UK Environment Minister at Launch of Independent Science Panel

"This amounts to open scientific rebellion, possibly unprecedented in history," said Mae-Wan Ho, Director of the Institute of in Society, who initiated the move, and confessed to having been taken by surprise, and delighted, by the positive response of the scientists contacted.

Many scientists are frustrated at the lack of open public debate on a whole range of scientific and other issues. The ‘discussion meetings’ organised by the government are invariably stacked with pro-GM scientists hyping the potential benefits of GM, and giving the public bland assurances that "there is no evidence of harm".

But the move to set up an Independent Science Panel (ISP) was precipitated by the interview with Meacher, published in the March issue of The Ecologist, in which Meacher suggested that GM technology is not necessary to solve world hunger and could prove dangerous over the longer term, something that the scientists have been saying for years.

The twenty-five strong ISP on GM was officially launched 10 May in King’s College, London University, at a special public conference, GM Crops: Do We Need Them? Are they Safe? The launch coincided with the release of their much awaited draft report, The Case for a GM-Free Sustainable World , published on the ISIS website (www.i-sis.org.uk), which calls for banning GM crops to make way for all forms of sustainable agriculture.

Imagine their collective delight, when within days of the conference, Meacher’s office rang up to say that he would be attending the conference.

Meacher arrived punctually at on the day, full of smiles as usual; and was met at the door by an ad hoc welcoming committee of several ISP members.

Peter Saunders, Prof. of Applied Mathematics, King’s College, who chaired the conference, welcomed Meacher with the words: "One good thing the present Labour government has done was to appoint an environment minister who took the job seriously; and when they discovered that he actually took the job seriously, left him in the post."

Meacher addressed the conference, and made clear that the GM Science Review will not be making their final report until after the public debate, and welcomed the ISP’s input into the national GM debate. He hoped his presence at the launch would demonstrate that the government was keen to hear as many viewpoints as possible to inform policy-making, and stressed, "contributions from scientists of all shades of opinion are being included, in what is intended to be a fully participative process". He said, "I do believe that this launch today is an important development, and I look forward to its contribution to what needs to be a balanced, rigorous, thoughtful and comprehensive scientific debate…"

Meacher stayed for the next hour to hear the first two talks, by David Bellamy and Arpad Pusztai. As he left, Meacher said privately he was "very pleased" to have met and heard Pusztai, apparently, for the very first time. History is being made indeed, in more ways than one.

Read the rest of the article called 'Scientists Rebelling with A Cause' http://www.i-sis.org.uk/ISP.php