Sir

On behalf of the Italian Society of Agricultural Genetics (SIGA), I wish to express our astonishment and concern over the televised statement and other reported comments made by Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, the Italian minister for agricultural and forestry policy, during the International Biotechnology Congress in Genoa on 23–26 May (Nature 405, 388; 2000).

Officials from his ministry were banned from taking part in the congress, despite having previously agreed to present their work on biosafety and on important progress that had been achieved in the ministry's own research institutes. Also, the minister has expressed his intention to ban controlled field experiments of genetically modified plants. In practice, this means a halt to research, whether in applied sectors or in biosafety.

SIGA totally supports the principle that scientific research programmes should undergo rigorous assessment of their objectives, techniques, applications and consequences for society and the environment. Nonetheless, technological innovation is bringing about numerous positive changes, generating increasingly wide-spread expectations and reactions. There is an uncertain future in store for countries whose state-funded research is under-resourced and inadequate.

SIGA's members (more than half of whom are under 35 years old) are well aware of their responsibilities as academic researchers in the service of the public good — they are not unthinking advocates of the biotechnology market. This is why we feel that the minister's televised invitation to Italian students and researchers to abandon agricultural biotechnology research and devote themselves to the medical sector “which at least saves human lives” is serious cause for concern.

Of course, no human undertaking is risk-free. An innovation is acceptable if its introduction does not prove hazardous by any known criteria. Hence SIGA requests the Italian government — in consultation with the National Commission for Biosafety and Biotechnology, scientific societies and academies, consumer associations, environmental organizations and businesses — to proceed with the application of due precautionary measures to test genetically modified plants in segregated areas, so that their impact on the health and well-being of humankind and the environment can be studied and monitored.

The relationship between science and society is an inescapable feature of the scientist's profession. Scientists have to question the social effects of their research and appreciate the need for clear communication. The possibility of distorted and hazardous use of new technologies threatens society and causes public mistrust.

On the other hand, scientific research advances the frontiers of knowledge, giving rise to innovations whose production, development and economic use may benefit society. Consequently, biotechnology must be assessed not only in terms of possible risks, but also for the benefits which it may afford in regard to human life and dignity, human rights and values, environmental protection and natural-resource conservation (especially biodiversity).

SIGA is committed to promoting study and research programmes in keeping with these wider goals of science, and to participate in public information programmes.