paris

A French lay panel has delivered a mixed verdict on the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It concluded that more research is needed before the risks can be properly assessed, and that greater public monitoring is required to ensure that government policy on GMOs is not unduly influenced by economic interests.

This was the outcome of France's first ‘consensus conference’ or conférence de citoyens, organized in Paris two weeks ago along the lines of the model invented in Scandinavia and since applied in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

The ‘jury’ of 14 lay people, screened for independence from interested parties such as environmental pressure groups or food-based industrial organizations, were coached on the subject in advance. During the conference, GMO-related issues were debated in front of them by scientists, non-governmental organizations, industrialists and other bodies.

In its report, the jury acknowledged that GMOs have potential benefits in medicine, and supported greater research in this area. But it also argued that research into the ecological risks of GMOs is inadequate and requires a substantial new impetus.

In particular, the panel recommended that such research should be carried out by national research agencies. “The power of public research bodies is probably the best guarantee of independence with respect to private sector research and the influence of multinationals,” it said.

It called for an improvements in both the composition and the procedures of the Commission de Génie Moléculaire, the body that advises the government on approving GMOs. In the meantime, several members of the jury felt that a moratorium of the use of GMOs would be appropriate.

The dominance of multinational firms was identified as a major concern. The jury argued that this risked leaving farmers dependent on the decisions of a few large monopolies. But it thought GMOs might improve the international competitiveness of France's agricultural produce.

Commenting in the newspaper Le Figaro on the outcome of this first consensus conference, Claude Allègre, the minister for national education, research and technology, said there was a need for “a happy medium between the competence of the aristocracy and the dictatorship of ignorance”. But he argued that, although caution was warranted, too much analysis could lead to paralysis. “If we had held meetings in the factories to know whether or not this or that was risky, plastic would never have been invented,” he said.

The conference is widely seen as part of an effort by the government to ensure greater public consultation on technological choices, since trust in expert committees has been shaken by the recent crises over BSE and contaminated blood.

GMOs are a hot potato for socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin's government, which has provisionally authorized the cultivation of transgenic maize. The Greens, France's main ecological party, form part of his government, but agriculture is one of the largest sectors in the French economy, and those who work in the countryside are an influential block of voters.