VZCZCXRO3839
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHROV #0218/01 2920912
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 190912Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY VATICAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0521
INFO RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0063
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN 0549

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 VATICAN 000218 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/WE LARREA 
DEPT FOR EB BOBOJ 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  10/18/2016 
TAGS: VT TBIO EAGR EAID FA
SUBJECT: SLOW BUT STEADY: MOVING AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY FORWARD 
AT THE VATICAN 
 
REF: A. 05 VATICAN 515 
     ¶B. VATICAN 15 
     ¶C. VATICAN 25 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Peter G. Martin, Political Officer, Embassy 
Vatican, State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
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Summary 
 
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¶1. (C)  With a grant from EB, Post brought three American 
 
researchers to speak with various Holy See interlocutors 
 
to increase acceptance and understanding of agricultural 
 
biotechnology in advance of the publication of a key 
 
Vatican document on hunger.  After several years of 
 
lobbying by Post, the Vatican has become "cautiously 
 
optimistic" about GMO food.  With most Vatican officials, 
 
the science is not the issue.  The question is about 
 
exploitation: who benefits from these technologies, the 
 
multinationals or the farmers?  With the help of the 
 
department we chose three speakers with experience in 
 
the developing world who addressed these concerns 
 
directly, discussing the economic and health benefits to 
 
farmers, and important research that is being done on 
 
non-cash crops such as cassava.  The group met with an 
 
impressive roster of interlocutors.  Although progress 
 
on a delicate question like this is necessarily slow, the 
 
visit was another step forward on the issue. End Summary. 
 
 
 
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Experts from Academia and Non-Profits 
 
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¶2.  (C)  Mr. Lawrence Kent of the Donald Danforth 
 
Plant Science Center, Dr. Carl Pray of Rutgers 
 
University, and Dr. Greg Traxler of Auburn 
 
University spoke with Vatican representatives from 
 
the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (the Vatican's 
 
clearinghouse for the Catholic Church's humanitarian 
 
assistance), the Pontifical Academy of Life, the 
 
Vatican's Secretariat of State (Foreign Ministry), 
 
the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and 
 
a group of Jesuit administrators from Africa. 
 
The Ambassador also hosted a working lunch with 
 
representatives from other relevant Vatican 
 
departments, including Health, Mission Territories 
 
(covering much of the developing world), and the 
 
Vatican's top theological body. 
 
 
 
 
VATICAN 00000218  002 OF 005 
 
 
¶3.  (C)  Our strategy was to target departments that 
 
will have input - or at least a clearance on - the 
 
revision of a Vatican document on hunger put out by 
 
Cor Unum.  We hoped to educate Vatican officials who 
 
were suspicious of the technology, as well as those 
 
who are already on board.  The former could try to 
 
halt forward progress on the issue, while the latter 
 
will be more effective advocates if they can better 
 
address typical Vatican concerns on the issue. 
 
Conversations with representatives from the Franciscan 
 
and Jesuit orders were particularly important due to 
 
the vocal opposition of some members of these orders, 
 
and many social-justice oriented Catholics with 
 
connections to them. 
 
 
 
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What's in it for the Poor? 
 
--------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4.  (C)  Most interlocutors wanted to know how farmers 
 
and the poor could benefit from agricultural 
 
biotechnology, and were interested in data indicating 
 
that the farmers themselves actually realized the 
 
majority of economic benefits of GMO seed with greater 
 
yields.  Our speakers explained that the cost of seeds 
 
was frequently offset by lowered pesticide expenses and 
 
higher yields.  The fact that farmers could also benefit 
 
from the technology through better health conditions 
 
(in particular, reduced use of pesticides) was also a 
 
point of interest to most of the Vatican officials. 
 
They were all keen to hear about the decrease in health 
 
problems among Chinese farmers spraying cotton crops, 
 
and the decrease in black fungus on corn crops in South 
 
Africa, which have led to higher production and income 
 
and lower medical costs. 
 
 
 
¶5.  (C)  Kent's presentation was of particular interest 
 
to the Holy See, as he discussed progress his NGO has 
 
made on non-cash crops.  Kent answered the very questions 
 
that Vatican officials have asked us in the past: where is 
 
the research on the crops that are really going to help 
 
small subsistence farmers in the developing world?(ref a) 
 
He described work being done on enriched, disease- 
 
resistant cassava, an innovation that could be crucial 
 
for Africa since more than a third of all Africans get 
 
VATICAN 00000218  003 OF 005 
 
 
 
most of their daily calories from cassava.  While 
 
cassava fills people's stomachs, Kent explained, it 
 
doesn't provide nutrition, which means while some people 
 
may not be hungry, they are still malnourished.  Further, 
 
he continued, an insidious virus can often destroy large 
 
portions of the crop with little warning.  Kent's point 
 
hit home: his NGO is going to give away this technology 
 
when it is ready.  The U.S. and related multi-nationals 
 
are not going to get rich off cassava.  But as long as 
 
irrational fears and restrictions hinder testing, 
 
development, and implementation of the technology, the 
 
hungry will continue to wait, Kent emphasized. 
 
