ROW OVER GM CROPS - MEXICAN SCIENTIST TELLS NEWSNIGHT HE WAS THREATENED BECAUSE HE WANTED TO TELL THE TRUTH

1. Newsnight press release, 'ROW OVER GM CROPS...'
2. TRANSCRIPT OF NEWSNIGHT FEATURE 7th June 2002

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1. Row over GM crops - Mexican scientist tells Newsnight he was threatened because he wanted to tell the truth

BBC NEWSNIGHT: EMBARGO 10.30PM FRIDAY 7TH JUNE 2002

As Britain sits down to watch the Fields of Gold TV drama about a GM conspiracy Newsnight's Science Editor Susan Watts reveals a true story of conspiracy and concealment. Last year a Mexican scientist revealed that genetically modified material had got into native species of maize plants grown in Mexico. Nature first published his paper which made worldwide news then retracted amid allegations that they had given into pressure from scientists backed by biotechnology companies.

Newsnight has learnt that Nature ignored the advice of most of its advisers when it decided to retract and that new Mexican Government research will endorse the Mexican scientist's main findings.

The story starts on the frenetic streets of Mexico City after Dr Ignacio Chapela of University of California at Berkeley alerted the Mexican Government to a discovery he'd made of national importance... He found himself unceremoniously deposited into one of the City's familiar green and white beetle taxis ... and escorted on an unfamiliar journey up a long road out of the city...

Dr Ignacio Chapela told Newsnight: "Here I am being led to a very important Mexican government official and under very strange circumstances we were driving into this very seedy part of town ...where people often go and hide from the police or dump people who have disappeared ...I really didn't know what was going to happen but there was this sense of intimidation going on and of course that was confirmed as soon as we got to the office...When he proceeded to tell me how terrible it was that I was doing the research and how dangerous it would be for me to publish."

So just what WAS Ignacio Chapela's research? And why was he given the impression it would be better not to make it public... It's illegal to grow GM maize in Mexico. But when Dr Chapela tested crops in the field he found GM maize - a huge embarrassment to officials.

GM maize CAN be imported for food. Dr Chapela believes peasant farmers grew the modified seed and that pollen blown in the wind carried the added genes into native varieties. He was shocked enough to warn the government. He says officials were split, with Environment concerned... and Agriculture keen that his finding didn't get out.

When he refused to keep quiet about what he'd found in the maize, he says the Agriculture official made an extraordinary suggestion... that he join a research project DESIGNED to show that what he'd picked up was just the NATURAL presence of the same infectious agents used by the GM companies...

"We were supposed to find this in an elite scientific research team of which I was being invited to be part of and the other people were two people from Monsanto and two people from Dupont supposedly so at that point I said I don't need that ...,"  Dr Chapela said. Newsnight asked both Monsanto and Dupont if they were involved in any such project. Monsanto said no and Dupont has yet to respond. The dispute about the Mexican maize centres on whether Dr Chapela is a poor scientist or the victim of vested interests....

Chapela's research made two points - first that genetically modified material had found its way into maize growing in Mexican fields and second that these genes had become so embedded into the plants' genome they might be passed on from generation to generation. This second finding is disputed - which allowed the critics to attack the whole research project.

Chapela's paper appeared in the world-renowned Nature science journal. Editor Dr Philip Campbell told Newsnight, in his first full interview on the subject "I published because thought it interesting scientifically and for policy..."

But when the letters from critics came in Dr Campbell did something which had never happened the journal's 133-year history. He retracted the whole paper although the main conclusion, which Nature itself press released as "scientists have detected transgenic DNA in wild maize" was unchallenged. He said: "In terms of what we published as far as I'm aware the first part of the paper hasn't been disputed..." asked why he had retracted he said "the paper as a whole shouldn't have been published..."

Chapela's supporters thought Campbell was responding to pressure from industry-funded scientists, but he denies this. He sent the paper to three referees before deciding whether to retract. Newsnight has obtained their confidential comments. Only ONE thought the paper should be retracted - though all said there were flaws in its second part.

The second referee said "none of the critics seriously dispute the main conclusion"  and the third said,"none of the comments has successfully disproven their main result that transgenic corn is growing in Mexico and crossing with local varieties".  Yet Dr Campbell published the retraction - citing only the FIRST referee.

