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Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
ISSN: 0717-3458
Vol. 5, Num. 1, 2002
EJB Electronic Journal of Biotechnology - Editorial

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 5, No. 1, April, 2002

Editorial

International Biotechnology: Diplomacy, Policy and Statesmanship

Edgar J. DaSilva

International Scientific Council for Island Development (INSULA), c/o UNESCO House, 1 rue Miollis Paris 75015, France
mailto:e.dasilva@wanadoo.fr

Code Number: ej02001

The practice of biotechnology varies worldwide in style, scale and substance. Moreover, the practice of the traditional and modern biotechnologies reveals shared histories with specific peoples and cultures. The various types of biotechnology encountered in different regions vary, in range, from the traditional panary and wine fermentations to the bio-industrial production of amino acids and antibiotics, and more recently, to the modern-day development of bio-pharmaceuticals and gene pharming. The industrialized countries, engaged in frontier-area research in the agricultural, environmental, legal and socio-ethical aspects of biotechnology, are encountered at one end of the global spectrum of biotechnology. At the other end of the arc are to be found the group of the least developed and small island countries. These economically disadvantaged countries draw upon traditional knowledge to manage and preserve their environments and to meet, to the extent possible, the food and health requirements of their peoples. Between these two groups four other broad clusters of countries occur. These are the arid land developing countries that are endowed with a natural resource of high export significance ---oil; the developing countries that are in transition to development and market-oriented economies; the advancing developing countries that are characterized with proven scientific infrastructure, peer-reviewed research and outputs such as technical publications, patents, and established protocols of governance and policy in private and public sector biotech; and the advanced developing countries generally  accepted worldwide as the newly industrialized countries, and which have proven bioindustrial capability and new market economies.

Biotechnology, in and amongst these groups, is the common thread that holds together the skeins of their participation in the fabric of regional and international co-operation in research in the life sciences that focuses on improving the quality of life of all living systems, and seeding economic and technological development.  The promise of biotechnology is inherent in its potential use in combating world hunger; in eradicating poverty; in curbing the spread of communicable and infectious diseases; in managing the environment; in conserving human resources; and in sustaining development.  However, in recent years, the threat of biowarfare, bioterrorism and fears concerning the use of genetically modified food are some of the issues that point to a dark side of biotechnology. Hence the need for diplomatic considerations and policy initiatives in counteracting the misuse of biotechnological research. Illegal and unethical use of pathogenic organisms in anticrop warfare, biological warfare, and bioterrorism tend to put biotechnology in the dock in the public mind, and thus minimize its numerous beneficial applications for human welfare. The debate concerning GMOS and GM foods continues to be emotional and fierce notwithstanding that “experts say that the practice of agricultural biotechnology is a critical element in developing nations and in providing food for a growing population”. The outbreak of war, in the mid-1990s, between two neighboring countries in the Horn of Africa, as conveyed in a press story, was due to the bite of a mosquito. Regarding HIV/AIDS, a number of countries around the globe have introduced HIV guidelines and testing requirements for entry and acquisition of long-term residency permits. Other countries have declared HIV/AIDS as a threat to national security.

Biotechnology like information technology permeates through all cultures and disciplines. It reflects a confluence of the fundamental and engineering sciences with scope for impact-making research. Truly today, “writing computer programs and revealing genetic codes have replaced the search for gold, the conquest of land and the command of machinery as the path to economic power”. In such a climate that fuels technical advancement, diplomacy and statesmanship are necessary to sound the alarms of ethical intervention, to provide for economic aspiration, and to promote and fund scientific inspiration (Box 1). The statesmanship of scientists and their contributions to the emergence and growth of diplomacy and international co-operation in biotechnology has been vividly captured in the well-known classics --- The Microbe Hunters; Three Centuries of Microbiology; The Art of Scientific Investigation, and more recently in the Eighth Day of Creation. Raymond B. Fosdick, former Undersecretary of the League of Nations, and President of the Rockefeller Foundation captured the spirit of sharing the benefits of biotechnology and perhaps of UN and other international programs yet to come in his remarks made in 1940, namely: “An American soldier wounded on a battlefield in the Far East owes his life to the Japanese scientist Shibasaburo Kitasato who isolated the bacillus of tetanus; a Russian soldier saved by a blood transfusion is indebted to Karl Landsteiner, an Austrian. A German soldier is shielded from typhoid fever with the help of a Russian, Elie Metchnikoff. A Dutch marine in the East Indies is protected from malaria because of the experiments of an Italian, Giovanni Grassi. While a British aviator in North Africa escapes death from a surgical infection because of a French man, Louis Pasteur.

