According to the organizers :

« Biovision : the world forum of life-sciences is an international platform for dialogue, debate and constructive proposals for action, bringing together equal numbers of representatives of civil society, scientists, industrialists and politicians on global topics about health, food and environment. »

For 2007 the « millennium objectives for development » are announced as the major topic of the forum. These objectives include reducing the extreme poverty on the planet by half, providing primary education for all children and stopping the spread of the aids virus.

Behind this seductive showcase lurks a propaganda tool to promote acceptance of biotechnologies, and a marketplace where contracts are signed between research centers and industries (Biosquare), everything being of course sponsored by big agricultural, chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

Those firms, you know them : for example, Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis (respectively n°1 and n°3 in health care ), Bayer (n°1 in the world in phytosanitary products) or, near Lyon, Rhone-Poulenc and Biomerieux.

Whereas the ecological devastation directly related to these industries is more and more oppressive (climatic warming, depleting the reserves of drinkable water, menacing the diversity of species, multiplying dangerously polluted sites...) Whereas GMO seeds trap farmers in dependence on multinational companies Whereas patents on molecules hinder access to vaccinations and treatments for the most vulnerable populations facing most serious health risks Whereas less than 10% of commercialised chemical products have been tested for potential risk (cf Greenpeace) and at the same time cancer has increased 60% in France in the last twenty years Whereas those companies have already been responsible for many scandals (Zyklon B, Roundup, Gaucho, AZF, Bhopal, Sévéso ...) Whereas the scientific basis of genetic therapy has not been established and research in this field is little more than tinkering.

Why would companies that are responsible to a large degree for the catastrophic situation in countries of the southern hemisphere, suddenly turn around and pay to allay the sufferings of the populations of those same countries ?

It is primarily for them a way to capture new international mass markets for vaccines, medicines, seeds, chemicals for agriculture and to appear philanthropic at the same time. Thus they can continue the pillage and ecological destruction of the southern countries while being supported by the politicians of the rich ones.

It is important to emphasize that our elected representatives are actively supporting this meeting. The city of Lyon, the department of the Rhone, and the Region of Rhone-Alps are contributing 2 532 000 euros to this event.

If the Biovision Forum is taking place in Lyon it is not an accident but the result of economic interests and the political determination (those meetings have been created by Raymond Barre, ex mayor of Lyon and are directed by Phillipe Demarescaux, ex director of Rhone-Poulenc, and president of The scientific foundation of Lyon ) of the Region of Rhone Alps to become the European center for biotechnologies (Lyon) and nanotechnologies (Grenoble).

Whereas the Rhone-Alps Region declared itself a « non-GMO region » (declaration n°04.00.193 of 28th and 29th of April 2004) and the majority of its population is against the spread of GMO.

Those political choices— so contrary to the ideals of democracy and the common interests of the people—are intolerable. The policy of always more « progress » for more and more profits has to stop now !

It is OUR future that is at stake. We want to decide by ourselves independent from the imperialism of big firms. We are inviting everyone to a mobilisation against this Forum of 2007, and to do all that we can to insure that it will be the last.

Collectif des resistances et des alternatives de Lyon.

contact :  nonabiovision@no-log.org