Sub Groups

Meeting Note
22 January 2001
10.30am, Room 4/ 4, Albany House, 94-98 Petty France, London SW1

These minutes represent the views of the sub-group not of the full AEBC

Present
Ed Dart
John Gilliland
Julie Hill (Convenor)
ChiChi Iweajunwa
Derek Langslow
Roger Turner

In attendance
Anne Packer (Secretary)
Shabber Ahmed

Apologies
1. None - everyone was present.

Aims
2. The purpose of the meeting was to brain-storm around a draft matrix which had been circulated to members, and which noted major areas of development for crop biotechnology, some of the implications of those developments, and the relative impact of those developments for the UK. Members had also received a consolidated note about other horizon scanning exercises, which included a long list of web site references submitted by a consultee. Julie Hill and other members would ask the secretariat to scan a few websites which they would identify as key, to seek general statements about trends. Action: Members and secretariat

Discussion
3. Members agreed it would be necessary to find out what work the Food Standards Agency was doing, in order to avoid gaps and duplication, as there were cross cutting subjects. Action: Secretariat

4. Julie Hill would suggest to the convenors of the animals sub group and the bioremediation group that they might do a similar matrix exercise for animals and microbiology. Action: Julie Hill

5. Flip charts were used to note issues which emerged during discussion. These were organised around several main themes.

Possible form of report
6. Members discussed how best to take the work forward, and how to structure the sub group's report to the full Commission. The report would aim to reference seminal work done by others, particularly using work from official sources.

7. In line with what had been discussed and agreed in the full Commission, the draft report would be 'work in progress' until the full Commission had the opportunity to discuss it and progress it as it wished.

Follow up action
8. Members allocated responsibilities for following up the day's work. Julie Hill and Ed Dart would scan all the references in the body of the secretariat note of horizon scanning activities, to identify any major new aspects to take into account. Julie Hill would use the information from the flip charts to add to, sort, and start to turn the material into an outline report, and would expand the section on environmental trends with help from Derek Langslow. Roger Turner would draft a page on international property rights, send copies of a recent OECD paper, of an ISAAA report, and a Winrock International report*, and give the Secretariat references to 1995 Foresight reports, if they remained relevant, for circulation to all subgroup members. John Gilliland would write a couple of paragraphs as a resume of agricultural trade implications and UK market place rejection issues. He would follow up for reliable sources of estimates of investment eg from OECD and EU material, and would seek input from an NFU biotechnology contact. Derek Langslow would scan current English Nature output and work on risk. Ed Dart would send on information about the PABE work for the EC on public attitudes. ChiChi Iweajunwa would pass on information from her studies on the USA and Australia. Anne Packer would research the background to the recent EU-US report - copies of which she gave to members. Action: Members, Secretariat - as listed above

Future meetings
9. Members discussed the timetable for future meetings, and a provisional timetable for reporting to the full Commission. Members agreed that they would want to have discussions with a range of people, but these were envisages as informal meetings to discuss the group's emerging views, rather than formal evidence-taking sessions. Members agreed that the next meetings of the subgroup would be on Friday 16 March, Wednesday 9 May, and Monday 11 June, from 10.30am to 3.30pm. The provisional aim was to have a draft report around the end of July, to put to AEBC in September at the meeting in Belfast.

* References. ISAAA: Global Review of Commercialised Transgenic Crops 2000, Clive James, No21-2000; Winrock international: Transgenic Crops, an environmental assessment, November 2000; WHO: Safety aspects of genetically modified foods of plant origin, expert consultation, 2000 (NB From FAO/ WHO rather than OECD, as originally thought by Roger Turner)

AEBC Secretariat
February 2001