In peace as in war, we are all of us beneficiaries of contributions to knowledge made by every nation in the world. Our children are guarded from diphtheria by what Japanese and a German did. They’re protected from smallpox by an Englishman’s work. They are saved from rabies because of a Frenchman and are cured of pellagra through the research of an Austrian. From birth to death they are surrounded by an invisible host, the spirits of men who never thought in terms of flags or boundaries and who never served a lesser loyalty than the welfare of mankind. The best that any individual or group has produced anywhere in the world has always been to serve the race of man regardless of nation or color.” These words, true then, hold true today when one analyses the wide range of beneficial applications of biotech practice around the globe.

The promise and potential of biotechnology have always beckoned. Julian Huxley foresaw the importance of the science of biotechnology in 1936, a decade before he became the Director- General of UNESCO. Biotechnology, since the release of the (Lord Alfred) Spinks at the start of the 1980s biotechnology has been high on the international agenda of international concerns and co-operation. Attention has been given to the founding of intergovernmental regional and international centers of excellence and of networks specializing in molecular biology, genetic engineering and the rational use of microbial resources. This is natural on account of the global spread, practice and impact of biotechnology in the cultural, scientific, social and environmental spheres of human activity. The “banana wars” in trade and the implantation of GM crops in Europe have tended to cloud if not strain transatlantic relationships.  Globally, millions have benefited from approved biotechnological food and health products, and vaccines. Agricultural biotechnology has acquired a new face on account of innovative genetic engineering, which has reduced the need for and dependence on petroleum-derived products. Management of the environment is being secured in the developed and developing worlds through bioremediation, and, through the development and use of clean and green energy technologies. Notwithstanding the indisputable fact that research in the frontier areas of high-tech biotech research is being carried out in the technically-advanced countries, it is an accepted and encouraging fact that the latent biotech potential and promise in several developing countries, worldwide, is being tapped and being converted into reality. Contract research with numerous biotech ventures based in the industrialized countries indicates that investment in capacity building is yielding the much-needed cadres of skilled manpower in several regions of the developing world. Biotechnology has become an employer on the world scene with some millions of jobs having been created. The availability and application of political statesmanship contribute to sustainability of the participation of countries desiring international co-operation in biotechnology worldwide. Diplomatic commitment, insight, and at times policy, draw upon the rich sources of several diverse cultures to help articulate biotechnological governance for the benefit of all countries.

The interaction between biotech, diplomacy and statesmanship involves a mix of different stakeholders as has been evident from a number of international meetings dealing with international and regional policy and governance of biotech issues ranging from biodiversity, intellectual property rights, trade in biotechnological products, to control of infectious disease, environmental management, food safety and biosecurity. Biodiplomacy and biopolitics are closely linked with the dialogue concerning biotechnology which can be gauged from the chorus of opinions and views coming from the private sector, governmental and non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, public human welfare agencies and charities, vibrant scientific communities and a watchful press.

Indeed, this intermix of cultural inputs, diplomatic viewpoints and biotech assets is necessary and relevant for the emergence of sound policy formulation, enunciation of international and national guidelines, legal governance, best practices, codes of conduct and their enactment. In the coming decades, as biotechnology takes its rightful place along with its other two concomitant impacting technologies, namely the information and nanotechnologies, there will always be a need for regional and international initiatives concerning policy, diplomacy and statesmanship.

