities." They said there also was a risk that alternative agriculture, such as organic farming, would be severely limited.

Two speakers, including one from the environment group Greenpeace, said the gathering was biased with scientists who favour GMOs. Vatican organisers and scientists rejected such assertions. Organisers said all sides would be taken into consideration when the Vatican position was eventually formulated.

EOEarth