Difference between revisions of "Emile Frison"

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Bioversity International is funded by, among others, the [[Global Crop Diversity Trust]], which in turn gets funding from GM giants [[DuPont]] and [[Syngenta]] (see section, "Funding").
 
Bioversity International is funded by, among others, the [[Global Crop Diversity Trust]], which in turn gets funding from GM giants [[DuPont]] and [[Syngenta]] (see section, "Funding").
  
==Science Museum exhibition on GM==
 
Frison represented CGIAR at the opening of the exhibition on GM foods, "Future Foods", held at the [[Science Museum]], London in December 2008. The exhibition was supported by CGIAR.<ref>"[http://www.bioversityinternational.org/news_and_events/news/news/article/interview-with-emile-frison-in-london.html Interview with Emile Frison in London]", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009</ref>
 
 
In an interview with journalist Andy Duckworth for an article about the exhibition in The Guardian, Frison took the opportunity to talk about one of his favorite topics, that only GM can save the banana (see section, "Only GM can save the banana").<ref>The interview is available on podcast at Andy Duckworth, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/audio/2008/dec/22/science-weekly-extra-podcast-gm Science Weekly Extra: Future foods]", 22 December 2008, accessed 27 June 2009</ref>
 
  
Interestingly, as is plain from this interview, Frison is a champion of genetic diversity in food production. How this squares with GM, which has the effect of narrowing the genetic pool to the tiny selection of GM crops that the big companies are promoting at any one time, is difficult to see.
 
  
 
=="Only GM can save the banana"==
 
=="Only GM can save the banana"==
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Plant pathologist Dr David Jones, a banana specialist, has also contradicted the claim that genetic engineering may be the only option for improving "sterile" banana cultivars. He points out that although "sterile" bananas "don't breed well, if at all, they can be induced to produce seed if pollinated by hand. Honduras's agricultural research foundation has had the most successful conventional banana breeding programme to date. The Honduran Foundation of Agricultural Research has bred disease-resistant bananas that are now grown extensively in Cuba [where severe problems with disease occurred  previously]. One called Goldfinger is also grown in Australia, and others are on trial in Africa and elsewhere. Conventional breeding can deliver the goods, especially when it comes to  bananas favoured by developing countries. It is true that it may be impossible to alter traits in the familiar 'Cavendish' banana with conventional breeding because of sterility problems. But it may be possible to breed a commercially acceptable disease-resistant export banana using a fertile dwarf variety of 'Gros Michel', an earlier export dessert banana."<ref>David Jones, "[http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/13120-en.html Bananas about GM]", New Scientist, August 4, 2001, Letters</ref>
 
Plant pathologist Dr David Jones, a banana specialist, has also contradicted the claim that genetic engineering may be the only option for improving "sterile" banana cultivars. He points out that although "sterile" bananas "don't breed well, if at all, they can be induced to produce seed if pollinated by hand. Honduras's agricultural research foundation has had the most successful conventional banana breeding programme to date. The Honduran Foundation of Agricultural Research has bred disease-resistant bananas that are now grown extensively in Cuba [where severe problems with disease occurred  previously]. One called Goldfinger is also grown in Australia, and others are on trial in Africa and elsewhere. Conventional breeding can deliver the goods, especially when it comes to  bananas favoured by developing countries. It is true that it may be impossible to alter traits in the familiar 'Cavendish' banana with conventional breeding because of sterility problems. But it may be possible to breed a commercially acceptable disease-resistant export banana using a fertile dwarf variety of 'Gros Michel', an earlier export dessert banana."<ref>David Jones, "[http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2003/13120-en.html Bananas about GM]", New Scientist, August 4, 2001, Letters</ref>
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==Science Museum exhibition on GM==
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Frison represented CGIAR at the opening of the exhibition on GM foods, "Future Foods", held at the [[Science Museum]], London in December 2008. The exhibition was supported by CGIAR.<ref>"[http://www.bioversityinternational.org/news_and_events/news/news/article/interview-with-emile-frison-in-london.html Interview with Emile Frison in London]", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009</ref>
 +
 +
In an interview with journalist Andy Duckworth for an article about the exhibition in The Guardian, Frison took the opportunity to talk about one of his favorite topics, that only GM can save the banana (see section, "Only GM can save the banana").<ref>The interview is available on podcast at Andy Duckworth, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/audio/2008/dec/22/science-weekly-extra-podcast-gm Science Weekly Extra: Future foods]", 22 December 2008, accessed 27 June 2009</ref>
 +
 +
Interestingly, as is plain from this interview, Frison is a champion of genetic diversity in food production. How this squares with GM, which has the effect of narrowing the genetic pool to the tiny selection of GM crops that the big companies are promoting at any one time, is difficult to see.
  