 
 
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Concerns 
 
--------- 
 
 
 
¶6.  (C)  Several interlocutors voiced concern about 
 
the regulation of agricultural biotechnology, and were 
 
reassured when the speakers explained U.S. procedures 
 
for the approval of this technology - procedures they 
 
compared to the hurdles pharmaceutical companies must 
 
clear when introducing a new drug.  Speakers 
 
acknowledged Vatican concerns about multi-national 
 
exploitation, and called for greater public-sector 
 
investment in the technology.  Pray noted that China 
 
was one of the only countries with any such investment. 
 
 
 
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Surprising Frenchmen 
 
--------------------- 
 
 
 
¶7.  (C)  Vatican officials raised EU opposition to 
 
agricultural biotechnology in several instances, 
 
begging the question of the Vatican's role in the 
 
debate.  We impressed upon sympathetic listeners that 
 
the Holy See could influence the conversation, even 
 
in secular Western Europe, if the question is framed 
 
as a moral one with implications for the hungry. 
 
Several officials grasped the dynamic immediately. 
 
French Monsignors Jean Laffitte and Jacques Suaudeau 
 
from the Pontifical Academy of Life admitted that the 
 
Europeans were against agricultural biotechnology out of 
 
sheer protectionism.  The Frenchmen were two of our 
 
 
VATICAN 00000218  004 OF 005 
 
 
most enthusiastic interlocutors on the issue, and 
 
inquired about restrictions on testing and other barriers 
 
in particular African nations (septel).  Laffitte, Vice 
 
President of the Academy, praised the government of 
 
Burkina Faso for its testing of bt-cotton and criticized 
 
Catholic involvement in the refusal of GMO food aid in 
 
Zambia. 
 
 
 
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Jesuit Challenge 
 
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¶8.  (C)  After the controversy over Jesuit involvement 
 
in the refusal of U.S. food aid to Zambia several years 
 
ago, and the continuing vocal opposition among many 
 
Jesuits to these technologies, our meeting with a group 
 
of African Jesuits at the worldwide headquarters of the 
 
order was particularly important.  The deputy superiors 
 
(provincials) of African provinces of the Society of 
 
Jesus, hailing from Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Nairobi, 
 
Cameroon, Dem. Congo, Rwanda, Zambia, and Nigeria were 
 
in Rome for meetings with the Jesuit Father General, 
 
and with the help of a good contact in the Jesuit Curia, 
 
we were able to get on their schedule.  The group lived 
 
up to its reputation as skeptical: many voiced concerns 
 
about U.S. economic interests, potential dependency on 
 
the part of farmers, trade inequities, and concerns about 
 
biodiversity.  They also mentioned concerns over 
 
corruption and inequitable food distribution.  For our 
 
part, we emphasized that the USG would never claim that 
 
agricultural biotech was a cure-all for world poverty and 
 
hunger; there are many aspects to the issue.  Nevertheless, 
 
we pointed out that the possibilities for these 
 
technologies to contribute to a solution to these ills 
 
were too great to ignore.  Our speakers gained some 
 
credibility with the Jesuits when they made it clear that 
 
they were simply college professors and researchers 
 
presenting what they had learned - not on the Monsanto 
 
payroll.  We may not have changed all of their minds, but 
 
they surely left better educated on the issues, and with a 
 
lot of questions for the naysayers in their order. 
 
 
 
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Comment 
 
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VATICAN 00000218  005 OF 005 
 
 
 
 
 
¶9.  (C)  Progress on agricultural biotech at the 
 
Vatican is slow, as is progress on any complicated 
 
issue in which any number of Holy See departments can 
 
claim an interest.  Non-specialists are also susceptible 
 
to the great amount of misinformation on the subject, 
 
especially in Europe.  Some officials has heard aspects 
 
of our arguments before, but had been barraged in the 
 
meantime by propaganda from anti-GMO groups, some of them 
 
with a connection to the Catholic Church.  Our goal was to 
 
create a more knowledgeable audience among key decision- 
 
makers at the Vatican, and a more receptive environment in 
 
advance of the publication of the Cor Unum document on 
 
hunger.  The target date for the document is now uncertain, 
 
but we see it as a key opportunity to advance our goals on 
 
this issue.  In the wake of the publication of the UN Food 
 
and Agriculture Organization's 2003-04 State of Food and 
 
Agriculture Report on agricultural biotechnology, it would 
 
be difficult for Cor Unum to avoid the topic if it attempts 
 
to address world hunger in any comprehensive way. 
 
 
 
¶10. (C)  In the meantime, this visit represented another 
 
step forward in creating a more favorable atmosphere for 
 
agricultural biotech at the Vatican.  In one telling 
 
moment at the Ambassador's luncheon, Fr. Wojciech Giertych, 
 
the high-profile Theologian of the Papal Household, took 
 
the floor after listening with interest to Kent's 
 
presentation.  He said that something about GMO food was 
 
still a little unsettling to him, but that hearing about 
 
the speakers' work had impressed him.  Acknowledging the 
 
promise of these technologies for the developing world, he 
 
wondered if irrational fears were needlessly complicating 
 
the issue.  "We shouldn't be afraid of working with nature 
 
to improve the lot of human beings," he concluded. 
 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) Post would like to thank EB for funding this 
 
program, EB/TTP/ABT/BTT and USAID/EGAT/ESP/IRBfor 
 
their excellent speaker recommendations, and IIP for their 
 
critical support and coordination. 
SANDROLINI