G8 leaders to hear call for more publicly funded GM research The results of a conference on new biotechnology, food and crops will be presented at the G8 summit taking place in Genoa, Italy on 20 to 22 July. Leaders from the world's seven richest industrialised countries and Russia will hear of calls for more publicly funded research a... The results of a conference on new biotechnology, food and crops will be presented at the G8 summit taking place in Genoa, Italy on 20 to 22 July. Leaders from the world's seven richest industrialised countries and Russia will hear of calls for more publicly funded research and concern regarding the spread of new technologies in agriculture, as highlighted as the conference 'New biotechnology food and crops: science, safety and society', which took place in Bangkok, Thailand on 10 to 12 July. The conference was organised by the United Kingdom and the OECD in co-operation with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme, the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Government of Thailand. In the chairman's conclusions, Lord Selbourne called for high quality, accessible, relevant science throughout the world to support risk assessment of genetically modified (GM) crops and foods. He noted that several conference speakers had criticised the decrease in publicly funded research. 'Publicly funded research provides greater confidence and might be easier to channel into regions for which no financial return on the research investment can be expected. National governments are invited to ensure that there is an acceptable balance between public and private funding for biosafety applications,' concluded Lord Selbourne.e serv Countries Italy
