Mertxe de Renobales Scheifler

Mertxe de Renobales Scheifler, Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in Vitoria has won the Government of the Principality of Asturias-International Society of Bioethics (SIBI) Prize with her research work entitled "More sustainable food: genetically modified seeds in organic agriculture".

This work states that organic farming is not sustainable in the long term, because of its low yield; as a result, if land was farmed in this way, a substantial increase in useable land would be needed to face a growing demand for food.

Taking into account that an important feature of organic farming is its extremely limited use of chemical fertilizers, de Renobales can see no scientific reason for not using genetically modified crops in order to increase production.

Furthermore, she claims that organically-grown crops and genetically modified crops are complementary, as they both contribute to using fewer chemically synthesised products, and that genetically modified seeds are therefore perfectly usable in organic farming. Her work also takes an in-depth look at the anti-transgenic attitude in the European Union, which has had great influence over the reluctance of many countries to accept these seeds.

The jury that awarded the prize was made up of Marcelo Palacios, the president of the Scientific Committee of the SIBI, from its headquarters in Gijón, Margarita Salas (Spain), Erwin Deutsch (Germany) and Santiago Dexeus (Spain).

The purse of 12,000 euros was presented at an award ceremony held in the Asturian Parliament on February 11th.