Box 1. Diplomacy and statesmanship in biotechnology

Year

Personality

Observation/Speech extract

Notes

1964

Jackson W. Foster

- There is an enormous gulf between industrial nations, with their advanced microbiological technology, and other nations of the world where it is almost totally lacking. If we could extend to other areas even a small fraction of the microbiological regulation we perform today, we could bring about something that could be likened to a diplomatic coup of major magnitude. The humanitarian and social consequences of such an achievement are immense. Countries could produce for themselves microbiologically a number of food, medicinal, agricultural and industrial products which now either must be imported or done without altogether. Foreign exchange could be conserved for other essentials. The indirect benefits accruing from the establishment of any new manufacturing en enterprise are well known --- the spawning of subsidiary industries and services which, however small, derive their justification from the primary process.

Secretary, UNESCO/International Cell Research Organisation (ICRO) Panel on microbiology; from Technological Carte Blanche, Microbes in Diplomacy in: The Graduate Journal, Vol. 6, 1964, pp. 322 – 332.

1967

Sir Harold Hartley

- The national importance of the development of industrial microbiology is so great that it deserves the attention of the Minister of Technology who now carries responsibility for the welfare of the science-based industries of this country and for supporting new developments of the growth industries of the future, among which biochemical engineering must take a high place...Successful development... must take place at universities in order to attract and train the young men and women who will be needed in these industries in the future. We have the ability and the enthusiasts if they are given support on an adequate scale for the complex operations involved. What we need now are two or three strong centers of teaching and research directed specifically to industrial microbiology in order to safeguard the future of these industries in this country. Now is the time to retrieve the position that has been allowed to slip.

President, British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS)-1950; and Institute of Chemical Engineers (1951, 1954) – in Process Biochemistry, Vol. 2, p. 3 and cited in "The Changing Scene in Microbiology Technology", Society for General Microbiology Symposium Volume 29, eds. A. Bull, D. Ellwood and C. Ratledge, 1979

1982

Indira Gandhi

- Know more about the physiology of reproduction to make family planning effective (and) understand the chemistry of soils, methods of water conservation, and the genetics of plant species, which improve yield under adverse conditions

Prime Minister, the Republic of India; in presentation on The Role of Science and Technology in Global Affairs to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC.

1996

Al Gore

- Emerging Infections Threaten National and Global Security.

Vice-President, USA; Forum Article in ASM News, Vol. 62: 448 –449

1997

1998

Jimmy Carter

- Responsible biotechnology is not the enemy; starvation is. Without adequate food supplies at affordable prices, we cannot expect world health or peace

Former President, USA, Chairman Carter Foundation; Washington Times, 11 July.

- If imports [of GMO seeds] ... are regulated unnecessarily, the real losers will be the developing nations. Instead of reaping the benefits of decades of discovery and research, people from Africa and Southeast Asia will remain prisoners of outdated technology. Their countries could suffer greatly for years to come. It is crucial that they reject the propaganda of extremist groups before it is too late.The New York Times, 26 August.

1997

Jacques Chirac

- Plaide en faveur de la recherché sur les maladies infectieuses.

President, The French Republic; in Le Monde, 17 December.

1999

Madeleine Albright

- Announces major US initiative to combat HIV/AIDS identified as a major threat to US national security.

Secretary of State, USA.

2000

Cynthia P. Schneider

- Developments in biotechnology and the life sciences pose critical issues today in the relationship between Europe and America, and between the developed and developing worlds.

US Ambassador to the Kingdom of the Netherlands; Introduction – Biotechnology: The Science and the Impact in The Journal of Biolaw and Business, Special Supplement 2000, pp. 5-7.

 

Bill Clinton and Tony Blair

- Progressing ahead of schedule, human genome research is rapidly advancing our understanding of the causes of human disease and will serve as the foundation for development of a new generation of effective treatments, preventions, and cures.

- We applaud the decision by scientists working on the Human Genome Project to release raw fundamental information about the human DNA sequence and its variants rapidly into the public domain, and we commend other scientists around the world to adopt this policy.

- Joint statement by President Clinton, USA and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 14 March.

 

Madeleine Albright

- From microbes to missiles, the threats we face could come from almost anywhere on earth. International cooperation is essential to respond to such challenges.

