Financial Support for the International Conference "GMOs in 2030: Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls?", October 14-18, 2003

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PROJECT ABSTRACTSES 0240254"GMOs in 2030:Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls?"Norman Ellstrand, University of California, Riverside"GMOs in 2030: Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls" will be convened by the Biotechnology Impacts Center at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) October 14-18, 2003. The organizers are Norman C. Ellstrand, Professor of Genetics and Director of the Biotechnology Impacts Center, and Richard Sutch, Distinguished Professor of Economics. Nearly everyone who has looked at the issue, from biologists and agronomists to economists and ethicists to ordinary thoughtful people, agree that there is tremendous potential in the new discoveries occurring in biotechnology. At the same time, there is uncertainty over the environmental, social, ethical, legal, economic, and cultural consequences of the new technologies emerging now and those yet to come. The objective of "GMOs in 2030: Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls?" is to take a visionary and mindful approach to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the benefit of humankind and the environment by identifying principles and protocols that will serve as a framework for a civilized, respectful and informed dialog on the myriad issues facing society in the application of biotechnology. The conference will be distinctive from others exploring issues associated with biotechnology in that it will integrate leading scholars from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, as opposed to most conferences on the topic, which typically involve life scientists exclusively with one or a few token humanists or social scientists, or vice versa. Conference participants will examine such over-arching topics as the responsibility of humankind in stewardship of the biosphere vs. the ability to manipulate life at the gene level and public participation in the assessment of biotechnology applications. Case studies examining the genetic modification of rice to provide enhanced nutrition and of mosquitoes to provide protection against certain insect-vectored diseases will endeavor to illustrate the complexity and interrelatedness of the issues raised by the GMO revolution. The conference organizers intend to present these and other compelling questions in a format that will be attractive to world-class thinkers both from within and outside of the United States. To insure that conference outcomes reach policy makers, biotech industry representatives, non-governmental organizations and other interested scholars, a book on possible policy approaches to the issues, with chapters authored by the major participants, will be published, as will policy briefs on specific issues. The proposed conference will advance the teaching and training of young, promising researchers and scholars; postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, including those from underrepresented groups, will be particularly encouraged to participate. This proposal seeks partial financial support of the conference from the National Science Foundation.