Klaus Ammann

Klaus Ammann (born 6 December 1940 in Bern, Switzerland) was Director of the Botanical Garden at the University of Bern, Switzerland until his retirement in February 2006. Ammann, together with John Beringer, Julian Kinderlerer, Alan McHughen and Mark Tepfer, founded the International Society for Biosafety Research (ISBR). Ammann is an editor of Environmental Biosafety Research, the journal published by the ISBR.

Studies and scientific work

• studied at the University of Bern (Switzerland)
• 1972: Dissertation about vegetation history
• 1976: Reader at the Geobotanical Institute, Bern
• 1996-2006: director of the Botanical Garden, University of Bern
• 2003: Sabbatical at Missouri Botanical Garden, USA
• 2006: retirement
• 2006-07: visiting lecturer in biosafety and corporate ethics at Delft University of Technology

Science4BioReg and Ask Force

At Delft University of Technology, Ammann was part of the Working Group on Biotechnology and Society, together with Piet van der Meer. The Public Research & Regulation Initiative (PRRI) Secretariat is hosted by the Delft University of Technology. PRRI describes its aim as being

to inform researchers, policymakers, regulators and the general public about public research in modern biotechnology. PRRI does this in various ways: producing briefing papers, organising seminars, and answering questions about public research in modern biotechnology.

PRRI's EU Commission-funded project Science4BioReg is also located at Delft University of Technology. PRRI describes the aim of Science4BioReg as being to

inform and involve the public research sector in discussions on international agreements and regulations on biotechnology, and on the other it will inform policy makers, regulators and the general public about the objectives and progress in public research in agricultural biotechnology.

Ammann is chair and coordinator of the Science4BioReg's Ask Force (2006-2009). Ask Force is a collaborative initiative by PRRI and the European Federation of Biotechnology (EFB).

This is how PRRI describes the role of the Ask Force on its website:

On this 'ASK-FORCE' page, PRRI discusses publications about biosafety and biotechnology that have gained much public attention but which are not supported by peer reviewed scientific research.

Oddly enough, however, the examples quoted on the Ask Force page of publications which are supposedly "not supported by peer reviewed scientific research" are, in fact, supported by such research and in some cases are peer reviewed scientific research.

Examples listed by Ask Force include:

• Do GM crops fail to produce more yields? (New)
• Do GM crops pose a health risk to humans as Dona claims? (New)
• Do GM potatoes with lectins harm rat organs as Pusztai claims?
• Are rat organs damaged after feeding on GM soybeans as Ermakova claims?
• Did Monsanto transgenic hybrid maize lower the fertility of mice in a multi generational feeding experiment?
• Is the impact of Bt maize on non-target insects really significantly negative? (New)
• Do aquatic organisms suffer from residues and protein of Bt maize?
• Is Bt maize harmful to a larvae of the monarch butterfly?

The facts yielded by these papers and more, which show worrying effects of GM crops for farmers, the environment, and consumers, are summarised with full references in the GMWatch publication "Genetically Modified Foods: Renewed Threat to Europe".

Affiliations

• The European Science Foundation group -- board member
• Assessment of Impacts of Genetically Modified Plants (AIGM) -- board member
• Gensuisse, a GM promotion group funded by the pharmaceutical industry body
• Interpharma Internutrition - a lobbying group for GM foods funded/sponsored by the food industry (e.g. Nestle) and chemical/GM companies Monsanto, Hoffmann LaRoche, DuPont, and Syngenta -- board member
• European Federation of Biotechnology – Executive Board. EFB is an organisation of scientists wishing to promote biotechnology. It has an extensive corporate membership --
• Bio-Scope -- former co-editor. Bio-Scope was a Frankfurt-Bern website, supported by GM industry group EuropaBio, although as of June 2009 the website appeared to be defunct

Membership of commissions and working groups

• 1995-2007: Biosafety Committee of the Government of Switzerland
• GMO Expert Group European Commission Directorate General JRC - IPTS
• 2002: Steering Committee of PLANTA EUROPA
• former member of the Federal Expert Commission for Biosafety, Switzerland

As of June 2009:

• Chairman European Group of Plant Specialists, IUCN
• member of the Schweizer National Fond
• member of the Commission on Green Genetic Engineering of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities (Kommission Grüne Gentechnik der Union der deutschen Akademien der Wissenschaften)

Participation in research projects

• 1999-2004: member of the steering committee of AIGM - Assessment of the Impacts of Genetically Modified Plants
• 2004-08: EU project SIGMEA: Gene flow of maize in Europe
• 2006-09: Science4BioReg: Ask Force and coordination of a scientific database. Ask Force-Moderationen for the PRRI and the EFB. ABC database to set up an overview on public research activities worldwide.

Activities

Ammann, together with CS Prakash and others, signed an 'Open Letter to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development' (April 2000). The letter warned the Commission against "needless over-regulation" of GM on the grounds of "the very real threat that an overly-strict adherence to precautionary regulation could pose to both the environment and to the well being of human populations around the world."

Ammann edits a pro-GM e-mail list and played a leading role together with CS Prakash in circulating and encouraging the attacks on researchers David Quist and Ignacio Chapela and their paper on GM contamination of Mexican maize published in Nature.