December, 2002

In a report released last week, France's Academy of Sciences announced its support for GM crops.
The report says that there is no evidence to date showing genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
pose potential health and environmental risks.

"All the criticisms against GMOs can be set aside based for the most part on strictly scientific
criteria," the report says, adding that "any generalization on the potential risks linked to GMOs is
impossible since scientific rigor can only proceed from a case by case analysis."

The Academy also called for the EU to end its moratorium on the approval and environmental release
of GMOs. The report said that with the implementation of the new regulations "there will be no
objective reason to continue the moratorium on market approval authorization of GMOs."

The Academy report centered on the role of fundamental research, the contributions of the
transgenic crops to agriculture, on the risks and the regulation, and the prospects offered to the
developing countries. The work also comprises a chapter intended to clarify the basic scientific
concepts on the matter.

In a related development, France's Academie de Médecine also called earlier for the European countries to lift the ban on GM crops, saying it saw no evidence that GM crops pose risks to humans, AFP reported. The academy said in a report that GM food had been grown and eaten for around a decade, especially in the United States, and "no particular health problem has been detected."

GM food could be a boon for countries with fast-growing populations and marginal and shrinking
farmland, the report added.

The website of the France Academy of Sciences is at www.academie-sciences.fr

The report by the French Academy of Sciences is at
http://www.academie-sciences.fr/publications/rapports/rapports_html/RST13.htm (in French).