DFG and DLG: Memorandum on crop biotechnology

Nobel Laureate Nüsslein-Volhard: "The ban on cultivating Bt maize sends an alarming signal."

(13 May 2009) In a joint memorandum, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and German Agricultural Society (Deutsche Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft, DLG) are demanding reliable conditions for research and development in the area of genetically modified plants. At a press conference in Berlin the presidents of the two organisations complained of a hostile climate to plant biotechnology and argued emphatically in favour of freedom of research and field trials.

Prof. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard: Nobel Laureate and Director of the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen. "Research is international. Restrictions here in Germany do not prevent worldwide progress; they just shut German researchers and plant breeders out of the international competition."

Prof. Mathias Kleiner, President of the DFG (German Research Foundation): "It is paradoxical that field trials connected with biosafety research, of all things, are being destroyed and the scientists responsible are being publicly vilified."

Carl-Albrecht Bartmer, President of the DLG (German Agricultural Society): "Shortages on the global markets are foreseeable, so we have a clear responsibility to use progress and innovation, and to promote research. Plant breeders rely on the whole range of tools, from classic breeding to crop biotechnology."

Dr Arend Oetker, President of Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft, Germany’s science innovation agency: "Crop biotechnology is a complex science and the background cannot easily be explained to a broad public. In the public debate, objective, rational arguments are frequently countered with statements that are charged with emotions and designed to fuel fears."

The ban on cultivating MON810 and the restrictions on field trials sent "a really alarming and hostile signal," according to Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, a biotechnologist and developmental biologist based in Tübingen, who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1995.

The scientist criticised the bans issued by politicians, saying that they were based on unrealistic tests. In contrast, there were numerous studies that had received funding from the EU, the DFG and Germany’s Ministry of Research (BMBF) that had not found any risk to humans or nature from genetically modified Bt maize. If such politically motivated obstructions continued, she feared that many innovative researchers would turn their backs on Germany.

In Nüsslein-Volhard’s view, the current situation with crop biotechnology is reminiscent of that of medical biotechnology 25 years ago. Many researchers left Germany and pharmaceutical companies moved jobs abroad in the early phase of medical (’red’) biotechnology following political decisions. "People have now seen sense when it comes to the application of biotechnology in medicine. But instead of learning from past mistakes, they are repeating them."

Nüsslein-Volhard and the other participants at the press conference cited the global challenges facing agriculture and plant breeding worldwide. The world population is still growing. So it is vital, according to DLG President Carl-Albrecht Bartmer, to "increase productivity in crop farming, since the area of fertile farmland available worldwide can be increased only slightly". In addition, biomass consumption as a source of environmentally friendly energy and industry’s increasing demand for new renewable materials were likely to lead to a shortage of agricultural produce on international markets.

One way of achieving a sustainable increase in crop productivity, according to the memorandum, is "plant-breeding advances in agricultural crops. Alongside classic plant-breeding methods, modern plant biotechnology instruments offer great potential for a sustainable productivity increase. So we cannot afford to abandon research in the area of crop biotechnology."

"In order to exploit the genetic potential of our crops further," expanded DFG President Matthias Kleinert, "what we need above all is fundamental research that is allowed to make use of the whole repertoire of modern breeding methods – not only in the lab, but also in the field. Field experiments are vital for seeing how plants behave under realistic conditions."

The memorandum lists three key requirements for ensuring that crop biotechnology research continues to be possible in Germany:

"Research needs a dependable legal and social framework. Political decisions and legal principles should be based on scientific benefit/risk assessments.
All research needs an open, supportive yet constructively critical social climate to promote inventiveness and to be able to face future challenges. This should apply to crop biotechnology research as well.
Plant research cannot be restricted to laboratories and greenhouses. This applies both to fundamental research and to applied research. It is only under natural conditions in the field that one can assess whether new products are safe and competitive. Even very basic plant processes can be understood only if laboratory and greenhouse results are tested for relevance in the natural environment."