Introduction to ISBGMO12: biosafety research past, present and future.

Abstract

The International Symposium on Biosafety of Geneti-cally Modified Organisms (ISBGMO) is a biennialinternational meeting organised by the InternationalSocietyforBiosafetyResearch(ISBR;www.isbr.info/).ISBR promotes research and application of science inthe fields of agricultural and environmental biotech-nologyandriskanalysis.Inparticular,ISBRencouragesresearch that supports the safe and effective use ofbiotechnology in agriculture, food production, andpublic health, and assists the development of the rele-vant policy and regulation.ThefirstISBGMOwasheldinKiawahIsland,NorthCarolina, USA in November 1990. Since then, manycountries have hosted the meeting: Germany (twice),USA (California), Japan, Canada, China, France,South Korea, New Zealand and Argentina. The 12thISBGMO was held in St Louis, Missouri, USA fromthe 16th to the 20th of September 2012, and wasattended by about 500 delegates from 47 countries.This special section of Transgenic Research fea-tures thirteen papers developed from lectures andworkshops at the meeting. Taken together, the papersindicate that, for first generation genetically modified(GM) crops at least, biosafety research is increasinglyaddressing questions about the sustainable deploy-ment of the crops in agricultural systems, and isfocussing less on the basic characteristics of GM cropsas a class. Making regulatory risk assessment efficientand effective, and realising the economic, environ-mental and social opportunities presented by com-mercialised GM crops, now seems more importantthan, say, further basic research on unintended effectsof transformation or gene flow from GM crops to wildspecies. This is a hugely significant development.While ISBR and ISBGMOs focus on science, therole of policy in framing research questions andensuring effective application of new knowledge isincreasinglyrecognised.Inhiskeynoteaddress, Raven(2013) placed GM crops in the context of fulfillingagricultural policy. If our policy is to increase foodproduction to meet increasing need, then GM cropsought not to be singled out for ‘‘burdensome’’ regula-tory treatment: ‘‘it is no longer acceptable to delay theuse of any strategy that is safe and will help us achievethe ability to feed the world’s people.’’A source of onerous regulatory treatment wasconcern that that GM crops might ‘‘escape’’. At thetime of the first ISBGMO in 1990, scientists werethinking about the ecological consequences of trans-genes not being contained by agricultural management.