Asked why he hadn't made the referees views clear Dr Campbell said "What we were doing was giving our judgement based on a  variety of  pieces of advice we'd received - our standard procedure is to make our own judgements and we wanted to make clear that there were problems with the evidence based on our judgement based on the advice of independent referees"

Newsnight also learned more about the alleged internet dirty tricks campaign. As soon as Chapela's paper was published attacks on him started to appear on the Internet. His supporters suspected a PR company called the Bivings group - which helps Monsanto with its Internet work - was using a new technique called viral marketing. On its website, Bivings  advised: "there are some campaigns where it would be undesirable or even disastrous to let the audience know that your organisation is directly involved".

Chapela's supporters claim to have tracked down several examples of messages that purport to have come from concerned individuals but appear to originate from Bivings computers. Bivings told us one email did come from someone "working for Bivings" or "clients using our services", but they deny running a secret campaign.

Now the Mexican government's biologists have carried out their own battery of  genetic tests on cobs of native maize to find out if GM genes are really finding their way into Mexico's traditional varieties. They've used two independent labs to avoid the criticisms surrounding Chapela's work and Newsnight has learned that they've found the smoking gun - the new results strongly support Chapela's original claim - finding telltale signs of DNA from genetically modified maize throughout Mexico's remote regional farmland...

BBC Newsnight

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2. Transcript of Newsnight feature 7th June 2002

ROW OVER GM CROPS - MEXICAN SCIENTIST TELLS NEWSNIGHT HE WAS THREATENED BECAUSE HE WANTED TO TELL THE TRUTH

(Mexico City) The story starts on the frenetic streets of Mexico City after a scientist alerted his government to a discovery he'd made of national importance...

He soon found himself unceremoniously deposited into one of the City's familiar green and white beetle taxis ... and escorted on an unfamiliar journey up a long road out of the city...

(Chapela driving)

Here I am being led to a very important Mexican government official and under very strange conditions... we were driving into this very seedy part of town ...where people often go and hide from the police or dump people who have disappeared ...I really didn't know what was going to happen but there was this sense of intimidation going on and of course that was confirmed when ...he proceeded to tell me how terrible it was that I was doing the research and how dangerous it would be for me to publish

So just what WAS Ignacio Chapela's research? And why was he given the impression it would be better not to make it public...

It all comes down to the humble tortilla...it's made from maize ? and Mexicans are proud that this is the birthplace of this staple food. It's a cultural icon and it's illegal to grow GM maize here. But when Dr Chapela tested crops in the field he found GM maize a huge embarrassment to officials.

GM maize CAN be imported for food. Dr Chapela believes  peasant farmers grew the modified seed and that pollen blown in the wind carried the added genes into native varieties. He was shocked enough to warn the government. He says officials were split, with Environment concerned... and Agriculture keen that his finding didn't get out.

When he refused to keep quiet about what he'd found in the maize, he says the Agriculture official made an extraordinary suggestion... that he join a research project DESIGNED to show that what he'd picked up was just the NATURAL presence of  the same infectious agents used by the GM companies...

(Chapela) "We were supposed to find this in an elite scientific research team of which I was being invited to be part of and the other people were two people from Monsanto and two people from Dupont supposedly so at that point I said I don't need that ...."

(Newsnight) Both Monsanto and Dupont deny involvement in ANY SUCH project.

He went ahead and published his original research in Nature magazine. Almost immediately a wave of condemnation rolled in... This time from scientists in San Francisco... The criticism stung because Berkeley is where Dr Chapela has his OWN labs...

But Berkeley is also home to a giant programme of research backed by the GM industry - the university signed a $25 m deal to work with one of the world's most powerful biotechnology companies

There are in effect two camps at Berkeley. Dr Chapela's supporters suspect a conspiracy when they see scientists using funds from the GM industry come out against his work... the critics dismiss this...

(FREELING) no...I can speak for myself ...I guess I'd be the head of the conspiracy - there was no such

(Newsnight) Michael Freeling is DELETING INDIVIDUAL genes from maize plants - one by one - ...this row shows the dramatic effect of deleting just one gene. ..

Dr Freeling uses money from the university's tie-up with the Syngenta company which develops GM seeds ...He also wrote a critical letter to Nature about Dr Chapela's work - but says the two are not linked...

(Freeling) Bad science is bad science anyone can see it...

(Newsnight) So the dispute about the Mexican maize centres on whether Dr Chapela is a poor scientist or the victim of vested interests....

