Belgian Association for Bioindustries

Bio.be is the Belgian biotechnology industry organisation.

Bio.be represents the companies and professionals involved in research, development, testing, production or marketing of biotechnology applications, as well as those servicing the biotechnology community.

Bio.be was founded on January 23 2006 as a result of the merger of the Belgian Bioindustries Association (BBA) and BelgoBiotech.

Bio.be expresses its sympathy for all respected biotechnology scientists accused by the misleading documentary “Scientist under Attack”

On August 16 during "Terzake”, a news feature on Canvas (VRT, Flemish Radio and Television), the documentary “Scientists under Attack” from Denkmal-Film, Germany (2009) was broadcasted. While several anti-GM messages were incorporated, the main theme was that critical scientists, who dare to warn against potential risks associated with GM technology, are discredited and eliminated from science by industry lobbies.

The makers of the documentary brought a very one-sided and negative view on biotechnology and its developers, seeding doubt to harvest fear. The fact that products of biotechnology are thoroughly tested throughout their life cycle, that they are individually reviewed by independent experts before they are allowed to the market and that they have been subjected to unequalled regulatory scrutiny was neither mentioned nor explained. The ultimate goal of feeding an ever growing population is considered granted without improving agricultural technologies. The benefits that products of biotechnology deliver to the process of food and feed production and to a growing number of farmers around the globe have been overlooked.

Instead the documentary focused on two scientists whose research has been scientifically refuted. Rather than accepting the scientific arguments, it is more attractive to picture them as victims of a conspiracy and to herald them as heroes of the anti-GMO lobby.

The public attention for biotechnology brings substantive communication challenges. Some scientists may be tempted to skip scientific rigor and to hasten to popular conclusions. Nevertheless, the scientific community has proven to be capable of correcting unsupported findings via the process of peer review and publication in reputed scientific journals. It is therefore even more shocking that the documentary suggests that all scientists that are not against GMOs, have lost their independence and are under the control of industry. Paraphrasing the title of the documentary, this is an unjustified attack on independent scientists around the globe and in particular in Belgium, the cradle of plant biotechnology.

Bio.be has protested with Terzake as they did not take the effort to verify the facts, a basic element of quality journalism, or at least allowed the concerned developers or the authorities to put the documentary in perspective. This undermines Terzake’s claims to be “the reference concerning quality and reliability of information”. It also does not contribute to the dialogue between different parties with an interest in plant biotechnology and agriculture.

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