 
==Affiliations==
 
==Affiliations==

Latest revision as of 14:43, 29 June 2009

Dr Emile Frison is Director General of Bioversity International,[1] an initiative established in 1974 by the research institute, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR).[2]

Frison is best known for generating stories in the media about how the banana is going extinct and that only GM (genetic modification) can save it (see section, "Only GM can save the banana").

Bioversity International is funded by, among others, the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which in turn gets funding from GM giants DuPont and Syngenta (see section, "Funding").


"Only GM can save the banana"

"Only GM [genetic modification] can save the banana" is the message of a headline-grabbing story that first surfaced in 2001, made a comeback in 2003, and has done the rounds in the media ever since. The story claims that because bananas are sterile, they can't be bred to avoid virulent banana diseases and so could be extinct within a decade.

According to the story, "The standard variety, the Cavendish, is already threatened with a disease called black Sigatoka, and a new strain of another fungal condition, Panama disease, could wipe the plant out within a decade." The banana business, we are told, is "doomed".[3] "No more fresh bananas. No more banana bread. No more banana muffins or banana cream pie."[4] Worse still, bananas are an important nutritional source for many in the developing world. "Half a billion people in Africa and Asia depend on the banana for up to half their daily calories," say the reports.[5] "Genetic engineering may be the only answer"[6]: "Scientists believe that the creation of a GM banana that can resist the diseases may be the only way of preserving the fruit's future."[7]

Each time the "Only GM can save the banana" headline-grabbing story re-emerges, it gets expertly debunked... until the next time comes around. And almost every time, the same scientist is quoted, Dr Emile Frison. Here are some of the headlines Dr Frison has helped to generate:

  • "Without a genetic fix, the banana may be history"[8]
  • "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM"[9]
  • "'Decrepit' banana faces extinction in 10 years"
  • "Yes, we'll have no bananas"
  • "Bananas could split for good"
  • "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years'"[10]
  • "GM banana needed to fend off pests"
  • "Bananas 'killed off' by 2013"[11]
  • "Bananas could split for good"[12]
  • "Banana on a slippery slope to extinction"[13]
  • "Bye Bye Banana"
  • "Bananas; an endangered fruit"
  • "Banana R.I.P."

But the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has directly contradicted Dr Frison's claims that bananas are on the verge of extinction, saying that while there are problems of vulnerability to disease, this is aggravated by the widescale commercial use of the Cavendish banana, and this can be countered by promoting greater genetic diversity. The FAO also points out that small-scale farmers around the world grow a wide range of banana species which are mostly less threatened than the Cavendish. There are, in fact, hundreds of different species of banana, and only 10 percent of the bananas produced and consumed globally are from the Cavendish.[14]

Other scientists have also dismissed the claim that the banana is close to extinction. The Thai scientist, Benchamas Silayoi from Kasetsart University's Faculty of Agriculture, has said it is just not possible for bananas to vanish so quickly. She points out that there is a world collection of banana germplasm in the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, containing over 1,100 accessions, precisely for the purpose of conserving the plant. In addition, there is also an Asian banana collection in the Philippines, and Thailand also has its own collection at Kasetsart University's banana tissue culture lab. According to Benchamas, pests and diseases could not possibly make the banana extinct in the kind of time period claimed. "Only big bombs can do that," she says.[15]

