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ISIS Report 04/12/07
Urgent Action Needed Against Pro-GM Abuse of Science and Scientist
When ISIS organised its
briefing at European Parliament in June (Scientists
and MEPs for a GM free Europe, SiS 35),
we already knew that one of our speakers, Irina Ermakova, has had her funding
withdrawn because the results of her experiments (GM Soya Fed Rats: Stunted,
Dead, or Sterile, SiS 33) challenged the claims of the biotech industry that GM food is safe.
She has since been the victim of a scandalous attempt to discredit her work
by the mainstream journal, Nature Biotechnology
(Science and Scientist
Abused, SiS 36).
We
have now learned that a second member of our panel of scientists, Christian
Vélot, has lost his funding.
There is a committee of support for Vélot and they have organised a petition
that has already attracted 6000 signatures. You can sign it on line by going
to http://sciencescitoyennes.org/spip.php?article1638
Please sign the petition
and send the link to your friends. The biotech industry is working very hard
to suppress independent science and
scientists; we must do all we can to fight it.
A list of the members of the committee is available at http://sciencescitoyennes.org/IMG/pdf/CSvelot3.pdf
Translation of the petition:
Christian Vélot is a lecturer
and researcher in molecular genetics at the Université Paris-Sud. Since 2002
he has led a research group in the Institute
of Genetics
and Microbiology (a joint CNRS-University institute) at the Orsay Scientific
Centre. In addition to carrying out his teaching and research, he has devoted
some of his own time to meetings on GMOs. These meetings, one of which in
particular served as a working document for the GMO activists at the Grenelle
de l'Environnement [a series of meetings in October 2007 in which representatives
from government, professional associations and NGOs discussed environmental
issues].
He has frequently appeared
as a witness in the trials of people charged with destroying GM crops. Christian
Vélot has been one of those who have been calling attention to the risks and
promoting democratic debate on an issue which is largely concealed from the
public. As a result, his Institute has brought considerable pressure to bear
upon him, including cutting off all his research money for 2008, taking away
his research students, and threatening to remove him by force. They have now
announced that his group will be shut down at the end of 2009.
We demand that Christian
Vélot and his group must be allowed to continue their independent research.
In particular, his entire research funding must be restored and he must be
permitted to remain in his laboratory at least until the end of his current
contract, i.e. until the end of 2009. We also demand that the authorities
pay serious attention to threats to the freedom of expression of scientists
and we demand that there should be legal protection for whistle blowers, as
has been agreed in principle at the Grenelle de l'Environnement.
This petition will be sent
to the authorities of the Université Paris-Sud, to the Head of the Department
of Life Sciences of the CNRS, and also to Valérie Pécresse, the Minister of
Higher Education and Research, Jean-Louis Borloo, Minister of Ecology, Development
and Sustainable Management, and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Secretary of State
for Ecology at the Ministry of Ecology, Development and Sustainable Management.
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