Initiated by CS Prakash of Tuskegee University, a declaration that says that GM foods are safe, environment-friendly and a useful tool to help feed the teeming millions in the developing countries, is being endorsed by scientist including two Nobel Prize winners, all over the world. Prakssh in an e-mail communication to The Financial Express says that more than 2,000 scientists from India, Australia, Israel, Denmark, Canada, the US and other countries have endorsed the declaration which says:

"We, the undersigned members of the scientific community, believe that recombinant DNA techniques constitute powerful and safe means for the modification of organisms and can contribute substantially in enhancing quality of life by improving agriculture, health care, and the environment.

"The responsible genetic modification of plants is neither new nor dangerous. Many characteristics, such as pest and disease resistance, have been routinely introduced into crop plants by traditional methods of sexual reproduction or cell culture procedures. The addition of new or different genes into an organism by recombinant DNA techniques does not inherently pose new or heightened risks relative to the modification of organisms by more traditional methods, and the relative safety of marketed products is further ensured by current regulations intended to safeguard the food supply.

The novel genetic tools offer greater flexibility and precision in the modification of crop plants.

"No food products, whether produced with recombinant DNA techniques or with more traditional methods, are totally without risk. The risks posed by foods are a function of the biological characteristics of those foods and the specific genes that have been used, not of the processes employed in their development. Our goal as scientists is to ensure that any new foods produced from recombinant DNA are as safe or safer than foods already being consumed.

"Current methods of regulation and development have worked well. Recombinant DNA techniques have already been used to develop `environmental-friendly' crop plants with traits that preserve yields and allow farmers to reduce their use of synthetic pesticides and herbicides. The next generation of products promises to provide even greater benefits to consumers, such as enhanced nutrition, healthier oils, enhanced vitamin content, longer shelf life and improved medicines.

"Through judicious deployment, biotechnology can also address environmental degradation, hunger, and poverty in the developing world by providing improved agricultural productivity and greater nutritional security.

"Scientists at the international agricultural centers, universities, public research institutions, and elsewhere are already experimenting with products intended specifically for use in the developing world.

"We hereby express our support for the use of recombinant DNA as a potent tool for the achievement of a productive and sustainable agricultural system. We also urge policy makers to use sound scientific principles in the regulation of products produced with recombinant DNA, and to base evaluations of those products upon the characteristics of those products, rather than on the processes used in their development."

Most of the signatories to this declaration are researchers in plant pathology and breeding. A good number of them are scientists employed by biotech companies Monsanto, Novartis, DuPont and Dow Chemical.

Nobel laurates James Watson and Norman Borloug and a World Bank panel that included M S Swaminathan and G Padmanabahan, ex-director of Indian Institute of Science are among the signatories.

Borlaug, the father of green revolution says that ``The world has the technology-either available or well-advanced in the research pipeline-to feed a population of 10 billion people. The more pertinent question today is whether farmers and ranchers will be permitted to use this technology.

Extremists in the environmental movement from rich nations seem to be doing everything they can to stop scientific progress in its tracks''.

According to Jimmy Carter, ex-President of the USA, "Instead of reaping the benefits of decades of discovery and research, people from Africa and South-east Asia will remain prisoners of outdated technology. Their countries could suffer greatly for years to come.

It is crucial that they reject the propaganda of extremist groups before it is too late." Ismail Serageldin, World Bank, CGIAR says, "Biotechnology will be a crucial part of expanding agricultural productivity in the 21st century. If safely deployed, it could be a tremendous help in meeting the challenge of feeding an additional three billion human beings, 95 percent of them in the poor developing countries, on the same amount of land and water currently available." The World Bank panel that included MS Swaminathan says: "Transgenic crops that are developed and used wisely can be very helpful, and may prove essential, to world food production and agricultural sustainability."

Suman Sahai, Gene Campaign, New Delhi: "Keeping pace with the growing importance of biotechnology and its potential to address some of our urgent food and health care needs, a spurious and somewhat bogus debate on bioethics has been started in India. This debate with its plagiarised metaphors and rhetoric borrowed from the West is not Indian in context or substance, and far from relevant." In the views of G Padmanabhan, ex-director, Indian Institute of Science, "Transgenic technology and conventional wisdom need not be considered as mutually exclusive.

The country needs dynamic entrepreneurship leadership in agriculture and no one needs to feel exploited. There is a need for scientists, enlightened administrators, progressive farmers and people's representatives to come together to spread the correct message about transgenic technology."