Plant pathologist Dr David Jones, a banana specialist, has also contradicted the claim that genetic engineering may be the only option for improving "sterile" banana cultivars. He points out that although "sterile" bananas "don't breed well, if at all, they can be induced to produce seed if pollinated by hand. Honduras's agricultural research foundation has had the most successful conventional banana breeding programme to date. The Honduran Foundation of Agricultural Research has bred disease-resistant bananas that are now grown extensively in Cuba [where severe problems with disease occurred previously]. One called Goldfinger is also grown in Australia, and others are on trial in Africa and elsewhere. Conventional breeding can deliver the goods, especially when it comes to bananas favoured by developing countries. It is true that it may be impossible to alter traits in the familiar 'Cavendish' banana with conventional breeding because of sterility problems. But it may be possible to breed a commercially acceptable disease-resistant export banana using a fertile dwarf variety of 'Gros Michel', an earlier export dessert banana."[16]

Science Museum exhibition on GM

Frison represented CGIAR at the opening of the exhibition on GM foods, "Future Foods", held at the Science Museum, London in December 2008. The exhibition was supported by CGIAR.[17]

In an interview with journalist Andy Duckworth for an article about the exhibition in The Guardian, Frison took the opportunity to talk about one of his favorite topics, that only GM can save the banana (see section, "Only GM can save the banana").[18]

Interestingly, as is plain from this interview, Frison is a champion of genetic diversity in food production. How this squares with GM, which has the effect of narrowing the genetic pool to the tiny selection of GM crops that the big companies are promoting at any one time, is difficult to see.

Affiliations

Funding

Bioversity International's emphasis on government sources of funding may lead some to believe that it is mostly publicly funded. However, among the list of Top 20 donors in BI's Annual Report 2008 is the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which includes among its funders the big corporate players in genetic modification (GM), DuPont and Syngenta. Among the foundations and public bodies in the Top 20 donors to Bioversity International are well known proponents of GM, including the World Bank and USAID.[19]

Contact

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Resources

Notes

  1. "Interview with Emile Frison in London", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009
  2. "Who we are", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009
  3. Mark Henderson, "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'", The Times, 16 January 2003
  4. Robert Alison, "Yes, we'll have no bananas", Globe & Mail (Canada), 19 July 2003
  5. Robert Uhlig, "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years", Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2003
  6. Robert Uhlig, "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years", Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2003
  7. Mark Henderson, "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'", The Times, 16 January 2003
  8. David Ewing Duncan, "Without a genetic fix, the banana may be history", San Francisco Chronicle, April 5, 2004, p. D1
  9. Mark Henderson, "Bananas 'will slip into extinction without GM'", The Times, 16 January 2003
  10. Robert Uhlig, "Defenceless banana 'will be extinct in 10 years", Daily Telegraph, 16 January 2003
  11. Tanith Carey, "Bananas 'killed off' by 2013", The Mirror, 16 January 2003, accessed 27 June 2009
  12. "Bananas could split for good", BBC News Online, 16 January 2003, accessed 27 June 2009
  13. Charles Arthur, "Banana on a slippery slope to extinction", Independent Online (Zambia), 16 January 2003, accessed 27 June 2009
  14. Bananas not on verge of extinction, says FAO, FAO website, accessed 28 June 2009
  15. "Bananas 'can't disappear by 2013'", The Nation, January 30, 2003
  16. David Jones, "Bananas about GM", New Scientist, August 4, 2001, Letters
  17. "Interview with Emile Frison in London", Bioversity International website, accessed 27 June 2009
  18. The interview is available on podcast at Andy Duckworth, "Science Weekly Extra: Future foods", 22 December 2008, accessed 27 June 2009
  19. Bioversity International Annual Report 2008, p. 27, accessed 27 June 2009