Chapela's research made two points - first that genetically modified material had found its way into maize growing in Mexican fields and second that these genes had become so embedded into the plants' genome they might be passed on from generation to generation. This second finding is disputed - which allowed the critics to attack the whole research project.

Nick Kaplinsky is Dr Chapela's toughest critic... and another Berkeley scientist. But even he accepts that GM genes are probably out there.

(Kaplinsky) Their paper had two claims the first one was that there's transgenic corn in Mexico which is kind of a no-brainer. The second part of their paper claimed that the transgenes were jumping around or behaving like infectious agents and that would've been a huge finding if it had been true but their science was completely incorrect there

(Newsnight) There now seems to be widespread agreement that this part of the paper was flawed...Kaplinsky calls it a "beginners' mistake" and says it doesn't matter if he IS partisan...

(Kaplinsky) Since our scientific critique is right - and the independent referees agreed with that - does it matter if we're biased - you know I mean if you're right, you're right I guess.

(Newsnight) As soon as Chapela's paper was published attacks on him started to appear on the Internet. His supporters suspected a PR company called the Bivings group - which helps Monsanto with its Internet work - was using a new technique called viral marketing. On its website, Bivings  advised: "there are some campaigns where it would be undesirable or even disastrous to let the audience know that your organisation is directly involved". Chapela's supporters claim to have tracked down examples of  messages that purport to have come from concerned individuals but appear to originate from Bivings computers. Bivings told us one email did come from someone "working for Bivings" or  "clients using our services", but they deny running a secret campaign.

The pressure now switched to London and the world-renowned Nature science journal in which Chapela's paper appeared. Since Charles Darwin's time it has published key discoveries like the make-up of the atom, the Watson and Crick paper on the structure of DNA and the decoding of the human genome ...then last November the paper on Mexican maize.

(Campbell: editor of Nature) I published because thought it interesting scientifically and for policy...

(Newsnight) But when the letters from the critics came in Campbell did something which had never happened the journal's 133-year history. He retracted the whole paper although the main conclusion, which Nature itself press released as "scientists have detected transgenic DNA in wild maize" was unchallenged.

(Campbell) in terms of what we published as far as I'm aware the first part of the paper hasn't been disputed...

(Newsnight) But you still felt it necessary to retract?

(Campbell) Uh hum yes...

(Newsnight) can you tell me why exactly....

(Campbell) yes because as I said the paper as a whole shouldn't have been published -

(Newsnight) Chapela's supporters thought Campbell was responding to pressure from industry-funded scientists, but he denies this. He sent the paper to three referees before deciding whether to retract. Newsnight has obtained their confidential comments. Only ONE thought the paper should be retracted - though all said there were flaws in its second part.

The second referee said "none of the critics seriously dispute the main conclusion" and the third said "none of the comments has successfully disproven their main result that transgenic corn is growing in Mexico and crossing with local varieties". Yet Campbell published the retraction -citing only the FIRST referee.

(Newsnight) if it's your own judgement why refer only to the one who disagreed not the two who supported?

(Campbell) what we were doing was giving our judgement based on a variety of pieces of advice  we'd received - our standard procedure is to make our own judgements and we wanted to make clear that there were problems with the evidence based on our judgement based on the advice of independent referees

(Newsnight) Just outside Mexico City scientists funded largely by the World Bank are working on modified maize for Africa that can resist four different insect pests at once...they see engineered crops as a solution to world hunger...their maize gene bank is a key element in global food security

Inside this earthquake-proof vault is the world's largest collection of tropical maize - there are 25,000 varieties stored in this cold room...when Chapela's paper came out scientists here ran an urgent check to make sure GM genes have not found their way into this vital reference stock by accident...

So far they've found no foreign genes. Now the scientific discussion is over whether escaped genes will have any long lasting effect anyway.

First the Mexican government wants the extent of the problem settled once and for all. Its biologists have carried out their own battery of genetic tests on cobs of native maize. They've used two independent labs to avoid the criticisms surrounding Chapela's work...

According to the experts in molecular biology detecting positives in those additional 3 tests would be the smoking gun

...and that smoking gun has now be found. These bio-containment greenhouses are one of the few places in Mexico where it's still legal to grow GM maize... But it's too late to worry about keeping modified crops apart. Newsnight has learned that the results strongly SUPPORT Chapela's original claim - finding telltale signs of DNA from genetically modified maize throughout Mexico's remote regional farmland...

(ends)