[OPIRG-EVENTS] reminder - US dumping GE food as AID in Africa - May 1 @ 7:30 pm

[Len Bush <lbush@nupge.ca>]

Please circulate this event notice - Thursday, May 1, 7:30-9pm

DUMPING GENETICALLY ENGINEERED "FOOD AID" IN AFRICA: A Critical View from
the US

Please join us on Labour Day for this unique opportunity to hear US
Scientist and Consumer Advocate Dr Michael Hansen

WHEN: Thursday, May 1st 2003, 7:30-9:00 pm

WHAT: A public talk on the issue of the U.S. government forcing its surplus
genetically engineered (GE) corn on developing countries as "food aid."
African government's are facing tremendous pressure to accept the GE food as
safe - even though Europe and Japan will not accept it.

WHO: Dr Michael Hansen is a scientist and consumer advocate who is an
authority on the regulation and safety of GE food. He has spent considerable
time with African officials on the issue of GE food aid. He is in Ottawa for
the international Codex food safety standard meetings. Dr Hansen will be
introduced by Steve Shallhorn, Director of Global Campaigns at Consumers
International in the UK. This public talk is organized by the Polaris
Institute, Development and Peace, the Sierra Club of Canada and
OPIRG-Ottawa.

WHERE: Room 205 Morisset, 65 University, University of Ottawa

For More Information: Lucy Sharratt (Polaris Institute) 613-237-1717

MICHAEL K. HANSEN, PHD
Research Associate, Consumer Policy Institue
hansmi@consumer.org
http://www.consumersunion.org/

Michael K. Hansen Ph.D., a Research Associate with the Consumer Policy
Institute, a division of Consumers Union (publisher of Consumer Reports
magazine), currently works on biotechnology issues. He is the author of
Biotechnology and Milk: Benefit or Threat?, published in 1990. He has been
largely responsible for developing CU positions on safety, testing and
labeling of genetically engineered food. Dr. Hansen has testified at
hearings in Washington, D.C., many states, and Canada, and has prepared
comments on various proposed U.S. governmental rules and regulations on
biotechnology issues. He has been quoted widely in national media on safety
of genetically engineered foods. He served on a Biotechnology Advisory
Committee set up to advise the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research) on biotechnology issues for the public sector
International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs). Dr. Hansen served as an
international expert in 1998 to the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee on Food
Additives. Dr. Hansen currently serves on the USDA Advisory committee on
Agricultural Biotechnology. During 1999 and into 2000 he has traveled
extensively in South Asia, Europe and the US as an invited expert on
potential human health and environmental concerns related to genetically
engineered crops.

In addition to the work outlined above, Dr. Hansen has also written reports
for the Consumer Policy Institute and Consumers Union on household pest
control, alternatives to agricultural pesticides in developing countries,
and the pesticide and agriculture policies of the World Bank and the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization.

Dr. Hansen received his undergraduate degree with Highest Distinction from
Northwestern University and his doctorate in Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology from the University of Michigan. He did post-graduate study at the
University of Kentucky on the impacts of biotechnology on agricultural
research.

Lucy Sharratt, Researcher, Polaris Institute
312 Cooper Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2P 0G7
(613) 237 1717 Fax: (613) 237 3359
www.polarisinstitute.org
-
This is the OPIRG-events@ox.org list. Participatory activist events only.
To unsubscribe, send email to opirg-events-request@ox.org, and put
"unsubscribe" in the body.
Archive at: http://www.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca/lists/html/opirg-events/