Science without conscience is worse than no science

Editor's Note: Jaques Diouf acknowledges the "two hats" the FAO wears when it comes to GMOs: supporting the development of international standards for food and agriculture (via the Codex Alimentarius) and helping countries of the south build scientific, policy and research capacity while also recognizing the great potential of GMOs for improving food security. However, the kind of experimentation with GMOs mostly taking place is not the kind that tends to address food security issues. Furthermore scientific capacity -- especially of this sort -- needs to be tempered by non-scientific considerations. Diouf suggests that an international regulatory framework is required to address the dilemmas of GMOs for food and agriculture. At present, we have the institutions meant implement such a framework -- namely the Codex Alimentarius and the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) --