Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!uunet!bionet!com.qz.se!P2269 From: P2269@com.qz.se ("ENG-LEONG FOO ", MIRCEN-STOCKHOLM) Newsgroups: bionet.technology.conversion Subject: Symposium "The Potentials of Independent Initiatives" Message-ID: <8906232023.AA03407@net.bio.net> Date: 22 Jun 89 11:00:00 GMT Sender: daemon@NET.BIO.NET Reply-To: Bioconversion STOCKHOLM Lines: 75 Notes and Report of some events (Part 1) From: Eng-leong Foo (Stockholm) I have personally enjoyed participating at the Symposium on June 2nd and have found the panel discussions and some of the presentations very interesting. As mentioned in the earlier message on the Symposium program, these lectures are not technical though they may have some reference to bioconversion. The notes provided below will first provide some background info on the key speakers and then on the primary messages conveyed by them. Prof. Harlan Cleveland made the first presentation on "Social Innovations and the problem of International Governance". He is a political scientist and a public executive. Prof. Cleveland is Professor Emeritus and was the founding Dean of the Hubert H Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, President of the University of Hawaii, amongst many other academic positions. He has been the US ambassador to NATO, an Assistant Secretary of State, a UN relief administrator and now co- director of a global project on "Rethinking International Governance". Prof Cleveland conveyed a warning that if left to take its commercialized path, biotechnology will have a tendency to make the rich richer (and the poor poorer). Biotechnology will further widen the gap between developed and developing countries. How then can "it" be controlled, organized and steered so that it would produced the best beneficial effects - socially and internationally - in both developed and developing countries. This key message also served as the theme of the symposium for other presentations of initiatives and examples of what various national and international organizations have contributed, e.g. ICGEB, IDEA, UNESCO, WAAS. It was also a comfort to know that Prof. Harlan Cleveland is an advocate of electronic messaging and conferencing. He can be reached on EIES (a conferencing system in the U.S.) as 481 or Harlan. The next speaker was Prof. Alexander King and gave his presentation on "Africa beyond famine - A global challenge". Prof. King is the President of the Club of Rome and currently coordinates several of its major international activities. He was Director General for Science, Technology and Education at OECD and chairman of the International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Study (IFIAS). Famines are man-made and so "Nature Pleads Not Guilty" has been a fitting title of a report from an IFIAS project on the Sahel Drought many years ago. But what can science/biotechnology do and how have independent initiatives of NGOs and responsive governments facilitated recovery or introduced new ideas for development in Africa. One example of a private initiative which also involved the former US President Jimmy Carter; was the development of a package for small farmers in Ghana, Zambia and Sudan. The package included seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, extension advice and loans as well as the commitment from governments and NGOs. In Ghana, a 90 % repayment of loans showed the success of the package program. Immediate comment by E.L. Foo ----------------------------- In the bioconversion field, there are several examples of package technologies which uses microbes for food and beverage production. For example, a few unique approaches have been used for mushroom production by families in South- east Asia, e.g. in Bangkok, straw-mushroom spawn is commercially available in the city. Question: How does a home mushroom grower gets its spawn in other parts of the world ? (more no Symposium to follow later).