Secretary of State, USA; Excerpt from Remarks to American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 February

 

 

- Neither politics nor protectionism should deny the world's consumers the right to benefit from technological breakthroughs in the production of food.In: Fact Sheet - Healthy Harvests: Growth Through Biotechnology, United States Department of State, 21 March.
 

Philippe Busquin

- The life sciences represent a revolution in our way of thinking in the European Union. They encompass the scientific, the economic and the ethical.

The European Commissioner for Research; In his announced decision to appoint biotechnology high level group as expert advisers; 3 May.

 

G8 leaders

- We have committed substantial resources to fighting infectious and parasitic diseases. As a result, together with the international community, we have successfully arrived at the final stage of polio and guinea worm eradication, and have begun to control onchocerciasis.

Item 27

- But we must go much further and we believe that the conditions are right for a step change in international health outcomes.Item28
- We have widespread agreement on what the priority diseases are and basic technologies to tackle much of the health burden are in place. In addition there is growing political leadership and recognition in the most afflicted countries that health is central to economic development.Item 55
- We are committed to continued efforts to make systems responsive to the growing public awareness of food safety issues, the potential risks associated with food, the accelerating pace of developments in biotechnology, and the increasing cross-border movement of food and agricultural products.

in G8 COMMUNIQUÉ OKINAWA 2000
Okinawa, 23 July

 

Hasan Adamu

- Millions of Africans--far too many of them children--are suffering from malnutrition and hunger. Agricultural biotechnology offers a way to stop the suffering...To deny desperate, hungry people the means to control their futures by presuming to know what is best for them is not only paternalistic, but morally wrong.

Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development, the Federal Republic of Nigeria; in the Washington Post Commentary, 11 September

 

Vladimir Putin

- Calls for strengthening commodities structure of Indo-Russian trade agreement, and indicates food products, and pharmaceuticals, amongst others, as areas where Russia was interested in forging a closer relationship.

- Identifies biotechnology and genetics as the key areas where tremendous scope for bilateral trade was present.

President, Russian Federation; remarks to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, cited in CII News,  Economic Bureau, 6 October.

 

Fernando Henrique Cardoso

- The Union, the States, and the Municipalities will have at their disposal a major data bank for the formulation of policies bearing on forest and soil use, biotechnology, farming and livestock management, river and land transport, ecotourism, and agrarian settlement, not to mention the demarcation and protection of Indian land.

President, the Federative Republic of  Brazil; in address, opening session Fourth Conference of Defense Ministers of Americas, Manaus, October 17; in http://www.mre.gov.br/projeto/mreweb/ingles/discursos/pr-manaus1017-i.htm

 

Pope John Paul II

- Follow in the footsteps of your best tradition, opening yourselves to all the developments of the technological era, but jealously safeguarding the perennial values that characterize you. This is also the way to give a hope-filled future to the world of agriculture.

Address of John Paul II on the occasion of the "Thanksgiving Day" promoted in Italy by the Confederation of Farmers within the framework of the Jubilee of the Agricultural World. 11 November cited from: http://www.nettspeed.au/ttguy/popesnov11_speech2.htm

-The culture of the farming world has always been marked by a sense of impending risk to the harvest, due to unforeseeable climatic misfortunes. However, in addition to the traditional burdens, there are often others due to human carelessness. Agricultural activity in our era has had to reckon with the consequences of industrialization and the sometimes disorderly development of urban areas, with the phenomenon of air pollution and ecological disruption, with the dumping of toxic waste and deforestation. Christians, while always trusting in the help of Providence, must make responsible efforts to ensure that the value of the earth is respected and promoted.

Agricultural work should be better and better organized and supported by social measures that fully reward the toil it involves and the truly great usefulness that characterizes it. If the world of the most refined technology is not reconciled with the simple language of nature in a healthy balance, human life will face ever-greater risks, of which we are already seeing the first disturbing signs.

Address of John Paul II to the National Farmers' Confederation, other farmers' organizations, members of the bakers' federations, of the food and agro-industrial cooperatives and of the Forest Union of Italy within the framework of the Jubilee of the Agricultural World. 12 November, cited from: http://www.nettspeed.au/ttguy/popesnov12_speech2.htm
 

Jiang Zemin

- Swift development of new and high technologies with information technology and biotechnology at the core is brewing a new industrial revolution.

