GM FOOD - The European Union announces European Chair of the EU-US Biotechnology Consultative Forum

The establishment of the Consultative Forum was announced at the EU-US Summit on 31 May, in follow-up to a joint initiative by European Commission President, Romano Prodi, and US President, Bill Clinton. The purpose of the Forum, which will bring together twenty eminent independent experts from the EU and US and encompasses a wide spectrum of perspectives, is to discuss the broad range issues of concern in biotechnology in the European Union and United States. The Forum is to report its eventual assessment to EU and US leaders.

The twenty-member Consultative Forum has been mandated to reflect upon, discuss and assess the benefits and risks of modern biotechnology, including health, safety, economic development, food security and environmental aspects. The Forum will also address cross-cutting issues such as the role of science, the ethical dimension, consumer information, public perceptions, risk analysis and intellectual property rights.

The first meeting of the EU-US Forum is to be held in Brussels on 12 September 2000. At least three further face-to-face meetings will be held in Brussels and in Washington. The members of the Forum will carry out much of their work by email and internet discussion. Further information about the work of the Forum will be made available on the European Commission website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/external_relations/index_en.htm

The EU members of the Biotechnology Consultative Forum are as follows:

• (Chair) Ruud Lubbers, Prof., Professor for Globalisation and Sustainable Development at the Catholic University Brabant (Tilburg University) and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, also Chair of GLOBUS, Institute for Globalisation and Sustainable Development; President of World Wide Fund for Nature International; Chair of the Advisory Council on International Affairs (Dutch Government) and Chair of TNO Delft, (Applied) Technology Research Institute, Netherlands.
• Derek Burke, Prof., former Professor of Microbiology at Warwick University and retired Chair of UK Advisory Committee on Novel Foods; also ex-Vice Chancellor of University of Essex and former President of the Society of General Microbiology.
• Susan Davies, Principal Policy Adviser of the Consumers' Association, and formerly representative of Consumers International at Codex Alimentarius.
• Noëlle Lenoir, Chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and new Technology, European Union, member of the Advisory Council of the Institute of European and Comparative Law, University of Oxford and of the American Law Institute and a member of the French Constitutional Council.
• Dan Leskien, advisor to Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit on intellectual property rights and plant genetic resources in developing countries and permanent biotechnology advisor to Friends of the Earth.
• Måns Lönnroth, Ph.D., Managing Director of MISTRA, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research and former State Secretary at the Swedish Ministry of the Environment.
• Pedro Puigdoménech Rosell, Prof., research Professor at the department of molecular genetics, Instituto de Biologia Molecular de Barcelona, and Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology, Barcelona.
• Leonardo Santi, Prof., President of the Advanced Biotechnology Center, Genoa, and Chairman of the National Committee for Biosafety and Biotechnology, Presidency of Cabinet of Ministers Rome, also Director of the Department of Oncology, Biology and Genetics, Director of the Postgraduate School of Oncology and Director of the University School for Technicians in Biotechnology.
• Luis Vasconcelos e Souza, President of the Portuguese Associations of Maize Producers and Vice-President of the European Association of Maize Producers; also Portuguese Expert Representative on the Consultative Committee on Agriculture and Environment.
• Eduard Veltkamp, Prof., Senior Vice President, Business Research Foods, Unilever Research Laboratory Vlaardingen; also previously President and CEO of S&G Seeds BV and Vice President, Research&Technology Sandoz Seeds Basel.

The US members are:

• Norman Borlaug, Ph.D., currently Distinguished Professor of International Agriculture at Texas A&M University and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work on the "Green Revolution."
• Gordon Conway, Ph.D., President of the Rockefeller Foundation and a world-renowned agricultural ecologist.
• Rebecca J. Goldburg, Ph.D., Senior Scientist at Environmental Defense.
• Cutberto Garza, M.D., Ph.D., Vice Provost at Cornell University and Chair of the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies Institute of Medicine.
• Jennie Hunter-Cevera, Ph.D., President of the University of Maryland´s Biotechnology Institute.
• Terry Medley, J.D., Director of Regulatory and External Affairs for Dupont.
• Christopher Roland Somerville, Ph.D., Director of The Carnegie Institute´s Department of Plant Biology at Stanford University.
• Carol Tucker Foreman, Director of the Food Policy Institute of the Consumer Federation of America.
• Ryland Frederick Utlaut, farmer of corn, soybeans and wheat near Grand Pass, Missouri and past President of the National Corn Growers Association.
• LeRoy B. Walters, Ph.D., Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.