August

Japanese Farmer and Media Biotechnology Tour

Dates: August 23 - September 1, 2007

Locations: Washington, D.C., Illinois, Iowa, Missouri

The Council will host six delegates from Japan, including five national newspaper and magazine writers as well as one crop farmer, for a week-long educational tour promoting the many benefits of biotechnology derived crops, specifically corn and soybeans. In hosting both members of the Japanese media and a representative of the farming industry, the Council's objectives are two-fold: to properly educate the media about the economic and environmental benefits of biotechnology in farming as well as to promote its use among Japanese farmers. The Japanese team will travel to farms and other agricultural sites to see first-hand the practice of growing GM crops in an effort to ultimately increase the overall awareness and acceptability of agricultural biotechnology in Japan.

International Biotechnology Information Conference 2007

Dates: August 20-24, 2007

Location: St. Louis, Missouri

Hosted by the Council, the three-day 2007 International Biotechnology Information Conference was held in St. Louis, MO and provided participants with both background information and first-hand experiences concerning the safety, benefits and policies of agricultural biotechnology, focusing on low-level presence and risk management relative to asynchronous approvals of biotech events. Attendees originated from over twenty different countries and included government officials and their stakeholders involved in the upcoming (7th) Session of the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Foods Derived through Biotechnology set to take place September 24-28, 2007, in Chiba, Japan. Returning from last year’s conference, Piet van der Meer facilitated the program again this year. Please read our press release for more information.

May

2007 Media Tour

Dates: May 4-13, 2007

Locations: Boston, Massachusetts

Misinformation about agricultural biotechnology continues to spread rabidly through various media venues, creating the need for balanced journalism and increased reporting on science-based information in relation to the technology. The Council provided foreign media with the opportunity to make first-hand observations about the use and acceptance of agricultural biotechnology through direct contact with growers, regulators, academics, researchers and industry. The tour consisted of visits to farms, grower organizations, research facilities, seed companies and grain handling facilities throughout the Midwest. The 2007 tour concluded in Boston, Massachusetts where participants attended the 2007 Annual BIO International Convention. Here, attendees were introduced to the latest in modern biotechnology and the breadth of its presence in today’s society.

Approximately 16 representatives from designated key markets witnessed the use and acceptance of agricultural biotechnology in the United States and will be equipped with the science and fact based information to communicate a balanced message regarding the technology to their respective international audiences. Samples of these articles and television or radio broadcasts will be posted on the Council’s Biotechnology Resource Center, where pieces authored by past media tour participants can currently be located.

January

East Africa Communicator's Workshop

Dates: January 23-25, 2007

Locations: Arusha, Tanzania

Currently, the East African countries, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi and Tanzania, represent key leaders in biotechnology and would eventually have a significant impact of the rest of the region. Building on the successes of the Southeast Asia Biotechnology Risk Communication Workshop held in September 2006, the Council partnered with the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), to implement a similar program in East Africa .

The aim of this activity was to identify and train key decision makers, scientific communicators, opinion leaders and media specialists to communicate effectively on issues surrounding products derived from modern biotechnology to a wide range of stakeholders. The overall purpose was to create an enabling environment in the five countries for the development and adoption of favorable regulatory systems, biotechnology research and development and eventual commercialization of biotech seeds and food in these countries.

• Provide participants from the East Africa region with the latest information on biotechnology issues surrounding biotech crops: ISAAA arranged for well received and knowledgeable resource persons that provided both global and regionally based information addressing crop biotechnology. Participants were also supplied with take-home materials that were subject appropriate resources which reinforced the focus of the workshop.
• Educate a critical mass of supporters skilled in effective communication to help vindicate biotechnology and influence policy development and GM products adoption: The group of participants that ISAAA’s Africenter recruited for training represented the appropriate sectors required for collaboration in the effort to advance the acceptance of biotechnology in the East Africa region. While further education and practice will continue to develop the participant’s skills the basic points of effective communication highlighted during the workshop were well received and noticeable improvement from the first day of the workshop to the last was observed.
• Develop simple and clear messages on how to handle key areas of concern and contentious issues among general public: ISAAA incorporated multiple opportunities for regional break-out sessions where participants from the same region worked together to address issues of risk using tools acquired during the workshop for risk communication. Once the regional groups developed their responses to “risk” and country specific concerns, they were presented to the entire participant audience for response and critique. This was an extremely useful tool in that participants were challenged to develop plans for risk communication but also were able to immediately test their strategies on fellow peers.
• Enhance informed and science-based decision making regarding the adoption of biotech crops, and in the long run catalyze the establishment of biosafety laws in each country: By illustrating the technology status and political requirements of introducing crop biotechnology into a region, as well as the difference that effective communication makes when relaying these messages, it was made clear to the participants of this workshop the work ahead the necessity to engage parliamentary representatives. A field trip to the Tropical Pesticide Research Institute (TPRI) was well placed during this workshop as experts there outlined the current biosafety protocols being developed and the need to establish these guidelines into policy.

This program increased the awareness of how biotechnology regulations impact trade in agriculture and improve successful communication of these implications to benefit agriculture as a whole. This enables representatives within targeted countries to use science-based information in their consideration of biosafety regulations and effectively communicate these decisions to their stakeholders, thereby preventing the development of a restrictive trade environment.