Riots threaten pro-GM conference
 The Guardian
 GM food: special report

 Rory Carroll in Genoa
 Thursday May 25, 2000

 Ringed by Italian riot police, disowned by city
 authorities, dumped by the government and
 besieged by protesters, the biotechnology
 industry's campaign for European hearts and
 minds crashed before it began yesterday.

 Hundreds of companies and institutions gathered
 in Genoa to organise a counter-attack against
 environmental critics, but were left stranded
 after the Italian authorities sided with thousands
 of protesters. The minister of agriculture,
 Alfonso Scanio, withdrew sponsorship of the
 three-day conference and sent a symbolic 30 pounds to
 the estimated 400 pressure groups mobilising
 last night.

 Genoa's council voted to join a group of
 municipalities which have banned genetically
 modified food, and will send its mayors to today's
 demonstrations. About 5,000 armed riot police,
 backed by helicopters, patrolled the seafront
 congress and exhibition centre as delegates
 arrived for the Tebio conference.

 Biotechnology representatives from 21 countries
 had hoped to use Genoa as a showcase to reclaim
 the propaganda initiative, but the event appeared
 to have backfired amid claims that the programme
 had ben rigged.

 The police are afraid that the scuffles and
 vandalism outside the centre will grow into street
 battles today when mainstream environmentalists
 are joined by anarchists and militants.

 Claiming that the technology is dangerous and
 untested, the protesters have united under the
 slogan Rebellion is Natural. Britain's Reclaim the
 Streets group vowed to attend what some
 protesters billed a "mini-Seattle", threatening a
 sequel to the riots at the World Trade
 Organisation's summit last December. Greenpeace
 and Friends of the Earth have pulled out of the
 rallies for that reason.

 The Italian prime minister, Giuliano Amato, sent
 a telegram of support to the conference, but
 several cabinet ministers backed the decision of
 Mr Scanio, a Green, to withdraw sponsorship.

 Many newspapers and the nobel laureate Dario Fo
 also backed the protests.

 The atmosphere of hostility was fed by a consumer
 watchdog's discovery of food products not carrying
 GM warning labels.

 "The industry was trying to send a signal that
 genetically modified food was part of the wider
 biotechnology research into medicine and other
 good things but it failed," said Fabrizio Fabbri of
 Greenpeace

 The conference organisers accused the protesters
 of hijacking a genuine attempt to engage in
  dialogue. Renalto Dulbecco, a Nobel-winning
 scientist and president of Tebio, admitted that
 controls were needed for potentially dangerous
 technologies, but pleaded for the benefits to be
  recognised.

 Plants resistant to dehydration and rice with
 added vitamin A were just two of many
  breakthroughs that could be of huge benefit to
 developing countries, he said.

 Speakers assured the audience that the future of
 GM technology was bright. Japan and the US were
 forging ahead in research, and laggards like
 Portugal, Spain and Italy were catching up, they
 said.

 Doug Yarrow, of the British Biotechnology and
 Biological Sciences Research Council praised the
 Government for spending an extra #163#1bn on the
 industry over three years. The UK was benefiting
 from improved "knowledge transference" between
 universities and firms, he said. Repeating a
 conference mantra about the need for public
 relations, he urged scientists to spend at least 2%
 of their time explaining their work to the public.

 Academics and executives clustered around a stand
 offering tips on handling the media. The advice
 included: "Be as open as possible and never lie",
 "Show concern if there is a genuine problem", "Be
 as positive as possible without sounding callous
 and uncaring", and "Beware of admitting
 liability".

 Secondary-school children were agog as John
 Schollar, of the national centre for bioethic
 education at the University of Reading,
 demonstrated how to create electricity from yeast.
 He said: "Children come with fresh minds, they
 are more open.

 "If you can engage them in the science then they
 are in a better position to make ethical and moral
 choices about the science. Unlike some people
 outside."