On the eve of a major intergovernmental conference on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Developing Countries (ABDC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, a civil society member of the international steering committee has resigned, calling the preparations for the gathering of governments and scientists “hopelessly biased” and “foolishly sidestepping key socioeconomic and scientific issues.”

Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group, a Canada-based international civil society organization with a long history of work with FAO and biotechnology issues, resigned from the steering committee on Tuesday, February 23. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization conference, hosted by Mexico, runs from March 1- 4 in Guadalajara.

“The overwhelming thrust of the guiding documents for the meeting are hopelessly biased in favour of biotechnology and skewed to persuade developing countries that they have no option but to climb on the biotech bandwagon. It’s unacceptable that a supposedly neutral inter-governmental body like FAO would allow itself to be turned into a billboard for Big Biotech,” Mooney says. “The organizers of the ABDC don’t seem to know the ABCs of how to run a conference where different points of view can get a fair hearing. The precautionary principle (related to human and environmental impacts) is almost ignored. The oligopolistic nature of the biotech seed industry – where four companies control global seed sales – is not addressed. And although the background documents mention problems related to biotech patent monopolies, they conclude that the global South has no choice but to surrender. There is no serious discussion about the enormous opportunity cost of developing genetically modified crops compared to conventional plant breeding.”

Pat Mooney is also making his resignation public because farmers and other civil society partners in Mexico have said that FAO organizers were using his membership on the steering committee to claim their interests were represented. “I would never claim to be speaking on behalf of anybody but myself,” Mooney insists. Last September, when Mooney received drafts of the conference documents, he wrote back with fourteen major amendments[1], mostly related to the overall bias of the texts and the issues that were not addressed. He advised the organizers that the documents – as drafted – should not be allowed to go forward. He received no reply. The final texts were sent to the steering committee just before Christmas and Mooney had the opportunity to review the several hundred pages only a few days ago. “I was shocked that none of the issues I raised were addressed.”

The conference has had problems from its inception. Mooney was invited to join the steering committee in mid-2008. Since he was unable to attend the first session, his colleague in ETC Group, Hope Shand, attended. Shand was so disappointed with the bias in the initial discussions that, with Mooney´s agreement, she resigned. Several months later, the FAO secretariat asked him to reconsider. “I was assured that FAO was anxious to have an open, multi-stakeholder dialogue on all of the issues,” Mooney recalls. “I felt that I should support a transparent dialogue and agreed to rejoin the committee. Having now read the final documents, I feel used and abused by the entire process.” Despite his resignation, Mooney will go to Guadalajara and attend the conference and participate on a panel on crop biotechnology Monday March 1st at 4:45 pm. “I have strong views and want to state them, but I can’t be on a steering committee that hasn’t steered anything, resulting in unacceptably biased documents.”