As American companies barrel towards ever-increasing use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in foods, Europeans are taking a more cautious approach, saying not enough is known about the effects of GMOs, explained Noëlle Lenoir, who was France’s first female Supreme Court justice and is current chair of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies of the European Union (EU). As the former president of the UNESCO International Committee on Bioethics, Lenoir also wrote the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the Human Genome, later adopted by the United Nations.

Lenoir lectured on "Is Biotech a Public Health Concern? The European Perspective" to HSPH members on Wednesday, April 25 in Kresge G-2.

Europeans are worried about biotechnology on several fronts, said Lenoir, not the least of which has to do with the appalling legacy of biomedical experimentation done by Nazi doctors during World War II. Those experiments fostered in European minds a general mistrust of any science perceived to be largely unknown and genetically manipulative.

The typical European believes that science needs to be managed to be good for individuals as well as society as a whole, said Lenoir. For Europeans, already facing food crises of mad cow disease and hoof-and-mouth disease in cattle, the thought of genetically tinkering with otherwise perfectly fine food is, well, unpalatable.

It’s not just a matter of taste. European officials are guided by the so-called "precautionary principle," formally adopted by the European Parliament last year. The principle "may be invoked whenever, as a result of incomplete, inconclusive or uncertain scientific information, there are reasonable grounds for concern at the possible occurrence of effects which are potentially dangerous to the environment or human, animal or plant health," according to European Parliament documents.

The principle reflects European officials’ vulnerability to increasing numbers of lawsuits brought against them by private citizens. Europeans tend to sue their governments when their safety is at risk, said Lenoir, and, she added, the right to the protection of health is constitutionally valid in Europe. If officials gave the greenlight to a new technology that affects a staple such as food–and things go awry–European courts would bustle.

European farmers are also categorically unenthusiastic about GMOs and have done little to incorporate them into their crops. They "are not so keen to promote biotechnology," said Lenoir. As a result, American food companies have become the biggest promoters of GMOs in Europe.

The cautious stance does not forever exclude the possibility of GMO use in European foods. Many government officials think that biotechnology is not as risky as some critics charge, said Lenoir, but they also are aware of public opinion that calls for measured steps.

"We have to try to find common ground that considers risk assessment and science and that includes people’s opinions from the beginning," said Lenoir.