Food biotechnology consensus conference
Food biotechnology is a major technological innovation whose benefits and risks are the subject of heated controversy examined in the following consensus conference. In March 1999, a panel of citizens came together to discuss with a panel of experts matters they find important that will influence the direction of food biotechnology in Canada. The use of biotechnology is evolving for the agriculture and food system and many individuals and organizations want to find out how it will affect them and their families, the environment and society in general. Canada is a resource based economy therefore the issue of food biotechnology has remarkable effects to her economy.
In order for unbiased selection of the citizens panel at the consensus conference in Calgary, fifteen individuals from different social and economic spectrum of society were chosen by an advisory committee. There was an equal number representation of the sexes from a variety of educational and financial backgrounds as well as a wide range of ages. The citizens panel were from different walks of life and were better able to represent the general public.
The fifteen members were given background information on the issue, the information outlined the problem from various perspectives, such as, professional, ethical, and political, etc.. Next there was a preliminary meeting to discuss a list of questions to be presented to the experts in various fields during the conference. The experts were chosen by the citizen jury whom they felt could best address their concerns. The actual conference was when the group of citizens met with the experts and presented their key questions. Afterwards, the citizens conducted a discussion among themselves and came up with a final report highlighting their concerns and recommendations. The questions addressed at the consensus conference were broken up into six categories, they were: public interaction, ethics, legislation, environment, social and economic impacts, and consumer health and safety. Let=s examine them one at a time.
Public interaction
Some concerns that the panel had for public involvement in food biotechnology were: public participation may not exist in the future when it comes to important technological risk issues; information available to the public tend to be biased; new products are approved and the public is informed later; the final report from the panel has little or no effect to government officials. The panel recommended that: there be more public participation; an independent body should be responsible for collecting public opinions; public input should act as advice and recommendations to the ministers.
Ethics
Some concerns that the panel had for ethical issues regarding food biotechnology were: there currently exists no ethical guidelines with respect to this issue; animal welfare; and what limit can we put on gene modification? They suggested that there need to be a code of ethics to regulate the food biotechnology products and this code of ethics has to be developed from inputs from all stakeholders.
Legislation
As for legislation on genetically altered foods, the panel was well aware of the lack of a labelling law and that international trade of food biotechnology may compromise with other nations= cultures and ethics. Hence they recommended that there be an effective labelling policy and an international legislation on biosafety that must respect individual countries= cultures and ethics.
Environment
The concerns were that: the real longterm effects of genetically modified organisms are not certain; diversity of species could be at risk; pest resistance could result; cross breeding of genetically modified organisms has unpredictable risks. Finally the panel felt that there must be strict reviews on researches and more risk assessment processes.
Social and economic impacts
There are enormous economic gains in the industries related to food biotechnology, but there are social and ethical issues that need to be considered as well, this is a concern of the panel. They recommended that the government must put more efforts into monitoring the concentrated control of the food biotechnology industry as well as review patenting laws from this industry.
Consumer health and safety
In this area, it is clear that the concern of the panel is mainly the uncertainty of this new technology on human health in the future. They were aware that even the scientific community does not fully understand the implication of genetic manipulation. Their main recommendation is that the government must make efforts to educate the general public on the risks of genetically engineered foods.
My concerns and recommendations
As mentioned many times above, the citizen-based consensus conference allows regular citizens to voice their opinions on issues that has direct effects on them. The implementation of conferences such as this one shows that at least our government is making an effort to include the public in their decision-making process just as a democratic nation should. Those who took part in this process felt that they were much more knowledgeable about biotechnology than they were before. I think that this consensus conference was an excellent way to educate the public and hear what they had to say. It was also a way to build trust between experts and the people, for trust is the key to effective risk communication. According to William Leiss, we are now in the third phase of risk communication. In this phase, the public and private sector institutions recognize that they and the public must establish trust and effective communication to assess issues of technological risks.
Therefore, the practice of citizen-based consensus conference is part of the evolution of this phase. I=m not saying it is perfect but it is at least a step forward to amending the lack of trust. The downside to the consensus conference is that it is time consuming, costs too much, and the final recommendations from the panel of citizens has little to no effect to policy-makers. A similar process, which is much less expensive yet achieves the same goal in a shorter amount of time, is the citizen=s jury. Consensus conference deals with issues of greater scale than citizen=s jury, but the cost of the citizen=s jury is only a fraction of the cost of the consensus conference. Besides, the government could implement many citizen=s jury across the country to replace a grand scale consensus conference. Another important consideration for the government is the final report from the citizen panel. I find that it is ironic that so much efforts is put into organising such a conference in order to involve the public in decision making and yet in the end their recommendations are not incorporated into policy. The future of the risk communication will undoubtedly involve more of the public and who knows, we might come up with something better than a consensus conference.
Bibliography
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Leiss, William. 1996 AThree Phases in the Evolution of Risk Communication Practice,@ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. 545. May 1996. 85-94.
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Beck, Ulrich. 1998 APolitics of Risk Society,@ In Jane Franklin, ed. 1998. The Politics of Risk Society. Institute for Public Policy Research. 9-22.
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Einsiedel, Edna and Deborah Eastick. 2000. AConsensus Conference as Deliberate Democracy,@ Science Communication. 21/4, 323-343
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Medlock, Jennifer. AThe Citizen=s Jury.@ Guest speaker. June 10th, 2002.
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ADesigner Genes at the Dinner Table Consensus Conference.@ Internet resource. June 12th, 2002
Video clips available at: www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/Introconf01.ram
www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/legislation01.ram
www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/socialeconomic01.ram
www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/consumer01.ram
www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/environment01.ram
www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/public01.ram
www.ucalgary.ca/~rdowney/ethics01.ram
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ACanadian Citizens= Conference on Food Biotechnology Citizens= Final Report.@ Internet resource. June 12th, 2002. www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~pubconf/report.html
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ABiotechnology and the future of food Position of ADA.@ Internet resource. June 12th, 2002.
www.eatright.org/abiotechnology.html