Biotech Updates

How Experts and Non-Experts Make Decisions on GM Crop Release

October 7, 2011

Glenda Morais Rocha Braña and a team of researchers at Universidade de Brasília investigated how the members of the Brazilian Committee of Biosafety (CTNBio) make decision about the approval of genetically modified crops. CTNBio is composed of scientists and non-scientists and provides technical and advisory support to the Brazilian Federal Government through evaluation of dossiers of companies applying for approval by the Brazilian Government.

The researchers based their study on the minutes of the CTNBio meetings from 2006 to 2009 to get the number of votes in favor or against the release of Bt maize, Bt cotton, and herbicide resistant soybeans. Through the Plataforma Lattes database of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), they were able to determine the areas of expertise of the CTNBio members. Based on these data, they classified the members into expert-for, expert-against, non-expert-for, and non-expert-against. Their findings indicate that CTNBio decisions could be based on technical criteria as well as on the policy of the institution that expert-members were representing.

Read the abstract of the study at http://www.springerlink.com/content/e818551651386181/about/.