The panelists agreed that biotechnology offers important opportunities for meeting the food and nutrition needs of the world s poor. But they also warned that the opportunities for each country must be examined carefully, that food and environmental safety issues must be analyzed for each specific application and product, and that public perception issues must be addressed seriously in every country. The briefs suggest that to answer this question, policymakers must identify the problems currently constraining agricultural productivity or damaging the environment, assess whether biotechnology may help solve these problems, and prioritize solutions with pro-poor outcomes in mind. In this necessary strategic exercise, perceptions of risks and benefits invariably will differ according to cultural and political economy contexts. As Flavell argued during his panel presentation, We in the U.S. and Europe should not be making decisions about benefits and risks in other societies that have very different needs and priorities.
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