President, The People’s Republic of China; in address to the Eighth Informal Leadership Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, November 16.

 

Tony Blair

- Told scientists, investors and industry executives that biotechnology could be to the 21st century what computers were to the last 50 years.

- Biotechnology is the next wave of the knowledge economy and I want Britain to become its European hub.

Prime Minister, U.K., Cited from Blair Promotes Biotech Industry, in Guardian Unlimited, 17 November.

2001

Daniel Arap Moi

- Today, the international community is on the verge of the biotechnology revolution which Africa cannot afford to miss... Africa risks a biotechnology gap if we fail to participate in this project, just in the same way that concern has been expressed about the digital gap in information technology, without which deliberate intervention may result in a further marginalization of our continent. I am therefore specifically requesting that support and co-operation of your government and private foundations to help us to respond to the challenge of closing the biotechnology gap.

President, the Republic of Kenya; in letter of 21 August, 2000, to then President Clinton, USA, concerning provision of new GM foods, cited in Environment and Climate News, February 2001.

 

Muhammad Hosni Mubarak

-Negotiations involve “balancing between the interests of developing, advanced, net food-importing and net food -exporting countries, balancing between trade liberalization in agricultural commodities, on the one hand and the protection of small farmers and the fulfillment of food security on the other. Difficulties facing agricultural exports to developing countries in accessing markets as well as those confronting those countries in acquiring high agricultural technologies. All this must be carried out within a supportive framework for sustainable development, environmental and human health protection, particularly as diseases have become more dangerous and more easily communicable.”

- Our strategy for the coming phase focuses on rationalizing the use of irrigation water, protecting environment, supporting agricultural institutions in the fields of researches, especially in biotechnology, genetic engineering, extension services, marketing and agricultural cooperation, as well as supporting women’s role and the activities of non-governmental institutions in agricultural development.

President, the Arab Republic of Egypt; in keynote address to 24th Governing Council session of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised United Nations agency. 20 February; (cited in Release No. IFAD/GC/04)

 

Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) leaders

- Confirm their support for the development of biotechnology to help feed growing populations and its safe use based on sound science. Biotechnology can help developing economies increase crop yields, while using fewer pesticides and less water than conventional methods.

Fact Sheet: U.S. Promotes Biotechnology in APEC, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary (Shanghai, People's Republic of China), 21 October.

 

Sir William Stewart

- I am concerned about the way over the years our national infrastructure and our international standing in microbiology has been allowed to deteriorate.

Former Scientific Advisor to Mr. John Major, Prime Minister, and his Cabinet of Ministers, U.K.; President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Cited in Magnus Linklater’s column, The Time, UK, 25 October, 2001.

 

K.Y. Amoako

- Africa must be part of the global future of science-based progress. Our most basic economic task is to sustain food security, possible only by bringing science to agriculture. Africa has not really benefited from the Green Revolution. So we may have to leapfrog that revolution—for ecological and economic reasons—and embrace the next agricultural revolution, the Biotechnology Revolution. We need a massive scaling up of poverty-focused public sector genetic research. We need strong and open debate on safeguards, to gain public support for the results of research. And because development in Africa has so far failed to embrace modern science to solve African problems, we need to establish—or re-establish—regional centres of excellence for science and technology research.

Executive Secretary of Economic Commission for Africa. In Millennium Lecture Fulfilling Africa’s Promise, 10 Downing Street, London, 17 December.

2002

Atal Behari Vajpayee

- Calls for “responsible” advance of biotechnology which does not expose our ecology and society to major risks.

- We need a responsive and regulatory enforcement mechanism, which brings together researchers, policy makers, NGOs, progressive farmers and the government to help ensure that the benefits of biotechnology reaches all our people quickly.

- The new responsible biotechnology, must take care to avoid a genetic divide.

Prime Minister, The Republic of  India; in Inaugural Address, 89th Session of the Indian Science Congress, Lucknow, 3 January.

Supported by UNESCO / MIRCEN network 

© 2002 by Universidad Católica de Valparaíso -- Chile

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